Dakar : Team Gauloises Sperrer - Leg 8
The Gauloises Team Raphael Sperrer ended day eight of Dakar 2006 nineteenth fastest reaching the legendary stage of Nouakchott. After a difficult Friday, Sperrer and Floene put in an excellent time of 06:59:27 and climbed back up to 56th in the overall classification. Their total time for the rally so far is 47:37.18.
"I can`t say that we had an uneventful day, although everything went like clockwork," said Sperrer. "We cut through this stage like a hot knife through butter but the day wasn`t without its moments. At one point in the very dusty conditions I thought our Rally might have been over when through the clouds of dust I saw three massive camels directly in our path.

All I could think was that we would couldn`t avoid them travelling at over 140kmh. Fortunately my instincts were good and I just managed to slalom between them but boy was that a close call! We only got stranded in the sand dunes once today and this time it took us only fifteen minutes to recover not like the three hours it cost us yesterday. We`re kind of "experts" at getting out of sand dunes now.

We knew with Ola that just like yesterday, today would be a really long special stage. We were cautious and efficient. Our engine ran perfectly and did not cut out which meant we could concentrate on the driving and made up a lot of time. The smiles are back on our faces and yesterday`s nightmare has been wiped from our minds."

Ole Floene added: "After a gruelling 508km long special today, we reached Nouakchott. Tomorrow we`ll have a day off our first chance to get some proper rest since the Rally started over a week ago. We`re now over half way through this adventure having completed 4,948km, with 4,095 remaining. We`ll use the hotel in Nouakchott to wash all the dust away. I must be honest I`ve got accustomed to sleeping in a tent!"


Tags: gauloises, sperrer, leg-eight, dakar, mauritania, atar,