The penultimate stage of the Rally of Morocco was a fast one, much to the delight of Koen Wauters who was enjoying himself behind the wheel of his Toyota. The goal of finishing 300 km within 4 hours was just missed, but that didn't spoil the fun. Although there was a little disappointment afterwards because one waypoint was not found and a 15 minute penalty time followed. The 72nd place overall thus became the 80th place overall, good for 29th place among the cars. In the standings 58th place overall and 26th car.
During the fourth stage, the connection mileage was limited to 61 km and a 312 km stage was laid out. “Like yesterday, I felt comfortable today. We started well on what was nevertheless a fast, and at times treacherous stage,” said Koen Wauters from the bivouac in Bouârfa. “The pits were fiercely washed out by the rain and sharper and deeper than announced. Added to that, the course was cut a lot which caused some to be unpleasantly surprised. We rode fast but were on the mark. It was brutally fun today. Only every day I find myself open-mouthed watching those little baby carriages, those SSVs, fly down that cassant course at such high speeds. Usually it all works out fine, but once in a while you see a few of them go wrong. Luckily we were spared from that.”
Besides riding, there is also navigating to be done. “And for that I can count on my co-pilot Kurt Keysers. He does that excellently. Here in Morocco we are driving together for the first time. Kurt does that well and quietly. He is very much into that and wants to find all the waypoints. But today there was one that was pretty much hidden and deviated from what was in the roadbook. Quite a few riders lost time there by searching for a long time only to find it or not find it at the end. In our case, we spent ten minutes looking there, only to not be able to check it off. Well, that was a disappointment for Kurt. And I understand that. But he also has to remember all the good things. This is the first time we are competing at the World Cup level. Everything is different, bigger, harder than what we are used to at our level. Those 15 minutes of penalty time are bad, but no more than that,” concluded Koen Wauters.
Automatic translation
Source: Feryn Dakar Sport
