Machacek showed team spirit and helped Aliyyah Koloc on the track.
The difficult conditions brought the two crews in their Buggyra Can-Am DV 21s togetheras Josef Machacek helped Aliyyah Koloc with a shaft change.
Josef Machacek is still in tenth position in the T3 - Light Prototypes category after finishing 25th in today’s stage. Aliyyah Koloc was right behind him in 26th place and is now thirty-seventh overall. Martin Soltys came eighth today which still puts him eighth overall in the truck category. Jaroslav Valtr finished 11th today due to a delay, but is still fifth overall.
The problem with the car of the 18-year-old Dakar debutant Aliyyah Koloc happened at the 100th kilometer. However, as she had started just one minute ahead of Josef Machacek, the crew of the second Bugygra ZM Academy entry was able to help her immediately.
"A shaft broke at the 100th kilometer. We had to replace it, but Josef (Machacek) and David (Schovánek) helped us. Thank you very much. We lost a lot of time, but I really liked the sandy stage. It was difficult to get across the dunes. We saw a lot of broken-down cars around us," Aliyyah Koloc described the difficult stage, which ended with an unplanned longer drive to Riyadh as the organizers had changed the order of the stages.
Josef Machacek was satisfied with his performance in the dunes. "The stage was beautiful today, completely in the dunes. It was challenging, we took it easier on the fast flats for a while, but then we entered the dunes again, where you have to be very careful. As we drove a bit slower, we arrived at night," said the six-time Dakar winner.
Jaroslav Valtr enjoyed the pitfalls of the legendary rally to the full this time. "The stage was beautiful. At the 30th kilometer, I decided to change the belt in case the truck didn't start, so that Robo Kasak could help us . After that, all went well. Only when we were looking for a navigation point, we drove into a dune hole where the Tatra was swinging back and forth. So we had to back out of it calmly," explained the driver starting for Buggyra ZM Racing his day.
At the very end of the 358 km long stage, another technical issue suddenly arose . "After the neutralisation, we had a quite a good pace but for the last ten kilometers there was no air in the brakes. When we came down the last dune, I hit the brakes, but nothing happened. It was probably the compressor. We were driving carefully in manual model. I was in a big hurry to get to the finish line before darkness. Now we have to fix the compressor, it's going to be a long night," said the Tatra Phoenix pilot, and after being informed about the change in the competition programme, he just said, "Tomorrow is the marathon stage? That will be funny."
His teammate Martin Šoltys experienced a calmer day. "I liked the stage very much because it was not bumpy like yesterday. There were beautiful dunes, it was really great," said the pilot of the Tatra 815.
