The most important question. do you start on sunday
Krzysztof Holovick: Yes, we're going. We are still waiting for our car, but it is already on its way to Riyadh with a trailer. Yesterday it got lost somewhere in the dunes, the guys sat until night, but they repaired the damaged clutch. Now our Mini needs a general overhaul. Luckily for him, after our previous adventures, I'm going pretty easy, just to save this Dakar.
1. It's the end of the Dakar Rally for Pole. He had to withdraw from the competition
And what really happened at this marathon stage?
Chris Meek, my rally buddy, hid behind the dune and left his helmet up to warn the others, but within two meters of where he was standing we hit him. I ask, why did you put the helmet like that? And he says the lane was on the right and he wanted to protect that side more. At first I thought I was going to kill him and he wanted to kill me, but of course we quickly held hands and helped each other out of the sand. We still couldn't make it and a truck had to take us out. That's when I burned out the clutch, which then started slipping and I couldn't climb a single hill.
Have you been waiting a long time for help?
We stopped, night fell, no one could get there because it was a difficult place. So we spent the night in the desert, me sleeping in a sleeping bag on the sand and Lucas in the car. They tried to drop food from the helicopter, but everything collapsed.
The worst thing is that you wake up at six in the morning and think that it will be over in two hours. Then there are twelve, two, three. Then the organizer called and told us to prepare for the second night, no one will pass this way again. Then, thankfully, our team responded (editor's note: X-ride) and a helicopter came and brought the mechanics down and took us away.
You weren't the only one who ran into trouble during this desert marathon…
It was an amazing stage. Perhaps the most difficult rally in history, as some say. I remember such 600 km stretches in Africa, but this one was unique, always in front of the dunes. Fatigue increased significantly with every kilometer.
The first three stages were very rocky and dangerous, now a two-day marathon in the dunes. Is this your most difficult Dakar?
In my scale, it is in second place. The most difficult for me was my first one in 2005 in Africa. Then I cried, I was fed up with everything. At that time I was driving a Mitsubishi with a very bad drive. And when it stopped on plain sand, it buried itself and I couldn't stand it anymore. We had to drive continuously. Even where they put a seal on the route, we couldn't wait because we would be buried. We had to pick it up as we went along. And when that guy didn't get the stamp, I ran in circles and Jean Marc (Fortin, pilot – PAP) yelled at him to run behind us.
I remember how we removed the front axle so we could drive because the bridge was broken. But when Dune was there, we put it back up for a while. And this last stage, already in Senegal… the electronics failed and we stopped maybe 10 km from the finish line. And no one wanted to take us. I was climbing a rope in front of the trucks and I was almost run over by a Hungarian. The last truck, half broken and terribly tired, stopped and took us to the finish line.
You mentioned earlier about the health problems after the accident in the second stage. Have you passed yet?
It's still hard. I hit from below, my front and hand are paralyzed, I feel piercing pain and I can't do anything. Then I ask Lukasz to change gears. He tries his best because in the dunes it is not so easy to get the stick where it needs to be. Then the hand comes back slowly, slowly, I spend half an hour in pain, and before the next blow, it somehow stops. So I instinctively slow down before each hole. It's such a scary ride, we'd rather race and after this second leg we're just doomed to finish.
PAP: What prevents you from this action?
KH: We just want to go miles because ultimately we don't exist. But we have someone to go to. Normally, if I had no commitments, I would go home after this second stage.
MS, PAP