When all that remains is to complete the mythical journey of Lac Rose, when arriving in Dakar, the pilot Elisabete Jacinto (MAN TGS) competed this Saturday in the last scoring stage for the classification of the Africa Eco Race 2015.
The OLEOBAN® team reached the 4th place among the trucks, in the special that connected Toueila, in Mauritania, to St. Louis, in Senegal, with a difference of only 20 seconds to the Czech Tomas Tomecek, who was the 3rd placed in the T4.
In this 11th special, which included 202 timed kilometers, the Portuguese team spent 2h50m42s in the selective sector, a result that allowed them to finish in 8th place in the car/truck joint table.
The trio made up of the pilot Elisabete Jacinto, the navigator José Marques and the mechanic Marco Cochinho thus finished this Africa Eco Race in 4th place in the general classification among trucks and was positioned in 11th place in the absolute final table.
Heavily penalized by a serious mechanical problem on the fourth day of the race, the Portuguese managed, even so, to overcome the difficulties and showed all their competitiveness throughout the 11 stages that made up this rally.
Upon arriving in Saint Louis, Elisabete Jacinto was satisfied with her performance in this last stage of the race: “Today the day went very well. Although it wasn't an easy stage, we managed to do everything without any problems. On the way, we found difficult dunes with very soft sand, but with care and rigor we managed to cross them without delay. The last part was more sinuous and we had to do a lot of gymnastics to get through the herbs”.
“Otherwise, everything went well and we are very happy to have finished yet another Africa Race. I have to congratulate my navigator José Marques who, in addition to being an excellent professional, completed his XNUMXth rally with this race”, said Elisabete Jacinto.
This Africa Eco Race was quite complicated for the competitors, particularly when the caravan entered the artful courses of Mauritania.
The toughness of the race led to a high number of dropouts, with the experienced Hungarian driver Miklos Kovacs standing out in trucks, who, in last year's edition, took 2nd place, and Frenchman Jacques Loomans, one of the favorites to win between automobiles.
In qualifying terms, the truck category was won by Russian Anton Shibalov, the driver of the KAMAZ team, who still managed to register the 2nd place in the car/truck joint table. The overall winner of this race was Frenchman Jean Antoine Sabatier (Bugga One).
The seventh edition of Africa Eco Race 2015 ends tomorrow, Sunday, in Dakar, with the mythical special that will take place by Lago Rosa.
This last take no longer counts towards the final classification, but this day is always very exciting. The teams start in groups of four and along the magnificent Lago Rosa they cover the last 24 timed kilometers of this great competition.
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