Summarize

Another strong day for Dakar Nissan crews

Red-Lined Motoring Adventures enjoyed another good day on the desert in Sunday’s longest 546km stage of Dakar Saudi Arabia 2020 from Riyadh along a varied route to Wadi Al Dawasir. The team’s two Nismo-V8-powered Navara V8s powered home to see both cars climbing up the overall order as South African TreasuryOne Motorsport duo Hennie de Klerk and Johann Smalberger came home 26th and British Sabertooth duo Thomas Bell and Patrick McMurren ended 36th.

“We had a few challenges today, but it all worked out in the end,” Thomas Bell reported. “The car was good, but we were slowed by a few technical glitches including a crank sensor that started playing up on our Nismo V8 and we lost a few minutes figuring out what was wrong before switching to the backup unit. After that, the Sabertooth Navara performed well and we were able to pick up a few places back up to 36th and also climb 6 places up to 40th overall — so a fairly good day overall that could have been even better...

“Today was great — we had a very good run and it seems we had no penalties or anything like that in spite of both Johann and me having a little flu, so all good,” Hennie pointed out. “We also had a great run in the dunes and did not get stuck once and we even had a few cool airborne moments — all under control, of course! “So let’s just say we are quite happy with today — I think if we keep this up we will be back on for our top twenty objective.”

Team boss Terence Marsh was satisfied. “Red-Lined is proud to provide our gentleman drivers with the ultimate in adventure — both these crews are steadily moving up the overall Dakar 2020 rankings against the finest cross country racers on the planet, our Nissan Navara VK56 race cars are performing well and we are happy to have both cars still in it and running strong.

“In another development outside of our team, Dakar tragically claimed another life today,” Marsh concluded. Sadly, we came back to the news of Dakar biker Paulo Gonçalves losing his life after a fall today — all of us at Red-Lined Motoring Adventure are saddened by the loss of motorcycle hero Paulo Gonçalves — we’d like to express our sincere condolences to Paulo’s family, friends, team and rivals.” 

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Red-Lined Motorsport

What:Red-Lined Dakar Day 7 Report
Where:Wadi Al Dawasir, Saudi Arabia
When:Sunday 12 January 2020
Community:International

For further information please contact terence@redlined.co.za

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