Stage 4 Ha’il > Ha’il
HA’IL – The pilots of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco were close to a unique podium today. The Czech Ales Loprais disrupted the “Harskamp party” in Saudi Arabia. Mitchel van den Brink finished second in the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally after a strong ride.
Janus faced bad luck today and finished on a 10th place for Boss Machinery Team de Rooy Iveco
Stage and page complete! Last update januari 5th 13:00CET
Stage info
Liaison > 148 km – Special > 425 km
Press release
Martin and Mitchel van den Brink did very well today.
Equipes Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco second and fourth
Father Martin van den Brink was heading for the podium in the second Iveco Powerstar in the Eurol colors. In the final phase however, Loprais prevented this unique result by taking third place from ‘Brink-senior’.
“We were very lucky”
Mitchel van den Brink, Moi Torrallardona and Jarno van de Pol were not short on “luck” in the final phase. After the unlucky second stage, where the trio suffered four punctures, things went in the right direction today. “We have been very lucky. 8 kilometers before the finish the truck all of a sudden stopped and we had to wait for a while. Fortunately, the truck started again and we drove calmly to the finish. Second place is wonderful.”
The talented pilot from the village of Harskamp in the Netherlands, had hardly any problems in the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally. “Only once did we lose a bit of time because we couldn’t get up a dune. We had just passed Gert Huzink and Jaroslav Valtr and were right behind Martin Macik. But then they passed us again. After the neutralization we passed them again. Then we lost a few more minutes trying to find a waypoint.”
However, satisfaction prevails at Van den Brink junior. “Especially if we can continue to drive like this, it gives us confidence. If everything goes well, we know we can fight with the best. We are really happy with that.”
“The Harskamp sand”
Happiness also reigned in the cabin of the Iveco Powerstar with number 506. Martin van den Brink, Erik Kofman and Richard Mouw saw the desired third place slip through their fingers, but that did not spoil their good mood in the least. “We are very satisfied,” said the experienced rally driver just after the “Ha’il – Ha’il loop”. After 260 miles of racing through the sand in the Middle East, Martin sounded as happy as a kid having played in the sand. “Yes, we had a wonderful day. It was a beautiful, long and tough special. Really very nice with lots of sand. It really felt like a day of blasting in the Harskamp, our hometown sand. We kept rolling all day and the truck was fantastic. The Iveco has had a hard time, but technically it has not been scrapped. We are now second in the standings. That shows that anything is possible in the Dakar Rally. Bad luck is sometimes just around the corner.”
With that, the oldest driver in Team De Rooy referred to his teammate Janus van Kasteren. The fast Brabant pilot came to a halt 15 kilometers from the finish. Consequently, he finished tenth in the stage and in the end lost 57.35 to stage winner Macik.
Martin second, Mitchel sixth overall
The Czech has climbed with giant strides into fourth place in the general standings and has made up for his previous deficit. In the second stage, Macik lost 1 hour and 20 minutes. His gap to leader Ales Loprais in the Praga is now 39 minutes and 37 seconds. Martin and his men Erik Kofman and Richard Mouw are 26m 11s behind. Janus van Kasteren dropped to fifth place due to today’s setback and is 58m41s behind. Mitchel finds his equip of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco in sixth place overall. The backlog of 2 hours 6 minutes and 31 seconds, however, still offers plenty of perspective for the coming tough days.
Tough day ahead.
Tomorrow Mitchel will start the fifth special in second position. The special stage will cover 377 kilometers. Another, different loop around the bivouac site of Ha’il awaits them. In the Centre of off-road motorsport in Saudi Arabia, tomorrow’s special will be very tough with so-called narrow dunes and the abundance of sand. Tracks with a lot of camel grass already makes the real rally drivers long for tomorrow.
Horrible day of bad luck defies Janus van Kasteren jr.
Today a special stage of 425 kilometers was on the program with a variety of surfaces. Lots of sand tracks, some stones, hard ground, dunes and even some “chott”.
The latter are dry waterbeds. Often very unpredictable in terms of passage because one can suddenly be confronted with areas of very soft sand.
For a long period, there were small time differences between the competitors and Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco participated well.
But it was to become a tough day for Janus van Kasteren jr. with navigator Marcel Snijders and mechanic Darek Rodewald. The engine failure has not yet disappeared and then the truck with starting number 502 has to stop, reset and continue. Despite this frustrating problem, Van Kasteren was constantly within the top five. It looked like a day of damage limitation, but fifteen kilometers before the finish of the special, bad luck stuck. The Iveco Powerstar briefly came to a hold on a dune at such an inclined angle that the engine cut due to lack of fuel.
With a huge effort, the men got the truck back into a more “normal” position, allowing the remaining diesel in the tank to flow to the engine again. Janus: “A terrible day of bad luck for us. For the third day in a row an engine that plays up.
Everyone flies past and then, fifteen kilometers before the finish, the truck runs dry.” The disappointment is visible. But with a tenth place in the day’s standings at 57 minutes and 35 seconds from day winner Martin Macik, the game is far from lost. Especially in this edition of the Dakar rally there is still a lot to win. Come tomorrow the men will start fighting again and hope to move forward from their current fifth position in the general classification.
Results
Stage 4 is finished.
Rally stage
Stage Rank | Number | Driver | Rally stage time | Time gap to first |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 511 | Mitchel van den Brink | 5h19m03s | +8m50s |
4 | 506 | Martin van den Brink | 5h22m03s | +11m50s |
10 | 502 | Janus van Kasteren | 6h07m58s | +57m35s |
Overall rally competition Trucks
After rally stage 4
Overall Rank | Number | Driver | Rally overall time | Gap to first |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 511 | Mitchel van den Brink | 19h56m43s | 27m22s |
5 | 502 | Janus van Kasteren | 20h28m02s | 58m41s |
6 | 506 | Martin van den Brink | 21h35m52s | 2h06m31s |
X | 504 | Vick Versteijnen | dnf | dnf |
Videos
Video by Rallymaniacs
Video by Omroep Brabant
Video by A.S.O.
Photos
Photos from photographers Rallymaniacs, MMPhoto, Fotop and Ronald Loedeman 😎