Ultimate Dakar racing team
Tricky day brought good result for Ourednicek and Kripal
425 km fourth stage of Morocco Desert Challenge was maybe the trickiest so far, but Tomas Ourednicek and David Kripal coped with the difficulties well. Despite technical problems, the crew managed to clock the 7th best time in the stage and 4th in their category and occupy the 8th position overall, with about forty cars still being out on the track at night.
“Today’s stage was very difficult, with a lot of huge stones. It was very hard to overtake, almost impossible, but we managed to pass several trucks and bikes. We also had the first dunes – they were rather small but quite tricky. The organisers even warned us yesterday during the briefing that those not reaching them in daylight shouldn’t even try to get through. Unfortunately, we had our share of technical problems again today, the car stopped three-four times. At the neutralisation, where assistance was allowed, we changed the throttle body, but later the car stopped again, so we need to find the root of the problem. David did an excellent job, we had no navigational mistake, and not many crews can say this today. I tried to take a rather careful approach to save the car as much as possible, so today’s great result came as a bit of surprise for us – but finally it was a positive surprise. It gives us huge motivation for the upcoming days, but our main goal is still to finish,” Tomas Ourednicek reported after the finish of Stage 4.
“Last night again we had a long service on the car, until morning. The stage was nice but quite tricky, and as for navigation, we were really lucky today. The weather is extremely hot – I’ve been to Morocco several times already, but I can’t remember such temperatures. Today we have to work a lot on the car again, but tomorrow we will fight again!” co-driver David Kripal added.
Tomorrow the second half of the race begins in Morocco Desert Challenge with Stage 5 between Foum Zguid and Zagora, with 308 kilometres against the clock.