Dakar : Team Gauloises Sperrer - Leg 11
Only five days to go in Dakar 2006 for the Gauloises Team Raphael Sperrer who arrived at Bamako and reached the end of stage eleven in 21st position after 3 hours 47 minutes and 58 seconds in their Buggy. They were only 40 minutes behind the superstar Mitsubishi rally leader Stéphane Peterhansel. Another good day saw Sperrer and co-driver Floene climb another place in the overall standings to 42nd. Their overall time is 73:08:52.
« Again, it was a really good drive today and the few moments we got to admire the landscape really left us breathless, » said Sperrer. « The tracks are narrow again and I had to be extremely careful while driving not to make any mistakes. As for Ola, again he had another flawless day navigating. We only had one incident today when our front suspension collapsed, it cost us twenty minutes, but we still finished the day with a very good time. The trees were very close to the track and there was barely enough space for our Buggy to pass through, but fortunately today I didn`t damage any paintwork! We pushed hard again, but didn`t get over-excited - we`re determined to make it to the end of this rally. The toughest stages are now behind us, but we mustn`t lose focus so close to our goal. Tomorrow will be a marathon stage with no assistance and we will be ready. »

Ole Floene added : « I admit I made a couple of little navigation mistakes that cost us a few minutes during the day, but we still got to the finish in a really good position. It was really quite an experience speeding through the narrow tracks lined by trees today. You feel like they`re closing in on you the faster you go. Fortunately we kept out of any major trouble and got to the end of the stage in an excellent 21st position. The result even helped us climb one position in the overall standings which is great. »

« I hope we`ll have another good day tomorrow, and continue the good rhythm we`ve built up so far. It will be a wet track again through Guinea to Labe, with passing fjords and getting our feet wet again. There are just a few more days left and we must not lose our concentration as we fight our way back up the standings. It will be again a long stage tomorrow of 872km with 368km of special, but at the end we`ll be just 1,311km from Dakar. »


Tags: gauloises, sperrer, floene, leg-eleven,