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 | Oilibya du Maroc: Vigouroux and Winocq on top of the cars overall standings.
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Thursday was a high voltage session for the French-American EVR Team. It was all about containing Holowzczyc/Palmeiros´s Mini and avoiding to get trapped in the sand of the immense dunes of the Chegaga Erg - the least mistake would have been translated into dozens of minutes, if not hours.
In fact, the Chevrolet Trophy-Truck is a two wheel drive vehicle, which makes the exercise of going into the sand very complicated. You must keep calm and avoid changing direction unexpectedly in order to keep a minimal speed - if not, the car could easily sink in the sand ocean due to its weight.
"The mission was accomplished in both sides," said Eric while getting out of the cockpit of the amazing pick-up. "We made it without getting stuck in the sand, which was very impressive due to the terrain we had to race through. It was difficult, but we stayed calmed and focused."
"I guess the relief is like when a hen that delivers a huge egg, so much better getting out of the dunes!" And that is not all, the time in CP1 and CP2 shows that Eric and Alex succeeded at increasing the gap in front of their main rival in a very hard stage."
"But at that point the special stage was far from being over. At the last third of it, which normally would not present any difficulties was detoured the day before by the organizer due to the rainfall that happened some days ago. To solve this unforeseen problem, the organizer only indicated an off road bearing for dozens of kilometers without taking into account the terrain. For the competitors it was like being in hell!"
"We thought we were on the moon! We run over a land that would sink after our passage. We had to go through sand bumps one after the other, very soft, mixed with camel herb, very tricky. And to crown the day, a terrible sand wind came out, which limited visibility to only a few meters ahead."
"The wind was coming from our backs, which perturbed the functioning of the radiators located in the back of our seats (our car does not have a windshield). To avoid mechanical damage, I decided to go slower, maybe too much because just before reaching the finish line, Holowzcyc reached us. We crossed the line in the second place, while in the overall standings we are still 5 minutes and 44 seconds ahead!"
"Tomorrow´s strategy will be simple. We have to keep the Mini in sight in order to keep the advantage, which promises an animated end of the rally, just the way we like them and we will give our best in this last battle!"
"Once again, congratulations to my navigator Alex, who is the best! We work perfectly in the car and I that we deserve to be called, more than ever, "The Dream Team"
2012/10/19 | 11:47 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/EVR
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