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The Dakar Rally has been tough on race vehicles this year. Earlier this week American team Bryce Menzies and Peter Mortensen were taken out of the rally when their X-Raid John Cooper Works MINI Buggy off road rig somersaulted over a sand dune. This time the Dakar race team of Antanas Juknevičius and Darius Vaiciulis finished Stage 4 of the Dakar Rally with only their front tires.
Juknevičius and Vaiciulis are racing in the Dakar with a Toyota Hilux Overdrive OTB powered by a 5.0-liter V8 engine matted to a six-speed sequential gearbox. You can check out a 360 virtual tour of the Helix on the teams site. Driving the No 321 Toyota Hilux the Lithuanian duo finished the last 40 kilometers (25 miles) with only their front tires remaining. The rears were blown out by the rough desert terrain of the Dakar Rally.
“For more than 10 years in Dakar, but for the first time in the finish I’m on two wheels. We threw a truck ahead of us and how we hung – we left three tires at once, then two more. Thank you very much to Saulius, because he stopped, shared his spare wheels. We spied on two more wheels and we were waiting to wait for help, but we decided that we had to open it to the finish. It’s a good result as well as two wheels.” said Juknevičius via the Dakaras Team site. (translated with Google Translate)
Deciding to push forward with only the front tires ended up being a good decision because they ended up finishing 32nd for the stage.
Both Juknevičius and Vaiciulis were happy to show off their front tire finish when they got back to the Dakar service area.
The Dakar Rally runs Jan. 6-20 there are plenty of stages are left. It will be interesting to see what other damage the Dakar will take upon race vehicles.
