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 | Dakar 2010: Jurgen van den Goorbergh before the start.
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Team Report Yesterday all engineers and service guys but also Jurgen en Kees have been working a long day on a lot a small details to give the buggy's their final touch for the race. Things that need a lot of time but have to be done, like putting all the stickers of the sponsors on the car. Small things like holes in the chairs to get rid of water in the chairs, placement of the rear mirrors and more important stuff like a final check of the motor management.
It looks like all the buggy's had a huge amount of water on them during the transport by boat from Europe to Buenos Aires. Really everything was affected by the water - of course the race buggy's are designed to deal with water but they are not made to behave like a boat!
The lay-out of the buggies of Jurgen and Kees is the same. With one major difference so everybody can recognize them immediately; some parts of Jurgen's buggy, like the 'headlights', air intake and roof, are marked with fluorescent Orange whereas these parts on Kees his buggy are fluorescent Yellow.
At the end of the day Kees made a final test through the city of Buenos Aires and was amazed how the police allowed and even supported him to really test the buggy in the big city. At every crossing in the city there are at least 5 policemen and they are as enthusiastic about the event as every motorsport fan. At the end of his test Kees made a nice donut in front of the support team at the Hilton hotel where the team resides.
It is really great to see how the management and staff of the Hilton hotel supports the team; the complete area where normally the guest arrive to enter the hotel is reserved for the team and some other Dakar teams so the service teams are covered against rain and sun during their preparation. Even the Dutch ambassador in Argentina whose office is in front of the hotel offered his parking places for a few days to the team and comes to say hello to the team before and after he goes to work.
Today at 11.00 the team will leave for the final inspection of both drivers and buggy's to be able to enter the race tomorrow. Next to some final exams on race regulations, safety equipment and navigation, the drivers will have to show their approved racing overalls, helmets but also racing and driving licenses, passport and approval for entry of the race.
The buggies will have a full review on the design (mainly FIA approval of the safety box where the driver sits), safety equipment like fire extinguishers and emergency packets, approval of fuel tanks (which have a special certificate each), correct mounted navigation equipment and much more.
Jurgen and Kees will be satisfied this afternoon when they can finally park their buggies in the park ferme and have their final rest before the race starts tomorrow.
From now on we will keep you updated with these emails, this website but please have a look at our Twitter site (JurgenKeesDakar) too where Jurgen and Kees will post messages during the day regularly. ** Update ... we just received news that Kees has finalized the technical scrutenering and that Jurgen is almost done - Finally ready to start Dakar!
2010/01/01 | 14:03 CET | Editor: MR/HS/Team
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