Red-Lined Motoring Adventures enjoyed a solid first day of Dakar 2020 in Saudi Arabia as both its Nissan Navara VK56s delivered strong performances. British duo Thomas Bell and Patrick McMurren drove their Sabertooth version home 35th and South African TreasuryOne duo Hennie de Klerk and Johann Smalberger provisionally ended up 58th in spite of a few challenges in the stage…
“We had a solid first day,” Thomas Bell explained. “We eased into the Dakar — there’s no need to push too much so early on and the car ran like a dream, so we are happy with 35th overall today. “It was a really tough stage and we did have a puncture, but from what we hear, we got off pretty lightly, so rather we keep up our slowly, slowly catch the monkey approach. “We want to hear that fat lady sing in two weeks time!”
“Our pace was very good but we were delayed for an hour to repair a burst brake line just before mid distance and then we also had to take it easy with soft brakes from there and we had to swap a flat tyre, so 58th does not reflect a great day out there,” Hennie de Klerk pointed out. “Still, our Nismo powered TreasuryOne Nissan Navara was a pleasure to drive in the Arabian Desert dunes — fortunately it’s very early on and we were by no means the only crew to hit trouble, so we look forward to chipping away at it from here on in.”
“Both our two Red-Lined Nissan Navaras made it to the finish of a gruelling 319km first day of the Dakar run along the Red Sea coast from Jeddah to Al Wajh today,” team boss Terence Marsh explained. “We are pretty happy to have both cars safely in the bivouac tonight as not everyone can claim that. “Tuesday’s second 367km day heads to Neom — it’s another tough one that promises to be a significant navigational challenge, but the guys are ready!”
fonte: http://www.motorsportmedia.co.za