At a time when it is only lacking to fulfil the mythical journey of Lac Rose, the Portuguese pilot Elisabete Jacinto held today the last scoring stage for the classification of the Africa Eco Race 2015. OLEOBAN® team reached the fourth place among trucks in a journey that linked Toueila, in Mauritania, to St. Louis, in Senegal with a difference of only 20 seconds for the Czech Tomas Tomecek who was third among the T4. In this 11th special, which featured 202 timed kilometres, the Portuguese formation spent 2h50m42s to fulfil the selective sector. This result allowed them to finish in the eighth place in the joint auto/truck table.
The trio composed of the pilot Elisabete Jacinto, the co-pilot Jose Marques and the mechanic Marco Cochinho finished this Africa Eco Race in the fourth place overall among trucks and placed on the 11th position of the absolute table. Heavily penalized by a major mechanical problem on the fourth day of the race, the Portuguese managed to overcome difficulties and showed all their competitiveness along the 11 stages that made up this rally.
In Saint Louis, Elisabete Jacinto was pleased with her performance in the last stage of the race: “today all went quite well. Although it wasn’t an easy special we did everything without problems. On the way we found difficult dunes with very soft sand, but with attention and rigor we overcame them without delay. The last part was more meandering and we had to make a huge effort to pass between herbs. But, it all ran well and we are very pleased to have completed another Africa Race. I have to congratulate my co-pilot José Marques that, in addition of being an excellent professional, completed his hundredth rally” said Elisabete Jacinto.
This Africa Eco Race was quite tricky for all competitors, particularly when the caravan entered the routes of Mauritania. The hardness of the race led to a high number of dropouts. One of them was the Hungarian Miklos Kovacs, who second among trucks at last year’s edition, and the French Jacques Loomans one of the favourites to win in the car category.
In classifying terms, the truck category was won by the Russian Anton Shibalov, the pilot of the KAMAZ team, who was also second in the auto/truck table. The winner of this race was the Frenchman Jean Antoine Sabatier (Bugga One).
The seventh edition of the Africa Eco Race 2015 ends tomorrow in Dakar, with the mythical special to be held at Lake Rose. This last selective sector no longer counts for the final classification, but this day is always very exciting. The teams run in groups of four and along the magnificent Lac Rose they fulfil the last 24 timed kilometres of this great competition.
