Today’s 299 km stage was bittersweet for the MM Technology team. A high-speed ride through the dusty terrain left Cenda unscathed, but a penalty for two missed waypoints shuffled the cards in the stage standings. Macik and his crew are still in third place in the overall standings.

Dakar can be tricky

Martin Macik Jr., Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda were in the top four for the entire 300 km from Al Salamiyah to Al Hofuf. This brought not only beautiful duels on the track, but also clouds of dust that affected the view from the cockpit not only for the pilot, but also for the navigator. “Today was good, it was fast, the duels with our rivals were a welcomed treat for me. Unfortunately, we failed to hit two waypoints in the dust, which means a 30-minute penalty. This is of course unpleasant, but that’s Dakar too. We are not hanging our heads low and tomorrow we will start to gradually shave off the time difference.”, Martin Macik Jr. sums up the day.

The fight will continue

According to the preliminary unofficial results, the penalty has affected the stage standings and the orange truck finished in 10th place, but the MM Technology crew still holds 3rd place in the overall standings. “I’m obviously upset about today, mistakes like that shouldn’t happen. But we’re not giving up, we’ll keep fighting and we thank all the fans for the regular dose of support.”says navigator Frantisek Tomasek.

Cenda is trouble-free

Not only is the crew determined to keep fighting, but they are also still enjoying the factory truck. Cenda makes its way through any kind of terrain without any major setbacks and performs well beyond expectations. “Cenda just keeps going, plain and simple. I can’t complain about anything from a technical point of view, it’s a great machine and we managed to prepare and tune it well. I’m really happy about that this year, especially after we only had two hours to service it yesterday,” says mechanic David Svanda.

Pursuit in the dunes
Tomorrow, Dakar participants can look forward to the route from Al Hofuf to Shubaytah, which promises significantly shorter distance than usual, as it passes through high sand dunes. The Cenda crew enjoy these and often thrive in the dunes, so they will give the pursuit a real go.