On January 7, the 2022 Dakar Rally entered its seventh race day, and The No. 213 Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu of the Beijing Off-Road Team also completed the sixth stage (Stage 6). After achieving a counterattack yesterday, The No. 213 Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu of the Beijing Off-Road Team today encountered the biggest obstacle since the event - overturning. Fortunately, both drivers and the car were in safe condition. After three hours of waiting and rescue, the 213nd team faced the challenge and overcame the difficulties to finish the race, and currently ranks 35th in total.
Riyadh Hides Traps The Beijing off-road team faces the difficulties head-on
The sixth stage, the last stage before the rest day of this Dakar Rally, continues in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with a total distance of 620 kilometers and a special stage of 404 kilometers, of which 25% are sandy, 62% are mud, 12% are sand dunes, and 1% of the stages are salty spots in the desert. The runners of the car group are running at high speed today, facing the danger of puncturing tires when crossing the canyon, and the changeable terrain also hides a crisis.
Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu of the Beijing Off-Road Team played well in the opening stages of today, staging a big overtaking drama all the way. However, in the process of overtaking later, due to the dust brought by the car in front of him, which seriously affected Zhang Guoyu's vision, the No. 213 mistakenly drove through a broken hurdle under low visibility, causing the car to overturn. Fortunately, the drivers and cars of The 213 were not in serious trouble.
After the accident, due to the fierce fighting on the field and the obstruction of vision, the No. 213 car could not wait for the car to stop and rescue. It wasn't until 3.5 hours later that they encountered Group 240. With the help of driver Miguel Barbosa, the 213 car managed to escape and return to racing.
Show the hardcore gene Struggle is the true color
After escaping from danger, the BJ40 car of Beijing Off-Road showed the true color of hardcore off-road, the overall structure of the car was not damaged, and the Shuangyu combination immediately adjusted its mentality to continue to fight and drive all the way to the finish line. In this S6 stage, car 213 is ranked 72nd, and the overall result is tentatively ranked 35th.
Hardship is the real background of the Dakar Rally, and in previous years, the Dakar completion rate was less than 40%. As the race draws closer to the halfway point, the competitive situation is getting more and more rigid, the difficulty of the stage is also increasing, and more and more drivers are withdrawing from the race. The Beijing off-road team is still firm on the field, currently in the middle and upper reaches of the overall performance, and still has the potential to attack forward. Finding a good rhythm and seeking steady progress is the best racing strategy for the team in the second half.
The spirit of Dakar is that every second counts
To this end, Li Jiarun, director of the Beijing off-road team, said: "For the accident caused by this second mistake caused by the driver in the blind spot of vision today, we must first express our gratitude to the No. 240 driver Muguel who finally helped us get out of danger! On the one hand, I was slightly disappointed that no one stopped to rescue during the three-and-a-half-hour wait, but it is true that as the world's top long-distance cross-country rally event, every car group that came to the competition was saddled with dreams and pursuits, especially for the 213 car group that ranked 21st in the overall result at that time, and the competitors who competed with him had a great desire for results and could not help. ”
Perhaps, this is another manifestation of the Dakar spirit, that is, everyone is in a race against the clock, everyone wants to get their own breakthrough here, and there is no time to take care of too many other situations. In fact, the Beijing off-road team has also made a good prediction and response plan for emergencies. "When our team decided to go to Dakar alone this year, these surprises were in themselves one of the scenarios we expected. So we can accept the current situation, and tomorrow is a day off, and we can re-prepare our car. The test is not over, and there are more dangers waiting for us to conquer in the second half! ”
The 2022 Dakar Rally will have a rest day tomorrow, with the No. 213 Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu car team winning a valuable opportunity to rest. After this stage, the Beijing off-road team still maintained a high morale, with the tendency to fight more and more courageously, vowing to continue to play the true color of hard work. I believe that Zhang Guoyu / Pan Hongyu will be full of blood to resurrect and fight on the battlefield again, starting the second week of this tournament's journey!