Eric Govala, the youngest of the Govala family, won the prologue of the Dakar Rally.
Eric Gochal won the prologue of the Dakar Rally in Al Ullah, Saudi Arabia. Last year's winner of the event in the lightweight SSV category proved to be the strongest challenger in the class this time around. On the short route, he overtook his uncle Michal and his father Marek was 12th.
The special stage was only 27km long and served as a warm-up before the actual race, which will begin with the long Saturday stage in Al Hinakiya.
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The young Pole, driving with Spanish co-driver Oriol Mena, achieved a time of 17.34, 20 seconds ahead of Michal Goczal (with co-driver Simon Gospodarczyk), who in turn was just one second faster than the famous British rally driver. Chris Meek.
Marek Gočal and Machie Marton finished 12th, 1.08 behind the winner.
“Gochalov Clan” is not slowing down. Following last year's success of 18-year-old Eric, who was the youngest competitor in history to receive the Bedouin statuette for the winner, the family has moved into a visually similar but faster class, driving Taurus cars. And in tradition, the Energylandia Rally Team announced that they wanted to take the entire final podium of the rally. It was close last year when Marek was third.
Friday was also successful for Krzysztof Holowczyk, who returned to the Dakar after nine years (with co-driver Lukasz Kurzeja), finishing sixth in his Mini in the “Kingdom” car class, losing by a fraction of a second to his fifth rival.
Motorcyclists Maciej Giemza and Konrad Dąbrowski did their best and took 25th and 26th places respectively. Bartholomew Tabin, making his Dakar debut, was 61st.
The serious Dakar race will start on Saturday. Stage 1 goes from Al-Ula to Al-Hinaqiya and is 541 km long, of which 414 km is a special stage.
KZ, PAP