Loprais’ Praga has successfully completed its first race kilometres at Dakar
The brand new Praga V4S DKR has completed its first-ever stage and it was nothing less than at the most famous marathon rally in the world. And successfully. The Instaforex Loprais Team is classified in ninth place in the Truck category after the opening stage at the Dakar Rally 2020.
Sunday’s route led from Jeddah to Al Wajh and it was 752 kilometres long. Out of that, 319 kilometres counted towards the special stage. All the competitors faced fast as well as technical parts, dunes and riverbeds full of rocks.
Aleš Loprais, Khalid Alkendi and Petr Pokora faced several challenges – not just the new vehicle, but also working together as a team for the first time. They had never raced together before. However, they ended their first challenging day very positively.
“We raced in a terrain that reminds me of Africa a lot, which is something I like. But all in all, you could lose more than gain today. We had a small problem in the second part of the stage when the holder of our stabilizer broke. The car then floated around a bit. I didn’t take any risks. And most importantly, we drove very calmly through the rocks. There were lots of them on the route and we had only one more reserve after changing the tyre in the neutralized zone, due to the slow puncture. But that was just the beginning. We’ve made it and we’re curious to see what’s going to happen in the next days,” said Aleš Loprais.
The Dakar Rally continues on Monday, January 6, with a route alongside the Red Sea, heading to the northern area of Saudi Arabia. The route to Neom is 401 kilometres, out of which 367 will be timed. The stage mostly consists of sand tracks, but due to the many lines crossing each other, the perfect navigation will be crucial.
