We Are Fine-tuning Our Own Truck for the Dakar Rally
9.10.2014
In the past few years we repeatedly succeeded in reaching the highest ranks of the European Truck Racing Championship series. In addition to that, we also managed to win the prestigious Constructers‘ Trophy twice in four years. Our newest goal is to make a breakthrough into the world of long-distance rallies. Our team developed a brand new racing special exclusively for the legendary Dakar Rally and our ambitions for the most respectable long-distance race on the globe are high. The unique project has been labelled MKR Adventure.
„Our new project has an even larger scale than we are allowed to confess at the moment. Very soon, we’re going to share more information with the motorsport fans though. The important thing is that the current progress of preparations makes us feel good. Our truck is fast and more than able to compete,“ smiled the team’s boss Mario Kress, still a little mysteriously.
That the German constructor living in the north of the Czech Republic means business was proven by the times measured at the Morocco Rally, which is underway right now. Morocco was the first sharp test for our team. „No way, we didn’t come to race here and win, which is quite clear if you look at the results. We had to test the truck in racing conditions. We evaluate each stage separately, comparing figures obtained in specific situations. Naturally, we’re still tackling technical issues. At the end of the day, it’s still a new special and we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought things would go smoothly from the very start. But all of that are just teething problems that we’re going to work on. All the tests have been according to the plan,“ said the satisfied Mario.
Already in the past our team has been famed for its impossible-is-nothing attitude. When the pilot Markus Bösiger sent his truck to scrap at the Zolder circuit last year, it took our mechanics just one night to transport the team’s exhibition piece to Belgium and convert it into a full-fledged racing special by the next morning. At the end of it all, Bösiger got behind the steering wheel and won. Equally unbelievable „tour de force“ took place during the sharp testing at Rallye du Maroc. The rear axle failed to withstand the pressure and the mechanics had to repair it. However, they did not have all the necessary components with them.“On Saturday at half past nine we put one of our guys on a plane departing from Prague with eighty kilos of heavy load in four bags. Of course we worried whether he would pass the boarding gate because it looked as if he was smuggling weapons. He landed in the morning. While he was boarding the return flight the technology travelled five hundred kilometres by car. In the evening everyone and everything was on the spot. Eventually, it took us twenty-four hours in total to get the components to Morocco!“ expressed her content Klára Kress, the team’s executive manager.
Thanks to the quick action, testing in the northeasternmost corner of the African continent could continue. The new findings will be applied in the development operations in our Židovice technology centre, where we’ve been working hard on a second racing truck. And since MKR has been linked to Renault from the very beginning of its existence, it should be no surprise that even the Dakar specials will have the French car-maker’s logo on them. They are both derived from the Renault’s K-range model series. However, we will not be the racing team, but the development and servicing team this time. The trucks had been constructed for the Dutch Mammoet Rallysport team, which is deeply involved in the great plans that also include the Czech Republic and its success at the January 2015 Dakar. Be patient, the spectacular project will be revealed at the end of the month.
