Here it comes! For the eighth time, we started on Rally Bamako. On Thursday evening, we arrived to Budapest. That day, we had a briefing. Next morning we passed the technical check and in the afternoon we started. This year, the track has 8682 kilometres. Because of the Mali war, the finish was placed to capital city of Guinea, Bissau.
This year, our team built two crews:
Starting number 34
Nissan Navara D40
Juraj Ulrich
Daniela Ulrichová
Staring number 35
Nissan Pathfinder R51
Matej Knapek
Ľubos Schwarzbacher
Ján Maloch
Keep your fingers crossed, we just started the 4 days long stage, which finishes in Morocco, where we going to get standings for the first time.
Bamako 2013 – 1.stage
First few kilometres were heading to a bonus checkpoint. There were mistakes of organizers here, already. The term was, that the starting position should be the same as a position when cars where incoming to a parking lot a day before. Our team should start 8th. The truth is that we started 45th and bonus points were only for first three teams. Organizers told us about the massive snowfall in Hungary, Slovenia and Italy.
Snow everywhere… It doesn’t look like the African desert but it seems to be Arctic rally. Next country on our way is Slovenia. We do our best to inform you about the rally.
Bamako 2013 – 2.stage
We are here, after few days of silence. Luckily we finished quite long stage. This year, organizers kept mind for this stage. Teams marked this stage as a hardest stage overall. Even this stage was the hardest, it the end was the hardest part of the whole rally also.
This part was about crossing the Atlas mountains. Highest altitude was 3000 metres. It was night, narrow and dangerous roads covered with ice, mud and snow.
We had really tough times here… Our wheel slid down the hill and we almost fell down the hill. Thanks to our friends (Knapek motorsport) , after three hours, we definitely stabilized our Navara. On the edge of our strength, we put on wheel-chains and resumed the road to finish in Tinerhir.
We finished just one hour before not accepting pints for checkpoints. Only 25 crews of 45, successfully got their points.
After counting points we realized first and second place
Standings after the second stage:
Raid Adventure Team (034) 332p.
Knapek Motorsport (035) 331p.
Gumisember Racing Team (007) 307p.
Csányi és Társai 1etlen Biztonságos Rész-Ing Tím (001) 305p.
Subaru Offroad CZ 1 (036) 297p
Next stage after the „marathon“ was from Tinerhrir to Zagora, 340 kilometres long. Start was scheduled at 10 am. After the hard stage, we could repair our cars and we had a little rest.
The track was too rocky, few parts were really narrow, but somewhere close to Tizi n”Tichka, the Sahara welcomed us. We enjoyed the track, passed all tasks and finished in limit.
After the evening points counting, we stand on the first and second place.
1.Raid Adventure Team (034) 427p.
2.Knapek Motorsport (035) 416p.
3.SuperSelect Team (006) 388p.
4.Subaru Offroad CZ 1 (036) 380p.
5.Csányi és Társai 1etlen Biztonságos Rész-Ing Tím (001) 355p.
We continue, keep your fingers crossed
Bamako 2013 – 3.etapa
30 of January : Zagora-Tafraoute 500 km
Standings after stage 3. Our two crews still hold first and second place.
1.Raid Adventure Team (034) 577 points
2.Knapek Motorsport (035) 566 points
3. Gumisember Racing Team (007) 554 points
4. Subaru Offroad CZ 1 (036) 548 points
5.SuperSelect Team (006) 543 points
6.Csányi és Társai 1etlen Biztonságos Rész-Ing Tím (001) 512 points
7.SAVARIA MOTORSPORT TEAM (008) 412 points
8. Team Offroad Expeditions 5 (030) 408 points
9. Team Offroad Expeditions 6 (032) 406 points
10. Team 69 (024) 405 points
11.Mission Possible (022) 352 points
12. RAMBO TEAM (010) 305 points
12. PPT TEAM (011) 305 points
13.The ROAdMANIANS (033) 217 points
13.GO GO TRIUMPH TEAM (164) 217 points
14. Subaru Offroad CZ 2 (037) 202 points
15. 1Desert Patrol Team (019) 192 points
16. Reddaposta Bamako Team (002) 190 points
17. AWD Team (005) 185 points
18. Team 96 (040) 160 points
19. Team Offroad Expeditions 3 (028) 155 points
20. Felvidék Team (021) 143 points
21. Team Offroad Expeditions 1 (026) 95 points
21. Team Offroad Expeditions 2 (027) 95 points
21. Team Offroad Expeditions 4 (029) 95 points
21. Team Offroad Expeditions 7 (031) 95 points
22. (041) 52 points
23. SPRINT TIME TEAM (009) 35 points
24. Carpathian4x4 (038) 33 points
25. Carpathian4x4 (039) 32 points
26. Tayrona Racing Team (023) 27 points
26. Team Malta (017) 27 points
27. Álom csapat (004) 0 points
27. AZZURRI Team1 (015) 0 points
27. AZZURRI Team2 (016) 0 points
27. Stuck On Desert (018) 0 points
27. BB Finland (020) 0 points
27. Krofian (025) 0 points
28.Afrikáért (003) -3 points
29.Toyotá-sokk! (012) -10 points
29.homokdune.hu (014) -10 points
Bamako 2013 – 4.and 5.stage
We moved from Morocco to west Sahara. For the demand and suggesting of Morocco government, organizers cut off 2/3 of this stage , because of dangerous parts of country. We continue to Mauritanian border. Next three days, we are going to be without signal and our GPS tracker will send a signal only in bigger cities.
