Stage 4 Zagora → Merzouga

Another day with a lot of variation in terms of surface. At the end of the 343 kilometer long test there were beautiful high dunes in the area around Merzouga.

Route info

A final test will be held there tomorrow as the grand finale of this very exciting Rallye du Maroc.

← Stage 3

Stage 5 Finish →

📝 News Reports 📝

😢 Finished too early for Ladies Team de Rooy FPT 🏁

During the fourth stage there were problems for our women’s team.

Suddenly the shaft from the gearbox to the intermediate shaft of the Iveco breaks.

They were halted on the stage and tried to make temporary repairs to their vehicles to get to the bivouac.

Anja also continued on yesterday’s form and was shortly behind in the top three ranking.

Anja van Loon:

“After 50 kilometers we were fifth place and not that far away from top three ranking. Suddenly the truck broke down and we were at a standstill.“

“The shaft between the gearbox and the intermediate shaft is broken and it is quite a job to replace it. Then we drive towards the bivouac and then we look forward to tomorrow.“

“Bad luck today, but better experiencing it here than during the Dakar Rally.”

Finally after some nifty repairs, the ladies had to drive the last part of the special stage through the pitch black dunes. Therefore they can still compete in the last stage tommorow.

🥇 Van Kasteren wins the stage 🥇

Today a nice victory for Janus van Kasteren. He drove his Iveco Powerstar from start to finish in 4h15m35s. Just under two minutes ahead of Martin Macik and eleven minutes ahead of Gert Huzink.

Yesterday, Janus van Kasteren, Marcel Snijders and Darek Rodewald had to leave the day’s victory to Martin Macik in the last part of the stage. Today we took a nice revenge and the men of Boss Machine Team De Rooy FPT were the fastest to complete the test from start to finish.

Janus reports that it was a problem-free day: “We started behind Macik. We drove about 170 kilometers behind him and then we overtook him. Otherwise, I drove normally. No problems and the truck is running well.“

“There were a lot of bumps, holes and stones again. Then came beautiful dunes. We got through that just fine. Came first, so it was a nice day.”In the dunes the men in the Iveco Powerstar lost some of their lead. “We had to go back a few dunes and suddenly there was a French buggy behind us. We had to push it out with locals otherwise it couldn’t go any further. He was almost up against it.”

Fortunately, the lead over Macik was sufficient and this delay did not jeopardize the victory.

💪🏼 Becx Competition Team de Rooy FPT fourth 💪🏼

Navigator Edwin Kuijpers was nevertheless very satisfied with the way the day went.

“Nice long day with a 343 kilometer test. Contains everything. Of camel grass, fast paths and finally high dunes. Actually had a really good day. Everything navigated well, Michiel drove well. Got through the dunes well. Got stuck for a while, but got loose again within two minutes.”

Michiel Becx

Edwin Kuijpers

Wuf van Ginkel

“Nice long day with a 343 kilometer test. Contains everything. Of camel grass, fast paths and finally high dunes.

“We actually had a really good day. Everything navigated well, Michiel drove well. Got through the dunes well. Got stuck for a while, but got loose again within two minutes.”

Unfortunately, not everything went perfectly. “The only problem was that after a hundred kilometers a gearbox sensor had come loose, so we could not shift gears. We ended up losing fifteen minutes with that. That’s a shame, otherwise we would have been a little closer to Janus and probably finished third. Now fourth behind Huzink. Janus is second in the general classification and we are third, so if we can keep that up we will be very satisfied.”

Becx, Kuijpers and Van Ginkel can say that this is a proper edition for them
when they successfully completing the final stage of 152 kilometers tommorow.