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Issue #4:January 4, 2023
Ronald Basso and Jean-Michel Polato in car #250, TLC’s Land Cruiser 300, arrived at the bivouac in AlUla just after 1:30 am after suffering steering problems in the final section of the SS on January 2. The crew were exhausted, but there were no injuries. The car was successfully repaired by the mechanics by the 11:00 a.m. start and made its way to the start of the stage together with Akira Miura and Laurent Lichtleuchter in car #246.
The SS between AlUla and Ha’il kept changing from one terrain to another – sandy off-road to scree slopes with large rocks, and hard gravel. The stage was planned to cover a distance of 447km, but as soon as the cars went out, the rain began, quickly turning into a heavy fall. The organizers decided to cancel the race because the wadis (dried-up riverbeds) that were part of the course for the day became flooded with water, making it difficult to drive in many places. Some participants had already finished the stage, but others had to pull out once they reached CP (Check Point) 2 at the 335km mark or CP3 at the 377km mark. From there, they were rerouted to sealed roads to the bivouac in Ha’il.
Both TLC teams were able to clear CP2 and safely arrived at Ha’il at around 8:30 pm. By that point, the downpour had turned the bivouac into a swamp. Mechanics were on standby and quickly started their inspection work in the heavy rain.
*Results are currently being adjusted for the cancellation of the SS to take into account the different distances covered by participants.
Miura (driver): We’ve had a lot of tire punctures since the start of this Dakar. Today, despite our efforts to keep a controlled pace, we still ended up with four punctures. In the end, we borrowed a spare tire from car #250, but I really want to address this issue.
Basso (driver): Yesterday was rough, but the repaired steering is great. We only had one puncture, and despite the stage cancellation, it was a good day.