Stage for today contains 328km liaison and 358km special stage.

Stage info

Liaison > 328 km – Special > 358 km

Press release

Luck is on Janus Van Kasterens side:

Second victory a fact!

Today started the feared second week of the world’s toughest rally. Yesterday gave a breather to the participants who could prepare themselves quietly for today’s special. Crossing a river caused many problems.  Several trucks got stuck.

Teams that had drawn a favorable lottery ticket came through this water obstacle well and could improve their position in the overall ranking. Pascal de Baar, the Czech Valtr and classification leader Loprais are winners of the day.

But the biggest winner is Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco pilot Janus van Kasteren Junior who managed to secure his second victory.

Janus tells his story: “The day actually started dramatically. We had a tire come off the rim after 10 kilometers in the dunes, so we had to change the wheel. That was most unfortunate and I was terribly disappointed.  After roughly 100 kilometers, there was a very big river. I think it is about 800 meters wide.  Darek immediately lowered the tire pressure. Keeping to the right, I went full throttle ahead. I didn’t see anything for those 800 meters, just kept going to the maximum.

We turned left and drove 500 meters further and saw Martin and Macik stuck in the water.  We turned around to check with Martin if we could help, but almost got stuck ourselves. So that was not an option. Then we decided to drive on.”

With Loprais just behind, the men of Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco continued. “The track rod was bent, caused by rocks, but despite the fact that the steering wheel was at 90 degrees, I managed to drive the Iveco Powerstar safely to the finish with a first place as a reward.  I didn’t expect that after that puncture this morning and we reduced the gap by 11 minutes.

Third driver of Team De Rooy, Mitchel van den Brink took on the role of “assistance truck” and helped his father Martin and competitor Macik out of the river mud.  After today he is in sixth place with a considerable gap of more than 2.5 hours on Loprais.  Tomorrow the caravan will continue the battle and we will see if Janus, Marcel and Darek will be lucky again.

Plan of attack Martin van den Brink fails

Equips Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco lose precious time

HARADH – Martin and Mitchel van den Brink were not lucky today. The gap to stage winner Janus van Kasteren was 41 minutes and 55.08 minutes respectively. “Let’s call it a bad day,” said Martin, just after the ninth special stage in the Dakar Rally.

Mitchel was just as disappointed after the special as his father. “It’s a shame we lost so much time. We helped a lot of riders who got stuck in the river.”

The special stage from Riyadh to Haradh was 358 kilometers long. In addition, a liaison of 328 kilometers had to be covered. The big winner of the difficult special was Janus van Kasteren. The pilot of Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco took more than 11 minutes on leader Ales Loprais. The Czech is still the leader. His lead over Janus is now 26 minutes and 54 seconds.

Good start

Martin van den Brink therefore had to give up his second place to his teammate. It certainly didn’t look like that in the opening phase. “We started very well. We quickly caught up with Loprais and Mitchel and went past them” After 136 kilometers, the plan of attack, of the fastest pilot up to that point, went up in smoke. Or rather: the plan of attack literally fell into the water. “We came to a river and saw that Macik, who had started first, was completely stuck. We decided to make the crossing higher up. We stopped safely on a platform in the middle. We still had about 200 meters to go. We wanted to deflate the tires but that didn’t work. We built up speed to make the crossing but halfway through we also got stuck in the mud.”

“A hopeless position”

The Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco team had no choice but to wait for help. “We were in a hopeless position. Fortunately, Mitchel came to the rescue. Janus went around this river and continued his way. Mitchel and his men stopped and by also using the rope of Macik, he was able to pull us out. Then he pulled Macik out of the mud.”

The experienced pilot from Harskamp knows that having a lesser day is part of the Dakar Rally. “After all this, we went full steam ahead and drove as fast as we could to the finish. We ended up losing 41 minutes. That’s a pity, but there will be more days like this. Let’s just say we were unlucky today and luck is yet to come.”

Martin van den Brink, Erik Kofman and Richard Mouw are now third in the general ranking after the ninth stage. The gap with Ales Loprais is 46 minutes and 8 seconds. Teammate Janus van Kasteren is second. De Brabander has to close a 26.54 minute gap with the Czech.

“We made deals”

Mitchel van den Brink lost his fifth place overall to Jaroslav Valtr today. The Czech in the Tatra is now more than two minutes ahead of the 20-year-old rider from Harskamp. The second team of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco fell behind early in the special. “We made deals during the rest day. We therefore started very carefully and waited for my father and for Janus, who started 17 minutes later.

When we got to the river Erik Kofman, dad’s navigator, informed us in time. I was very happy with that. We therefore drove around the water and by doing so, we were able to help. We did need an extra rope to reach the trucks. First, we helped my father and then Macik. We also needed Ben van de Laar’s rope and pulled him out too. After that it went well and we drove at a good pace. It’s a pity that we lost 55 minutes today. We are now sixth. We will catch up with Valtr. Based on our speed, that should work. Moving up in the ranking will not be easy. This will only happen if the others start making mistakes. We’ll see in the next few days.”

Top five within reach

Mitchel and his companions in the cabin of the Iveco Powerstar, Moi Torrallardona and Jarno van de Pol will start tomorrow the tenth stage in eleventh position. Martin starts eighth and Janus may open the dance. Today’s result determines the starting order.

In the overall ranking, the top five is still within reach for Mitchel. The team in the Iveco Powerstar of Eurol Team De Rooy faces a backlog of 2 hours 35 minutes and 50 seconds. Number four, Martin Macik is 1h17m40s behind the leader. Valtr, the current number five, is 2 minutes and 36 seconds ahead of Mitchel’s team.

Lots of sand and dunes

Tomorrow there is a long liaison of no less than 509 kilometers on the menu. The special stage in ‘the Empty Quarter’ is “only” 114 kilometers. The pilots will find only sand and a lot of dunes on their path. Despite the short length of the special, the time differences between the competitors can become quite substantial, most probably due to the unknown dunes.

Results

Results are in and Janus wins todays stage!

Stage timing

Stage Rank	Number	Driver	Rally stage time	Time gap to first
1	502	Janus van Kasteren	3h40m52s	–
8	506	Martin van den Brink	4h21m52s	+41m00s
11	511	Mitchel van den Brink	4h36m00s	+55m08s

Overall rally competition Trucks

After rally stage 9

Overall Rank	Number	Driver	Rally overall time	Gap to first	Penalty
1	508	A. Loprais	40h22m59s	–	+15m00s
2	502	Janus van Kasteren	40h49m53s	+26m54s	+15m00s
3	506	Martin van den Brink	41h09m07s	+46m08s	–
6	511	Mitchel van den Brink	42h58m49s	+2h35m50s	+1m00s
X	504	Vick Versteijnen	dnf	dnf	–

Videos

Video by Rallymaniacs

Video by Omroep Brabant

Video by A.S.O.

Video by IVECO

Photos

Photos from photographers Rallymaniacs, MMPhoto, Fotop and Ronald Loedeman 😎