The sixth stage of the Dakar Rally started well for Tim and Tom Coronel, but with the finish in sight things took a wrong turn for the twins. 85 kilometers from the finish, the Century CR7 broke down with drained batteries and two broken alternators. What followed was a long night in the desert.
The first stage after the rest day was split into two parts. Stones and rocks were on the menu for the first part, while the dunes took center stage for the second part of the route to Al Duwadimi. Tim and Tom started the longest special stage of this years’ Dakar Rally at a blistering pace. “It was a beautiful stage”, Tom explains. “The windshield got hit by a rock during the first part which meant I couldn’t see a thing, but apart from that we were doing great. In the second part, we got into some nice dunes and we handled them really well. Until we got two warnings that the battery was draining, so we stopped. We couldn’t figure out though what was wrong.”
Broken alternators
The brothers decided to keep going as far as possible. That turned out to be a mere 20 kilometers. “With 85 kilometers to go, the car just completely died”, Tom continues. “That’s when we discovered that both the batteries were completely drained, nothing worked anymore. It turned out that both alternators had failed. We have one alternator on the engine – the primary one – when it fails, it switches to the backup alternator on the gearbox. Both were broken though, that’s unprecedented. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
Tinkering in the dark
Because the assistance truck of Boucou was hit by problems as well, Tim and Tom had no other option than to tinker in a now pitch-dark desert. “We’ve looked everywhere, we even had the entire dash out. After many hours we got the car running again and finally got moving again.”
Because of the long delay, Tim and Tom arrived at the bivouac of Al Duwadimi in the middle of the night, but their rest was short-lived. “We had to head straight to the start of the next stage, so we refueled the car and left again. We haven’t slept and have been in the car all day, but we push on!”
No green light at the start
The boys received a starting pass for the seventh stage at the exit of the bivouac, but the officials at the start of the stage decided otherwise. Despite the starting pass, Tim and Tom didn’t get permission to take part in the seventh stage and received orders to return to the bivouac of Al Duwadimi, which means Tim and Tom take no longer part in the general classification. What remains is a continuation of the rally in the Dakar Experience, the category for competitors who have retired from the rally but are allowed to complete the remaining stages out of competition.
Coronel Dakar Team is supported by: LKQ, MPM, Toolspecial, Optimal, ERU, Roordink Bedrijfswagens, Efulfilment.eu, Mascot Workwear, 4Brands, BS Forklifts, JBL, Keukenwarenhuis, DHG, Serengeti, Hella, Brondool, Chassis Parts, FEBO, MyFMS, Frits Dijk, Apple King, SuperB, P1, Copernica
