'We had to look for a waypoint'

HARADH - Mitchel van den Brink was unable to treat himself to a fitting birthday present today. The Eurol Rally Sport team had to give away stage victory in the closing stages.

The rally driver from Harskamp, who turned 23 today, was on a good pace in the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally. In the final part of the stage Mitchel saw the day's victory slip through his fingers.

,,It was a very fast stage with few technical sections. We mainly drove full throttle,'' said Mitchel just after the end of the 357-kilometer stage. ''We had a good blast and attacked to create a gap with Loprais. That worked pretty well, but in the last part we had to search for a waypoint. That was unfortunate, but we lost 1 minute and 29 seconds on Loprais so that's not too bad,'' said Mitchel, who, with his Spanish navigator and Moi Torrallardona and Edese mechanic Jarno van de Pol, still has a lead of almost 5 minutes on Aleš Loprais. At all measuring points up to kilometer 260, the birthday boy Job was the fastest today. The short search in the final section prevented a fitting birthday present.

The battle for second place in the general classification will continue in the coming days. The Eurol Rally Sport in MM Technology's Iveco is looking forward to the remaining stages in Saudi Arabia “Starting tomorrow, the real dunes will come. We are looking forward to that and are very confident,'' said Mitchel before starting the connecting route to the bivouac in Haradh.

'The windshield completely kicked out'

Behind Loprais and Mitchel, Zala, Macik and Soltys finished third, fourth and fifth today. Kees Koolen finished sixth and was nearly 10 minutes faster than Martin van den Brink, who crossed the line in seventh. The 54-year-old veteran lost some time to improve visibility from the truck. ,,We finished without a windshield. There was a crack in it and because of all the hits and the high speeds, the windshield came in. We stopped and completely kicked out the windshield. That took some time. Also, we had a leaky shock absorber. Despite that, we were seventh and that's fine. It was a fast test with some dangerous points, but we got in and that's what matters.''
Father Martin was more “bummed” that his son didn't get the maximum reward on his birthday. ''It's a shame that Mitchel came second. Last year he also came second on the day of his birthday, but won the stage afterwards.''

Is history repeating itself?

Tomorrow it will become clear whether history is repeating itself that way. The stage to Shubaytah begins with a long journey on public roads to the start of the trial. In total, the connecting route is 520 kilometers and opens the door to the legendary Empty Quarter.
In Saudi Arabia's largest desert, the “playtime for the real sand lovers” begins. The test in the serious dunes counts 120 kilometers. Mitchel van den Brink wants to defend his second place there and Martin may even make an attack on fifth place in the overall rankings. Mitchel is considered an absolute expert in this terrain. ''Perhaps the very best there is,'' the 'not entirely independent expert of experience' Martin van den Brink has previously stated.

Text: Berry Kamphorst
Photo: MMphoto