Jeremy Knuiman has reclaimed the lead in the motorcycle category on the fourth stage of the Fenix Rally. On the 270-kilometre loop north of Douz, the Dutchman was 4 minutes and 46 seconds faster than Justin Gerlach. With that he turned his deficit of 3 minutes and 17 seconds into a lead of 1 minute and 30 seconds. Among the cars, Magdalena Zajac was the fastest, but due to her earlier troubles she sits far down the order. Vincent Thijs and Arjan van Tiel finished second and extended their lead in the overall standings to 29 minutes and 11 seconds. Pierre Lafay claimed his fourth consecutive stage win among the SSVs, and Dick van Culenborg and Marius Bos took an impressive third place.
The stage consisted of three sections, separated by two neutralisations. The first section ran through the mountains and was highly technical, with rocky riverbeds and many dangerous ditches. The second and third sections were much faster, with quick gravel tracks and two long stretches across the salt flat of the Chott. In the first section, navigation went wrong. According to Van Tiel, “everyone had problems with the tablet” because incorrect waypoints were being validated. The race management reported afterwards that the times would stand provisionally, as the waypoints around kilometre 51 were still being checked.
Motorcycles: Knuiman strikes back
A day after a speeding penalty had cost him the lead, Knuiman responded with a clear stage win in 03:32:13. Gerlach finished second. Daan Veenendaal once again finished third, at 18 minutes and 11 seconds, including a four-minute penalty for two missed waypoints. He remains third in the standings, at 48 minutes and 18 seconds. With three days still to go, the battle for overall victory is a two-way contest: Gaspard Delsart, in fourth, is more than three hours back and had a difficult day as the last of the sixteen riders.
According to Team Knuiman, the Fenix Rally is the 23-year-old rider’s first encounter with the desert. The original goal was to gain experience with navigating and riding in tough terrain, but that learning process is going, in the team’s words, “beyond expectations”.
Florian Willer finished fourth. Richard Wijntjes rode to a strong fifth place and climbed to fifth position in the standings. Pascal de Baar finished seventh and sits ninth. Among the quads, Adam Krysiak won again, with a 19-minute-and-47-second lead over Karol Slugocki. His advantage now stands at 01:29:37.
SSV: Lafay’s fourth win, Van Culenborg the standout
Lafay and Loïc Minaudier (Can-Am Maverick R) also won the fourth stage, in 03:18:45. Adrien Leyreloup and Tom Fauconnet finished second at 6 minutes and 14 seconds. Just behind them, by only 17 seconds, came Van Culenborg and Bos (Can-Am Maverick R), despite a four-minute penalty for two missed waypoints. For Van Culenborg, who rolled his vehicle on his Dakar debut in January and lost a great deal of time in the opening days of this rally, it is by far his best result so far. In the standings they climb to eighteenth place.
Nicolas Martinez and Lili Delfino finished fourth. In the standings, Lafay now leads by 01:02:06 over the French duo. Behind them it is tight: Xavier and Diego Lormand, David and Laura Bord, and Leyreloup and Fauconnet are all within three minutes of each other, more than 01:20:00 behind the leader.
Three SSV crews have officially left the rally: the Belgians Peter Goossens and Geoffroy Noel de Burlin following their crash on Tuesday, the Germans Harry Thoma and Anja Schweyer, and the Dutchmen Arjan Donders and Edwin Vloemans. Goossens flies home today together with his co-driver and mechanic.
Cars: Zajac fastest, Thijs and Van Tiel extend the margin
Zajac and Czekan (Toyota Hilux) set the fastest time among the cars in 03:17:15. They were 4 minutes and 10 seconds faster than Thijs and Van Tiel, and even faster than SSV winner Lafay. After their retirement on the third stage, however, they stand thirteenth in the standings. According to Van Tiel, Zajac had not driven that day due to illness. Officially she is listed in the results as retired, with 33 missed waypoints.
