Dakar : Team Gauloises Sperrer - Leg 7he Gauloises Team Raphael Sperrer for their second day in Mauritania reached the legendary stage of Atar after a 521 km drive and a 499 km special stage, the longest at this point during the rally. Their time is 18:00:00 and Ola Floene and Raphael Sperrer on the Buggy Standard Nr 361 classified in 103 position.
On day seven of the 28th Dakar 2006, the blue Buggy Stabilised to 78 th position with an overall time of 40:37:51 in the classification.
"Everything was working well in the first 20 kilometers,” said Sperrer. “We knew with Ola that it was a really long special. Even, the longest of the rally until now, but in Mauritania all the special will be above 500 kilometers. So it did not bother us. We were just cautious and efficient. But then we had our first sand benches…Dunes are tricky if you dig yourself in. There is only one way to get out…patience.
So we waited for about three hours. Then our assistance truck arrived which was good because by that time we had the same problems than on day I…After 70 kilometers we had our engine starting to cut out every kilometre or every two kilometres. We lost a lot of time but not our smile although it was dark already.
Suddenly an additional problem occurred and the car had no lights any longer…Something had been damaged with the electrical! You should have seen us, both having our head hanging out of the window to try to see the road….But we made it finally to Atar! Has been a short time although we`re not leaving early”.
Ole Floene added: "After driving in the dark night in the previous leg, we tried a new way of navigation…with our head hanging out of the window in the very very pitch dark night. What an experience! Today we `re heading to Nouakchott win a 508 k long special. It should be easier though. We`ll have less kilometres ahead of us…with 4,095 left and we have now completed 4,948 kilometers! Getting there but it is tough!"
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gauloises,
sperrer,
leg-seven,
dakar,
mauritania,
atar,
