Dakar 2024: After the Empty Quarter - TRUCKS

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• After six stages and a total of eight days of racing, including the prologue in AlUla, the 46th edition of the Dakar has been a roller-coaster of breakthrough performances, vindications, debacles, plot twists, comebacks and surprises on the tracks and dunes of Saudi Arabia. The culmination of the first week, the brand-new 48H Chrono concept, scattered drivers and co-drivers across the Empty Quarter and delivered on its promise: nearly every category saw a change in leadership as the field emerged from the dunes, just before the rest day in Riyadh.
• Exactly at the midpoint, with another 2,384 kilometres of specials on equally diverse terrains ahead, the big kahunas will now get to grips with the return trip in their bids to claim victory in Yanbu: Ricky Brabec and his Honda teammates have laid down a marker; Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström's Audis are calling the shots ahead of Sébastien Loeb; Eryk Goczał is trouncing the opposition in the Challenger class; Yasir Seaidan's dominance in SSV race is softening the blow of Yazeed Al Rajhi's exit for the Saudi fans; and Martin Macík rolled into the capital as the king of the juggernauts.
• All in all, 291 out of the 330 vehicles at the start have completed the first half of the rally, including 111 motorbikes (out of 122), 8 quads (out of 10) for the FIM entrants; and 59 Ultimate cars (out of 70), 40 Challenger cars (out of 42), 30 SSVs (out of 36), 3 Stock cars (out of 3) and 40 trucks (out of 47).
• The Spaniard Carlos Santaolalla continues to deliver a masterclass in the Dakar Classic regularity race.

TRUCKS: BATAVIANS VS BOHEMIANS, ROUND 2

4-3 is the scorecard for the first half of the Dakar in the truck race. Janus van Kasteren has taken four victories (including the prologue) and Martin Macík three. It was a dream start for Van Kasteren, with a clean sweep of the first three specials. It looked like no-one could outpace the Dutchman in his quest for back-to-back titles, not even Aleš Loprais, his main rival last year before his early exit. The Czech has been giving it his all this time round, but Van Kasteren has always seemed one step ahead, leading the Dakar until the eve of the 48-hour showdown. In the end, the man who could finally Czech-mate Van Kasteren is Martin Macík, who has staged a remarkable comeback since his horrendous performance in stage 4, when he conceded over 35 minutes to the Dutchman. He kept fighting, waiting for his rivals to slip up… which finally happened in the 48 Chrono. Loprais dropped over an hour on the dunes of the Empty Quarter, while Van Kasteren lost almost three times as much. Macík scored a double whammy, seizing the stage win and the truck lead with more than 1 h 10 in hand over Loprais. Mitchel van den Brink, who is Martin's son and won a stage last year, is sitting in third place at 1 h 50.

Source: A.S.O. / Dakar Rally
Photo: A.S.O./F.Lefloc'h/DPPI

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