Dakar: Szalay stage 11 report

Ákos varga fell on the head

Competitors knew well enough that stages set in Mali are extremely fast, winding tracks and need plenty of those navigational skills. This meant no problem. However the balázs Szalay - László Bunkoczi duo got off track twice on Wednesday, though for a little time only. (To tell you the truth; even the aces were tricked at the special, Stéphane Peterhansel, for example, lost 19 minutes for losing his way.)

However, unfortunately this wasn't the biggest trouble of the green Opel Frontera's duo. due to some technological problems they were stuck for a while at kilometer 110, this way they had no choice but accept and be satisfied with their ranking as 56th. The motorist of the team, Ákos Varga, did not perform other exciting stunts, except for falling on his head at a relatively low speed. The trucker unit - driven by Zsolt Darázsi - completed the stage just as even-tempered as we expected them to.

Balázs Szalay, László Bunkoczi (Opel Frontera, 56th)
We were really enjoying the beginning of the stage, because we could keep going with a good elan. Then suddenly we heard some strange noise coming from under the engine hood, so we had to stop. It turned out that the carter got torn off, so we had no other choice than waiting for the truck to reach us. Zsolti and the crew fixed the car and from then on we continued our way more careful. Dust, however, was still huge, thanks to this as well we lost track twice, for shorter periods of time.

Ákos Varga (KTM, 45th)
Today I performed a scene that could easily fit a cartoon. It could have been funny from the outside, but in fact I did not enjoy it at all. When a car got in front of me I couldn't see a single thing in the dust and hit a bunch of rocks. I was absolutely not ready for the fall, therefore when the bike tossed me over itself I feel on my head. To my luck I was only riding by 15km/hrs, so my fall was not so big. The outer layer of my helmet got cracked, but my head did not get injured. I wouldn't dare to take a look at my lungs, though, after inhaling such a huge amount of dust it probably looks like as if I've been smoking for hundred years.

Zsolt Darázsi (MAN, 14th)
Learning from yesterday's bending of the wheel bar, today we are driving more careful, we only stopped once to help Balázs and Laci. Despite this we could move on peacefully, at our own pace.

-szalay-