Kolomý Escaping All Traps

Do not get confused by the headline, Martin Kolomý, unfortunately, has not re-entered the race, but really finished his performance in the Dakar Rally 2014 three days ago. However, it does not mean he is going from one Bivouac to another doing nothing. One word led to another yesterday, so the teasing "... let's get our tail into gear ..." resulted in a sort of competition. While transferring from Iquique to Antifagasta he had to get grips with jobs his teammates had set for him on 380-km-long route, which he would not fail in, despite having a little bother when coping with them!

He faced the first of the tasks in the Bivouac in Iquique, where he had to scramble out from sand using only rear wheel drive. It was a piece of cake for him, but the black smoke from the revving up engine attracted a lot of onlookers. It took just a brief while for him to get to the road. Another trial was on the rocky coast where he showed serenity and correct guess; as if caressing with any stone or rock he managed to go through, and after a few minutes he was on the road again smiling at us in his Tatra 815 Buggyra cab.

Job 3 was no laughing matter. Now, it was a seashore section, a rather steep cliff formed by round stones he had to handle. Bravely driving into that unstable terrain he nearly found himself in the truck lying on its side in salty waters. Luckily, he managed to come to a halt and get out of the truck, then he started going around it nearly sick with worries: "When I got out and saw my heeled machine nearly buried in the sand I was thinking about calling assistance to pull me out. Then I tried reversing slowly into the water, then hit gas pedal to get out. By luck I made it, but the worries I had were not those little ones."

The last of the tasks - now on the beach - involved going through a few hundred-metre-long section in rather deep water. It was a bit more complicated, without chance to explore the sea bed, so he had to go at it instantly: "I was waiting a bit until waves until waves flow down, then accelerated as hard as I could. I could see nearly nothing at times as the water was pouring over the windscreen; but it was good fun."

Martin Kolomý has fulfilled all tasks today. He coped with some of them easily, other ones did with hard effort. Nevertheless he, the accompanying staff, and plenty of onlookers had a good time. That is the most important thing. "Nobody would have considered such a thing during the race, but we can make a game of some things now. Actually, there's nothing else left to do. The Fat Boy is now on makeshift axle, which is impossible to be used in races, but we've taken some pretty breakneck pictures on the shore, and did a sort of monkeyshines to amuse onlookers," said Kolomý pointing out that such a spontaneous activity always attracts loads of spectators. As if no deed goes unpunished, the full stop is: Arriving at the Bivouac, he started immediately to wash off salty water from his "boy" - freely.

For more information search for www.buggyra.com,
(from Chile Miroslav Forman).