Adam Malysz’s 2012 Dakar Rally continues as the Polish ski-jumper turned endurance rider travels through South America. Adam tells us about going back to his roots by getting his Mitsubishi to fly through the air…
It was a real taste of the Dakar for us on the fifth stage today because the car ended up sitting on its roof during the race. For this reason, I think Fiambala is going to stay in my mind for a long time. The accident didn’t happen in the dunes where we had been warned to take it easy but just on the fringes of the desert.
Just after our crash, lots of local people appeared who were watching the race but unluckily for us none of them had a car with them. We tried to push the car back onto its wheels by hand but that was impossible. After a little while, a race fan arrived in a pick-up truck and he gave us a tow to a place where we could flip our car back onto its wheels.
When the car flew up in the air and we landed upside down, we were worried that our race was over. To be honest, I thought I had left flying through the air behind me when I retired from ski-jumping!
Once we had flipped the car around, however, I was happy with how things went and how we coped with racing through the dunes.
We definitely tested the strength of our Mitsubishi Pajero and the car is hardly scratched, even though we sat it on its roof. More important than any superficial damage to the car is the engine and that has served us very well so far. The car has brought us to the end of every stage and now we have two days without racing to look under the hood. To be honest, I don’t think we’ll be very busy with the car because things have gone so well. This is a car that has won the Dakar before and has been tested extensively in these kind of conditions.
When I was ski-jumping, I managed to maintain a high level of performance because of the experience I had collected over the years. Here at the Dakar, I’m a novice starting from the beginning. I’m really happy to still be in the race and I’m more determined than ever to get the car to Peru.
Adam and his co-pilot Rafal Marton will now continue their 2012 Dakar Rally in Chile. Follow their progress on redbull.com
Want more?
- Crunch the Dakar Rally's vital stats
- Redbull.com's 2012 event page
- Dakar 2012: Stage 4 Video Highlights
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