Dakar : Team Gauloises Sperrer - Leg 3
I took the Gauloises Team Raphael Sperrer team 5 hours, 38 minutes and 30 seconds to reach Ouarzazate, the end of the fourth stage of the 2006 Dakar Rally. The team lies 46th in the daily classification and in 63rd position in the general classification with a total time of 12:59:26.
"Yesterday with our first run on the African continent we got a taste of how challenging this rally will be,” Raphael Sperrer said. “Ole and I worked very hard not to take any unnecessary risks and to remain fully focussed and not make any mistakes. We started rather early this morning from Er Rachida for the 639km journey to Ouarzazate. This was the longest challenge so far in the rally and our day was both good and bad.

We completed the stage in a really good time, The day was good and bad. Good because of our time. Bad because I rate that we have lost over one hour with a problem of air. I used the do-it-yourself method. I had to empty the air from the tires first to free from the sand and then we realized that we had a faulty bottle of air in the car … This happened on two occasions during today`s race. Luckily the spectators were eager to help and one of them had a compressor handy. It just cost us a lot of euros for this precious air! "

Dakar rookies Sperrer and co-driver Ole Floene ended day four of Dakar 2006 with tired smiles on their faces, but knowing that tomorrow will be the last stage in Morocco, between Ouarzazate and Tan-Tan for an 819 km trail before getting to Mauritania. “It`s been a gruelling few days and I don`t think even the noisy electricity generators will be able to keep me awake tonight,” Sperrer added. “I`d give anything for a good night`s sleep and a good shower right now! But we`re sticking with it and there will be plenty of time to rest after the final stage!”

Ole Floene added, "Raphael may be a good driver and I an experienced navigator, but I can tell you that now we are officially experts in scything through massive sand dunes at high speed in the desert. It was another really tough day. We`ve already completed 1,609km, only another 7,434km to go!”

Tags: ktm, gauloises, raphael-sperrer, leg-three,