Dakar : Team Nissan Aventure - Leg 8
A totally different day for Benoît Rousselot and Team Nissan Aventure. After a perfect day yesterday, today was full of problems from start to finish. Benoît lost the Production class lead to Jean Jacques Ratet, and is now 20 minutes behind his main rival. But things aren`t over yet, and the Nancy-based driver is still full of confidence.
Leaving Atâr, the competitors still in the race (there were 125 of them this morning) faced a winding route through canyons and wadis. They then had to cross an erg, before finishing with a faster section at the end of the special stage… In Nouakchott, they are now over the half-way mark, but the 4948 kilometres they have already covered are making themselves felt…

For Team Nissan Aventure and its crew of Benoît Rousselot and Sylvain Poncet, the day was tiring, especially on their nerves. Benoît, on arrival, gave an account of his day :

« What a day ! The problems started very early on. Shortly after the start, we noticed the same symptoms which hit us during the first special stage in Portugal. The engine started cutting out intermittently, which soon became worse. The problem was mainly that, losing power in certain vital moments, we got beached a number of times. Then, after 140 km, we decided to repair it. Sylvain, using plastic collars, was able to put the sensor back in position, and the cut-outs stopped. But afterwards, the exhaust broke, and then we got stuck a few more times, followed by a puncture, and to end it all, we got slightly lost before finding CP2. We were looking in the wrong direction… Luckily, I was really fast over the last 100 kilometres, on a fast track that really suited me.

Our main rival in the Production category, Jean-Jacques Ratet, was 40 minutes faster than us, and he now has a 20 minutes lead. Nothing too serious, we are still in the race, and the rest day will be extremely useful, in order to recharge our batteries to push again in the coming days… »

Tomorrow, the Nissan Pathfinder will be carefully examined and maintained. During that time, the team will gather its forces together before facing Monday`s redoubtable stage between Nouakchott and Kiffa. Plenty of bravery in perspective.


Tags: nissan-aventure, dakar, leg-five, benoit-rousselot, sylvain-poncet, t2,