Sports News

Martin Šoltys lost his fourth place, but not his desire to finish the Dakar Rally. Aliyyah Koloc gave the massive dunes a hard time

He had to return from the dunes back to the start and will finish tomorrow outside the overall standings. Aliyyah Koloc finished 31st in the Elite Ultimate car category today but moved up one place to 26th overall. Karel Poslední finished 13th in the stage standings in his second Tatra Buggyra truck and is 11th overall. Martin Šoltys' fatigue and great disappointment were evident. A fatal technical failure likely deprived him of the best Dakar result of his career. The fourth-largest desert in the world placed great demands on his crew from the first kilometers. "Right at the beginning of the stage, there were high dunes. We went almost to the top, but unfortunately, we got stuck here. We dug out the Tatra, moved on, and since we didn’t have enough speed, we got stuck again. We dug twice, but we managed to get the truck out." But then came the breakdown that robbed Šoltys' crew of a promising finish. "Unfortunately, our crankshaft broke at the top of the highest dune. Well, that’s the end. We wouldn’t have been able to fix it on the spot, so we turned around and went down. That was the end of today’s stage for us. There was a time limit of six and a half hours to complete the stage, and we wouldn’t have made it even with the repair. Plus, we didn’t even have the required part with us. It would have taken us three or four hours to fix it there, but the guys in the bivouac will do it in peace," explained Martin Šoltys, who still aims to finish the full Dakar Rally. "After today, I was very disappointed and sad. The car had been working perfectly for the whole 14 days. We were determined to call it a day and not continue tomorrow. But when I arrived at the bivouac and saw the mechanics looking so sad, I reconsidered my decision. We will continue tomorrow and fight in the last 60 km stage. We’ll try to at least achieve a good stage result because we’re already out of the overall standings. On the other hand, it’s only the Dakar. Life goes on, and we’ll be back next year," added the Tatra Buggyra EVO3 driver. Aliyyah Koloc was slow to get out of the cockpit of her Red-Lined EVO3 in the bivouac. The hours spent in the challenging terrain full of dunes had taken their toll. "It was a very tough stage. I’m very tired. We drove the whole stage in the Empty Quarter desert. We had a very late start because of the morning fog, but luckily, we rode at the beginning, so we reached the finish in a reasonable time. There was a lot of camel grass in the dunes, so they were very bumpy," said the young racer. "I tried to push at the beginning, but the bumps made it too risky and dangerous. Then I calmed down a bit. We finished in one piece, and that’s the main thing. I’m happy that tomorrow is the last day of the Dakar Rally," said Aliyyah Koloc. Karel Poslední is a newcomer to the dunes, making the kilometers in such challenging terrain even more difficult for him. "The dunes in daylight are good, but not in the Empty Quarter. It was terrible from the start. Everything was rutted, we got stuck about twice. There were huge holes in the sand all over the place. If we’d fallen into one, it would have been the end. We did some of the runs three times because the sand was so hot and kept collapsing. We’re glad we managed to finish because it was probably the worst stage of the whole Dakar," said the Tatra Phoenix pilot. Tomorrow, the 47th Dakar Rally concludes with the last, relatively short stage, with both the start and finish in Shubaytah. https://www.facebook.com/BUGGYRA https://twitter.com/buggyra_racing https://www.linkedin.com/company/buggyra-racing https://www.instagram.com/buggyra_racing/ https://www.tiktok.com/@buggyra