It certainly didn’t go by itself, but Tim and Tom Coronel can tick off the Dakar Rally 2023. Because of the heap of penalty time they received after the somersault in stage 7, the standings were of no meaning anymore but as far as the brothers are concerned, this Dakar counts double. “This Dakar was tougher than in years.”
They rode every meter and finished every day. Only it turned out that it was not allowed to be towed on public roads on three wheels. Tim and Tom Coronel got so much penalty time for that that they dropped to the bottom of the ranking. Tom is still a little sick of it at the finish of the last stage, in which they finished thirtieth. “I like the competition and the performance and we were doing very good,” he says. “We were around 15th place and the two days of misery we had after the rollover might have cost us time, but we were never in any major trouble and the car performed well.”
The eighth stage was full of the consequential damage from the rollover and on the rest day the engine had to be replaced, resulting in even more penalty time. “When you out of contention, you just go for the finish,” said Tom. “The fact that we have achieved this is a great milestone. If you take a good look and see how many cars and trucks are still running, but out of competition, you understand what a tough Dakar this has been.”
After the rest day, Tim and Tom went into survival mode, as Tim calls it. “Then only finishing counts. I’m glad we were able to do that. We have hardly had any problems with the car and the potential is just there. The last days were also super beautiful, with very special landscapes.” “We have seen beautiful things and have been seriously thrown in at the deep end,” adds Tom. “And it was another very nice adventure with my brother.”
