Svoboda’s Tatra Arriving at OiLybia Rally of Morocco Stage 1 Finish

On Saturday, 4 October 2014, at 6.45 a.m., in front of the Belere Hotel in Erfourd, the OiLybia Rally of Morocco was formally opened with the start of the first few vehicles in the car category. Running from Erfourd to Damie, Stage 1 was 276km in length. The starting process of the truck category started as late as shortly before 10 a.m. due to a huge number of competitors. Besides the Svoboda Tatra Team in Tatra, who entered the competition just at 10.02 a.m., another 15 crews set off for a desert track, too (a complete list of competitors including the truck category is available here). The Czech crew of the Tatra competing with No. 406 had been moving ahead in the middle of the truck field for all Stage 1 to finish in eight place. The first place in Stage 1 was taken by an experienced Dutch driver, Gerard De Rooy, in IVECO 4x4 DRNL.

“Nearly three hundred-kilometre long route was challenging as there were extremely fast rocky sections with sand dunes at Erg Chebbi. As they are fairly challenging they were included also in the Dakar-Paris Rally in the past whose track finished to run there in 2007. It’s first we’ve entered a rally of such a type; it’s been a school for us, therefore I’m happy we did well in the stage. We’ve checked the car, repaired small grazes, and we’re sure to go to bed early, as tomorrow we’re going on the stage that is alike, with a sand dunes section,” said in the finish the team’s boss, Václav Svoboda, feeling content.

Drivers are going on 26-km long transfer from Erfourd to Tabassamt in the morning, the venue of Stage 2 start finishing after 211-km long uneven desert terrain journey in Merzane close to Erfoud.