We still hold the first and second place, even the pressure is so high.
Keep your fingers crossed, we are heading on.
Bamako 2013 – 6.and 7. stage
It still gets warmer and warmer. Now it is 30°C during day. Sometimes, the sandstorm seems to come… We moved to Mauritania and passed 2 more stages, 600 kilometres each. In next few days, we are going to fight with huge sand dunes, places where the Dakar rally was placed. It is quite hard for navigation and the traction also.
After the 7th stage, still on the 1st, our second crew moved to 4th.
Rally is tough for psychical health also. There were problem with counting points for checkpoints. Keep your fingers crossed.
1.Raid Adventure Team (034) 877 Points
2. Subaru Offroad CZ 1 (036) 864 Points
3. Gumisember Racing Team (007) 861 Points
4. Knapek Motorsport (035) 851 Points
5. Csányi és Társai 1etlen Biztonságos Rész-Ing Tím (001) 830 Points
6. Team Offroad Expeditions 5 (030) 723 Points
7. Team Offroad Expeditions 6 (032) 711 Points
8. SuperSelect Team (006) 698 Points
9.SAVARIA MOTORSPORT TEAM (008) 687 Points
10. Team 69 (024) 505 Points
11. Mission Possible (022) 482 Points
12. Subaru Offroad CZ 2 (Toyota) (037) 477 Points
13. RAMBO TEAM (010) 445 Points
13. PPT TEAM (011) 445 Points
14. AWD Team (005) 360 Points
15. Reddaposta Bamako Team (002) 340 Points
16. The ROAdMANIANS (033) 277 Points
17. Felvidék Team (021) 273 Points
18. Team Offroad Expeditions 3 (028) 270 Points
19. GO GO TRIUMPH TEAM (164) 242 Points
20. Team Offroad Expeditions 7 (031) 220 Points
21. Team Offroad Expeditions 4 (029) 213 Points
22. 1Desert Patrol Team (019) 212 Points
23. Team Offroad Expeditions 2 (027) 210 Points
24. Team Offroad Expeditions 1 (026) 203 Points
25. Team 96 (040) 160 Points
26. (041) 87 Points
27. Carpathian4x4 (038) 83 Points
28. Carpathian4x4 (039) 82 Points
29. Team Malta (017) 72 Points
30. SPRINT TIME TEAM (009) 35 Points
31. Toyotá-sokk! (012) 30 Points
32. Tayrona Racing Team (023) 27 Points
Because of our security, we are transmitting in Mauritania just when its necessary .
Bamako 2013 – 8.až 10. stage
We successfully passed Mauritania, where we had no signal. Today’s stage has finish in Senegal, Fete Forrou city. Even this stage was only 400 kilometres long, harder part was navigate us without coordinates from the organiser. We had to use just the paper map and advices of the locals.
After common problem with points, we still hold the first place, even the other crews doing their best to overtake us. We act “fair play” , even we lose our points.
Results 5th of February. :
1.Raid Adventure Team (034) 1082 points
2.Knapek Motorsport (035) 1081 points
3. Subaru Offroad CZ 1 (036) 1079 points
4. Gumisember Racing Team (007) 1079 points
5. Csányi és Társai 1etlen Biztonságos Rész-Ing Tím (001) 1045 points
6.Tea 5 Offroad Expeditions (030) 928 points
7.Team 6 Offroad Expeditions (032) 916 points
8. SuperSelect Team (006) 698 points
9. Savaria MOTORSPORT TEAM (008) 687 points
10. RAMBO TEAM (010) 585 points
10. PPT TEAM (011) 585 points
Keep your finger crossed, we still keep going!