The new Tatra Buggyra EVO3 truck with Pascal de Baar at the wheel arrived at the finish of the Dakar Rally today. Due to technical problems in one of the stages, he was out of the final standings, but he managed to complete the entire length of the event and the Dutchman was able to score consistently very good results in the individual stages. The first racing step of the new special has thus been successfully completed and its development can continue. This has already been completed with the Tatra Phoenix, which was raced this year by Jaroslav Valtr and newcomer Daniel Stiblík. They were not spared technical problems that knocked them out of the overall Dakar standings. But Valtr at least made up for it by finishing second in today's final 12th stage of the competition.
Pascal de Baar was happy to accept Buggyra's offer to replace the injured Martin Šoltys just before the Dakar. "I feel like a lottery winner," said the beaming Dutchman at the finish of the Dakar.
For the Tatra Buggyra EVO3, the experienced driver and winner of two Dakar stages in previous years did not spare words of praise. "I hope that everyone who allowed me to sit in this car is happy with me. I am very happy. We have shown that the car is performing steadily. It's a top-five truck. I made one technical mistake because I didn't know the car that well. So the result can only be better. Next year we will have a truck in the top three and with a bit of luck we will come back with a big trophy," believes Pascal.
"It's a car where you know you're going to be somewhere in the top five and there's nothing to worry about. We're still fine-tuning the truck. We didn't feel so much pressure that we had to win immediately. We had to show that it's a stable car first. I think we did a pretty good job," added the driver of the car with the starting number 605, which was ninth in today's stage.
On-board mechanic Tomáš Šikola praised his pilot the most, followed immediately by the race truck. "For the whole Dakar, I would like to praise especially Pascal. What he did when he got into an untested car at the last minute deserves an award. Apart from that one unfortunate stage, we didn't get out of the car except for punctures. The Tatra Buggyra EVO3 worked perfectly. Our job was to test it. We are at the finish line, the car is tested, we have driven the kilometres we should have. So for me, it's great."
Jaroslav Valtr enjoyed the last stage of this year's Dakar. "It was such a fast, technical stage. There was a rock here and there, some trials here and there, it was nice," he described the final day on the track.
The overall assessment was realistic. "We knew our car didn't have what it takes to win the Dakar. But it had what it took to go maybe third, fourth, fifth. In the first week, the machinery was bad, which affected the overall standings. I'm disappointed about that. But that's racing, it can happen. Even the bigger guys had their car fall off. I have mixed feelings at the finish, but I don't blame anyone at all," said the experienced racer.
Source: Buggyra Racing Team's official press release
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