Henrard strikes back in 2nd stage

The opening stage of the Morocco Desert Challenge wasn’t Stéphane Henrard’s best dayBeing ninth on the starting grid, he drove his Dunbee buggy to the win in the second stage over 470 kilometers from Plage Blanche to Touzounine.

"Such monster stages have always been perfect for me. The key is to find the right rhythm: you can’t start too fast because that strategy will work against you.

After the first flat out track on the beach we ended up in a dense fog. The visibility was limited to a few meters. It was worse than a sand storm. It must have been a nightmare for the motorbikes. Fortunately, as the fog disappeared suddenly, it turned out that our buggy was in 6th place, behind 5 Overdrives! It was the start of a great catching-up race. We passed them one by one. Wonderful. "

There’s more to it. Henrard's co-pilot, Gatien Du Bois, is a recovering cancer patient. The experienced pilot has nothing but praise for his less experienced navigator. "He did a great job. If you know his story - last year he also participated in the MDC and he could barely walk out of fatigue - then I can only take a deep bow. "

Trucks in trouble in rocky stage

Truck drivers were struck with loads of flat tires of the Morocco Desert Challenge. Janus van Kasteren jr, the winner of the first stage, was left stranded with a broken hub. His teammate Martin van den Brink won the stage, beating  Roeland Voerman by five minutes. Third place, Ales Loprais, filed a complaint with the jury against Voerman for not stopping when overtaking.

Wouter de Graaff, navigator Martin van den Brink (501): "You could only lose today if you wanted too much. It was a treacherous stage where you could be tempted to catch up on lost time. Martin is experienced and kept his cool. During the ravitaillement we changed a tire in six minutes. In the second part we went flat out. We did reach the finish line with a broken tire, but that doesn’t matter. Many of our rivals made the mistake of riding too soft tires. We did it with 5 to 6 bar. "

Ales Loprais (506): "It was a 'juicy' stage. Except for the flat tires, which are common in such rocky stages, we have not had many problems and I am very happy with that. I’m very displeased with the behaviour of Mr. Voerman who, despite repeatedly using my Sentinel, did not move aside."