Thijs and Van Tiel finished second, 2 minutes and 3 seconds ahead of Vincent Vroninks and Dave Berghmans (Red-Lined VK56). According to Van Tiel, they lost time to Vroninks in the first, technical section, but made it up again on the fast stretches. Their lead over the Belgian duo now stands at 29 minutes and 11 seconds. Antoine Deleporte and Arnaud Lamonnier finished fifth and climb to third place, but with a deficit of 03:08:36. Calin Camarasan, third in the stage on Tuesday, failed to reach the finish and drops from fourth to eleventh place.
At Feryn Dakar Sport, the misfortune continued. Pascal Feryn and Kurt Keysers finished fourth at 23 minutes and 29 seconds. Koen Wauters and Tom De Leeuw ran into a technical problem early in the stage, which briefly left the team fearing the end of their rally. After they had come in, the mechanics got the problem fixed, after which Wauters and De Leeuw were able to set off again and finish the stage after all. They took 06:29:32, more than three hours longer than the stage winner. Wauters now sits fourth, more than five hours back. According to the team, the chance of a podium is now “virtually minimal”.
JB Equipment Racing finished sixth. Thomas Jolliffe drove himself again, with Mark Foster as navigator, and according to the team the Land Rover Defender held up well; only a leaking axle seal had to be replaced. The Luxembourgers Carlo Arendt and Stéphane Besnier finished ninth, after running into steering problems around kilometre 34 and briefly losing control. They were able to recover quickly. Of the crossing of the Chott, they said it went “really fast”.
In the Limited class, Karim Benhassan Krayem and Nouichi Mohamed Elmecano (Toyota LC79) won again, with a lead of 42 minutes and 9 seconds over Ewald Holler and Markus Bodzenta. Abdennour Benabdennour failed to reach the finish.
Trucks
Paolo Calabria, Loris Calubini and Carlos Alberto Viña (MAN TGA) won among the trucks with a lead of 11 minutes and 43 seconds over the crew of Stella Koerber. Michael Wolff did not make the finish. Calabria leads with 09:16:16.
The Dutch SSVs
Alongside Van Culenborg, Rob van Horssen and Carlo Spreeuwenberg were strong once again. They finished fourteenth and stand eleventh in the standings, as the best-placed Dutchmen. Henri van Steenbergen and Daan van Ooijen recovered from their tough Tuesday with an eighteenth place and sit 27th. Harrie van Empel and Stefan van Ras finished twentieth and are nineteenth in the standings. Daniel Kersbergen and Michiel Goegebeur finished 25th.
Coen Nooijen and Tijs Dijk finished 31st. “Captain Slow” and Jan-Willem van Mourik finished 34th, with a ten-minute penalty for speeding. André Thewessen and Jeffrey Spoor finished 38th. Max and Sem van Empel closed out the list of finishers in 41st, with a fifteen-minute penalty for speeding. In the standings they are 22nd, just ahead of “Captain Slow”.
Loasis L’Original
At Loasis, the leader in the Open class dropped out: Michel Visy and Paul Durame did not start the fourth stage. Rémy Chapot and Adrien Menceron won the stage and now lead by 36 minutes over Gaëtan Ge and Frédéric Alard. In the 85 class, leaders Yves and Nadia Pelleteret were classified as non-starters by the race management. They drop to third place, and Philippe Dupuis and Clémence Cracosky take over the lead. In the 95 class, Serge Mogno and Jacques Perez were faster than leaders François Jacquot and Lionel Jadot; they close to within 4 minutes and 6 seconds. In the Safari class, both crews abandoned the special. Alain Coquelle claimed another win in the 2005 class.
Stage 5: back into the dunes
Today the Fenix Rally, without Loasis, runs a 305-kilometre loop around Douz, of which 207.66 kilometres are against the clock. After a liaison of almost 52 kilometres, the special heads straight into the dunes, with navigation off the tracks. The first section is the most technical, with dune crossings, soft sand, compass-course navigation, and between kilometre 35 and 100 a long run of dunes. According to the organisers, precise navigation matters more there than speed. At kilometre 129.54 there is a service and refuelling stop during a one-hour neutralisation. After the restart at kilometre 147.89, almost sixty kilometres of dunes, white sand, and fesh-fesh around kilometre 177 to 197 remain.
