De Rooy enjoys slugging the mud on SS2 Silk Way Rally
Normally Gerard de Rooy isn’t that fond of rain and mud, but in the second stage of the Silk Way Rally he enjoyed the slippery slush. The captain of Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco not only finished the stage in second, but also took second place in the standings of the trucks, only 13 seconds from his countryman Martin van den Brink.
The special stage of 157 kms on the Russian plains between Cheboksary and Ufa gave a lot of problems to several drivers. Ales Loprais hadn’t even finished the stage yet when Gerard de Rooy had entered the bivouac, Yazeed Alrajhi’s Mini had slid into a deep hole and got stuck for two hours, the Hino of Teruhito Sugawara hang on the borders of a lake and also the Renault of Pascal de Baar had toppled on its side.
The three Team De Rooy Iveco’s reached the half-flooded bivouac in Ufa without damage, but with tons of sticky mud on and in the trucks, giving the mechanics loads of work to get it off.
“It was a very tricky stage”, De Rooy said. “I cannot remember having such a slippery stage. At some points you had grip and all of a sudden it was slippery again. Easy to make mistakes and wreck the car. I drove very cautious. Unfortunately that cost me the 2 minutes for the stage victory, but it was a good day in terms of the general standings.”
A few times De Rooy almost missed a turn, but he never got into trouble with his new Iveco powerstar. “The steering is so precise, it never was of any danger. Not even close. I had a lot of fun. It’s the first time I actually enjoyed the rain and the mud.”
Behind De Rooy his team mate from Kazakhstan, Artur Ardavichus, finished in third with the second Powerstar. Ton van Genugten finished in ninth with the Trakker, which was calculated as the Dutchman had to wait for 12 minutes for De Rooy and Ardavichus after finishing the first stage in third.
“It wasn’t a good day to be fast assistance and stay behind the other two, as this is the terrain I really like and where I’m good at”, Van Genugten said. “I had to drive at 80 percent of what I was capable of, but I enjoyed the ride anyway.”
Tomorrow’s stage, the third one, is 876 kms in total from Ufa in Russia to Kostenay in Kazachstan. The special stage is 329 kms. The first cars are expected to start the special around 10.00 CET and finish around 13.30 CET. After the liaison and border formalities the first cars are expected in the bivouac at Kostenay around 17.30 CET.
Stage 2 (Cheboksary – Ufa)
1 301 VAN DEN BRINK M. (NLD) 2h09m45s
2 302 DE ROOY G. (NLD) + 2m04s
3 310 ARDAVICIUS A. (KAZ) + 3m17s
4 312 SHIBALOV A. (RUS) + 4m00s
5 303 SOTNIKOV D. (RUS) + 4m57s
6 300 MARDEEV A. (RUS) + 7m13s
7 311 KOLOMY M. (CZE) + 11m30s
8 315 HUZINK G. (NLD) + 13m07s
9 306 VAN GENUGTEN T. (NLD) + 17m24s
10 307 NIKOLAEV E. (RUS) + 23m28s
Standings after 2 stages
1 301 VAN DEN BRINK M. (NLD) 3h05m20s
2 302 DE ROOY G. (NLD) + 0m13s
3 310 ARDAVICIUS A. (KAZ) + 1m31s
4 312 SHIBALOV A. (RUS) + 2m26s
5 311 KOLOMY M. (CZE) + 5m38s
6 303 SOTNIKOV D. (RUS) + 6m12s
7 300 MARDEEV A. (RUS) + 9m27s
8 306 VAN GENUGTEN T. (NLD) + 13m35s
9 315 HUZINK G. (NLD) + 14m46s
10 307 NIKOLAEV E. (RUS) + 24m04s
