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 | Dakar Rally 2013: Definitive end of the Rally for De Rooy´s Hansy Stacey.
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Iveco De Rooy Team´s and former Dakar winner Hans Stacey from the Netherlands is definitive out of the Dakar rally 2013. In the bivouac of Calama after Stage 6, the Iveco failed the technical inspection because of a wrenched protection bar.
At km 80 in the stage from Arica to Calama Stacey tumbled of a dune. He landed upside down. "I started over already 3 times, but couldn´t make it to the top of the dune. The last time I tried, I accelerated just a bit more" Stacey said.
"Normally in this situation you stand still at the top but now the truck shoot past the top. We flew through the air and landed upside down. It was a hefty blow!" It was bizarre, but Stacey landed only 20 metres from Erik van Loon, who just crashed in the same way.
Stacey and his crew - navigator Detlef Ruf and mechanic Bernard der Kinderen - immediately started to work on the truck. "You don´t think, you just start working," said Stacey, deepely affected, in the bivouac of Calama.
René Kuipers helped his team-mate up again "After that we worked about 2 to 3 hours to fix everything. At the end we did finish the stage, but on arrival of the neutralization, halfway, it appeared that we lost everything: tools, spare wheels, everything."
Stacey even finished 30th but hoping against hope. At the bivouac the truck failed the technical inspection because of the wrenched protection bar.
Team Manager Jan de Rooy still wanted to see what they could do. "With Hans we lose an important trump. Hans has the quality to win the DAKAR and tactically he´s very good. It´s quite a drain for the team and especially for Hans it´s very disappointing."
2013/01/11 | 13:57 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/DE ROOY
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