Dakar 2023: Stage 7 - Tim and Tom crashed on stage 7

Everything was running perfect, until...

“There was no end to it, we just kept rolling. Four, five, six times? I do not know.” A heap of sand about 5 kilometres from the finish of the seventh stage launched the Century with Tim and Tom Coronel on board. The car eventually landed on three wheels, missing a wheel and half of the bodywork, but both occupants are okay.

“The Dakar is the Dakar: unrelenting”, Tim concluded. “It was just a sand bump of nothing. We drove 160, 170 and were launched.” The damage to the car was significant. The various parts were scattered everywhere. The entire left front of the car was broken off. After scraping everything together again, assessing the damage and recovering from the initial shock, they decided to see if and how they would reach the finish line. Repairing on site was impossible, the finish line not far away. They succeeded on three wheels and at the finish they were able to hook up with Pascal de Baar’s truck, which towed them to the service park, 94 kilometers away. There the team had already prepared everything to carry out the necessary repairs. It was two hours for that.

“In itself it was a nice internship”, said Tom. “It also went well, we drove a nice pace. Actually everything was smooth, until we had a bit of bad luck 5 kilometers before the finish. Unbelieveable.”

Source Coronel Dakar Team