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 | Dakar 2010: JMB Stradale crew members advance in the Ranking.
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The temperature is supportable on Wednesday with only 30° C and a slight wind which is also good for the cars. The competitors started the 5th stage in Copiapo and drove 670 km towards Antofagasta. 483 km of 670 total km were timed clocked. Orly Terranova and Pascal Maimon maintained the 7th best time of the JMB Stradale Off Road team, followed by Carlos Sousa, Guilherme Spinelli, Miguel Barbosa, and Nicolas Misslin.
The Argentinean-French duo, Terranova-Maimon, received the best time of the team today by coming in 7th in the scratch moving them up to 18th in the general ranking. "It was a hard day and not a great special as we were always in the fesh¬-fesh, we were unable to double as we were in everyone’s dust, and we had a puncture. When leaving I forgot to unplug my radio and I broke the cord - once it was fixed, we were able to leave without taking a risk" comments Pascal Maimon, the co-driver of Orly Terranova.
The Sousa-Baumel duo came in 8th moving up two places in the general ranking bringing them into 5th position. The Portuguese driver remains confident "We had the impression to be running this race alone as there were not many cars around. We had to do our best being behind the motor cycles’ dust and tried not to puncture a tire as we cannot go for a full out fight with our competitors due to the difference in our engine power."
Guilherme Spinelli and Filipe Palmeiro followed by coming in 11th of the day and 9th in the general ranking. With a smile, the Portuguese co-driver relates his day: "We were stressed and did not want to have a puncture - to stay concentrated in sometimes difficult!"
Coming in 8th at the CP2, Miguel Barbosa and Miguel Ramalho had an excellent stage until they fell into a rut. They finished 14th of the stage and moved up to 11th in the general ranking. "We fell into a rut of 4m. I don’t understand that the road book was not precise. The danger was important yet not marked with insistence. I don’t like stages where you race without being able to fully rely on the road book."
The two French men, Misslin and Polato arrived in 15th position at Antofagasta bringing them up to 19th position in the general ranking. Nicolas Misslin comments on some technical problems encountered during the day: "Just before taking the start we noticed that our ventilator was not working which created a break down with the air conditioning and the engine ventilator. When we started the stage, we passed three trucks, then made a navigation error, and we found ourselves behind the trucks we had passed. We doubled these trucks again and then our vapor lock gave us an alert. A frustrating day for us to say the least."
Tomorrow, the competitors will leave for the north of Chile. 598 km separate Antofagasta from Iquique. The stage will be varied as there will be fast off road tracks, fesh-fesh, and a sandy portion where an erg must be crossed before arriving at the bivouac.
2010/01/07 | 17:16 CET | Editor: MR/HS/JMB
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