TACUMAN – The Riwald Dakar Team has found the way up again, after the challenging fourth stage. Bernhard ten Brinke and Erik Wevers had a problem free day 5 of the Dakar Rally, unlike several competitors. The huge sand dunes and the high temperatures caused some challenges but the HRX Fords could cope with it quite easily.
Bernhard Ten Brinke departed late and had to deal with huge clouds of dust raised by the riders in front of him. Therefore, the visibility was very limited. The fast Dutchman was stuck in the sand, which resulted in a loss of time from about eight to ten minutes: “A bit further in the stage, I saw Tim Coronel stuck. I wanted to help him, but I got stuck myself. Fortunately Eimbert Timmermans from XDakar came by to pull me out. He pulled me up to the top of the bump. We saw four stranded Minis. So Eimbert decided to pull us a bit further. The second part of the trial went smoothly: I had a clear view, could overtake a lot of cars and we had a nice pace. I hope the next few days to win some positions in the rankings.”
Waypoint
Teammate Erik Wevers opted for a conservative approach in the very challenging stage: “We got stuck a couple of times but the rest of the day went smoothly. The speed was good. Unfortunately, we missed a waypoint, it wasn’t very clear where it was placed. Several top drivers were driving around, looking for this waypoint. With hindsight, there were two rio’s instead of one. As a result, we got a penalty of one hour.”
The sixth stage takes the participants through the most beautiful areas of Argentina. The cars have more than 400 kilometers of special stage but once at the finish reward awaits: the rest day.