"Once you're good at the bottle flip challenge, you can even try trucks."
The official page of the Dakar ironically brings up the famous social challenge - which consists of rotating a bottle of water in mid-air making it "land" vertically - to describe the extraordinary maneuver that on Wednesday allowed the Totani brothers to put the truck of the Dutch Firemen Dakarteam crew back upright by exploiting the traction of their off-road vehicle. It was the only possible way to get out of the dunes of the fifth stage of the famous rally race in the dunes of the Arabian desert. "In those circumstances," explain brothers Tito and Silvio Totani, "either you manage to pull out your vehicle on your own or no one comes to pick it up: you leave the car there and they take you away physically."
Video Dakar, brothers from L'Aquila 'save' overturned Dutch truck
Wednesday's stage finale was quite challenging, with the most delicate part to be tackled in a regime of semi-darkness. "We arrived in the dunes at night - explains Tito, the navigator from Riyadh - in conditions in which you get a thousand right and then there is one who makes a mistake: so we ended up in a 'megacrater' coming down from a large dune and we were at the bottom trying to figure out how to get out with the car all covered in sand. A 'side by side' (small 4-wheeled off-road vehicle) then descended into the ditch and overturned next to us and therefore the Dutch team's truck. Up at the top were a couple of Japanese and another 'side by side'. In short, a 'nice omelette' for everyone."
Agenzia ANSA Dakar: Loeb wins 6th stage car, Sainz leads the standings - Other Sports - Ansa.it Mechanical problems for Al Attiyah and Peterhansel, now delayed (ANSA)
This is where mutual assistance was triggered, with about fifteen people involved. "We coordinated," explains Silvio, the rider, "straightening the 'side by side' first, removing the sand from the tyres. Then we all put our car back on and then we switched to the Dutch truck. Normally, crews always help each other, especially in the positions at the bottom of the standings, where we all try to go all the way together, in the true spirit of the Dakar." The brothers were allowed not to participate in the Shubaytah-Shubaitah stage in order to repair the car that had a radiator problem. The race will resume on Sunday after tomorrow's break.
Agenzia ANSA Dakar: Van Beveren wins the 6th stage of the motorcycles - Other Sports - Ansa.it Behind the French Price and Brabec, who is now the leader of the standings (ANSA)
All rights reserved © Copyright ANSA