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Dakar 2024: Eduard Pons and Jaume Betriu survive the toughest stage of the Dakar
- The Pons Rallysport team completes the second part of the 48h time trial, in the dunes of the Empty Quarter, after 15 hours and 49 minutes accumulated in the special.
- Pons and Jaume Betriu's Can-Am Maverick
- “Time is the least important thing, after 7 hours standing in the desert, but the personal satisfaction of having overcome such a complicated situation is priceless. Let's continue!"
Eduard Pons and Jaume Betriu are still in the race after a sixth stage that soon became very uphill. Honor, strength, never giving up and trying to move forward despite the hardships have been rewarded for the Pons Rallysport team. This Friday, the people of Ilerdens surpassed the 48-hour time trial, the dreaded queen stage of the Dakar. Their Can-Am Maverick
The experience of the Ilerda team in these two days in the inhospitable desert of the Empty Quarter (empty place) has been “incredible”, according to Eduard Pons without hesitation. The 15 hours and 49 minutes that the team took to complete the 547 timed kilometers clearly illustrates the odyssey experienced. Of this time, about 7 hours were spent trying to repair the Can-Am Maverick X3; The rest, 8 hours and 45 minutes, has been piloting and non-stop navigation between the dunes.
“Today we had almost 400 kilometers of pure desert ahead of us. Jaume has done a brutal job with the navigation. I'm learning a lot in the dunes thanks to his experience in the open desert. “It was our first clean day,” says Pons.
“Time is the least important thing, after 7 hours standing in the desert, but the personal satisfaction of having overcome such a complicated situation and everything we have gone through is priceless. “We continue!” adds the driver from Lleida.
After the technical problems the day before, today the car started normally and ran well. Eduard Pons expands the details about the problem suffered in the first part of the 48-hour time trial: “At kilometer 101, the car stopped. It was an electrical problem in the turbo, we spent 7 hours repairing it. Jaume did a magnificent job, we changed everything and checked everything. Then, surprisingly, it worked again, but after 12 kilometers, it started again. "The problem was reproduced."
Fortunately, when they were preparing to spend the night outdoors in the desert, the car suddenly worked again. “We managed to reach camp ‘A’, at night. It was brutal to drive in the dark in the middle of the desert; It was better not to have seen where we were going. With the tent and sleeping bags, we were able to rest for 6 hours, until, this morning, the car decided to start well. The ghost that has haunted us since the beginning of the Dakar had a good day,” Pons says sarcastically.
The positive reading of this authentic Dakar odyssey is that the Pons Rallysport team has completed all the stages and defends tooth and nail a place in the general classification of the SSV category. “This is the Dakar; very behind, but we are still in the race,” says Pons. The Can-Am Maverick
Another point in favor is that this Saturday is the rest day in Riyadh, which will allow the Pons Rallysport team to regain strength to face the second week of the race, with another six stages planned. The test will resume on Sunday from the Saudi capital.
Automatic translation of the Spanish version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: Pons Rallysport / Mediagé Comunicación
Helder