Dakar Day 8 Report – TreasuryOne Rookies overcome Dakar challenges

TreasuryOne Motorsport duo, Hennie de Klerk and Gerhard Schutte bounced back from a most challenging Dakar 2018 Marathon Stage to move back up to 32nd position overall following a most positive run from Uyuni to Tupiza in the Bolivian Andes on Sunday. The duo was subjected to their toughest challenge of their first Dakar on Saturday when they limped into Uyuni after disappearing from the Dakar timing screens.

While information remains sketchy, it is understood that the TreasuryOne Amarok was stranded after it suffered suspension damage late in Saturday’s stage, before ‘MacGyuver’ Gerhard and Hennie pulled off a major achievement to get the bakkie home, some five hours later. Being a marathon stage no servicing was allowed in Uyuni, so the intrepid crew worked late into the night to carry out further roadside repairs good enough to see them through to Tupiza on Sunday evening.

Through all of this, de Klerk and Schutte incurred four hours of penalties and while they never appeared on either Saturday’s results or on Dakar’s dreaded withdrawals list, they were on Sunday morning’s start list and duly appeared in 34th on the timing at the first waypoint Sunday afternoon, much to the relief of family, fans and friends who had also heard nothing from the team from communications-bare Uyuni.

Their roadside repairs proved more than adequate, as Hennie and Gerhard duly brought  the TreasuryOne Amarok home 32nd on Sunday to move back up to 32nd overall. The TreasuryOne duo is one 45 car crews of the 97 that started still classified (although four or five others may have ‘disappeared’ as the Amarok did the previous night), but most significantly, Hennie and Gerhard are one of just two rookie crews remaining in Dakar 2018. Now that’s quite an achievement considering 17 rookie teams started!

The duo was classified 32nd and second rookie, 5 hours behind the rookie leaders thanks mainly to those four penalty hours but most importantly, still on track to finish Dakar on their first attempt — clearly already against all odds. Their objective will be made a little easier by the fact that Monday’s racing stage across the border to Argentina to Salta has been cancelled due to adverse conditions in the Andes, but it’s all eyes on Cordoba now as Dakar heads toward the finish, all be that not before another five days of hard racing…