The first stage of this year's Dakar Rally started today. Among the riders, Sam Sunderland was fastest on a KTM ahead of Paulo Goncalves on a Honda and Marc Como on another KTM. Slovakian Svitko was twenty-third, Jakeš finished one position behind him. Pabiška took the 30th position, Klymčiw the 39th position, Veselý the 72nd position, Gottvald the 82nd position and Engel reached the 88th position. In Quads, Ignacio Casale leads on a Yamaha machine.
Among the cars, the Minis were the fastest, initially won by Nasser Al-Attiyah , but was penalized and dropped to seventh place. Orlando Terranova then took the win with another Mini. He was joined on the podium by Roby Gordon with a Hummer and Giniel deVilliers with a Toyota. Sainz with the best Peugeot was only eighth. Last year's winner Nani Roma in a Mini had an oil pump failure and lost 6 hours 30 minutes. Petr Jerie with Toyota finished the stage in 64th position.
The trucks were won by Hans Stacey with an Iveco Powerstar and second was Marcel van Vliet with a MAN TGX. The Czech fans were delighted by the pilots Martin Kolomý with Tatra 815 Buggyra Fat Boy and Aleš Loprais with another MAN , who both finished in third place (in exactly the same time!). Meanwhile, Kolomý's intercom did not work all day. Fifth behind them was van den Brink with Renault K. Artur Ardavichus with Tatra Jamal was 13th, Martin Macík with LIAZ 15th, de Baar with another Renault 17th, Vratný with the second Jamal 21st, Huzink with Tatra Phoenix 32nd, Szutkowski with the last Jamal 37th and Robert Kasák with Tatra 815 finished in 45th position. Tomáš Vrátný's delay is due to a malfunctioning ventilator. Before this failure, he was in 13th position.
Photo: FB of Czech teams
