Objective complete for PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO in Dakar Rally’s debut in the Middle East

Tuesday 21st January 2020

After 12 days of competition, 5,000 timed kilometres of racing and more than 50 hours on full throttle, Team De Rooy IVECO has completed the Dakar Rally 2020.

This year the team raced without Gerard de Rooy in the line-up due to a back injury – although the Dutchman stayed in Saudi Arabia for the length of the rally to help guide the crews.

“The performance of the team was good,” said team manager Gerard de Rooy. “The only thing that changed from the previous years is that the drivers had a little less experience, but all of them were able to solve difficulties in the right way. The idea is not to make any changes, but to train and polish some details.”

The two-time winner of the Dakar Rally highlighted the strong performance from Janus van Kasteren, who gave PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO its best position with a sixth place finish in the overall standings in his #505 Powerstar. The Dutchman managed a stage podium in the early part of the competition and was able to get into the Top 10 in half of the specials.

Together with Van Kasteren, the #522 Powerstar of Vick Versteijnen was the chosen one to fight ahead and assist his teammate in case of trouble. But complications appeared for Versteijnen in stage four, when a mechanical issue prevented him from starting and forced him to retire. He could still continue under the new “Dakar Experience” rules, but his times only counted for stages and not for the overall classification. He got into the Top 10 in stages five and seven, as he switched his objective to help Van Kasteren.

New into the racing seat for PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO this year were Albert Llovera and Michiel Becx. Llovera competed with an adapted cockpit following a skiing accident years ago and performed well, finishing 10 of the 12 stages amongst the top 20 trucks of the race. The Andorran scored his best result in his Dakar career with a 15th place overall. Becx finished just behind Llovera in 16th position, completing the results for PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO in Saudi Arabia.

Attention now shifts to the Dakar in 2021, which will once again take place in the Middle East. PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO will start its preparation with a full evaluation of the team’s performance and results, combined with the newly acquired experience of the terrain after two weeks of intense competition in Saudi Arabia.

OVERALL STANDINGS

1. Andrey Karginov (Kamaz) 46h33m36s
2. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) + 42m26s
3. Siarhei Viazovich (Maz) + 2h04m42s
4. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) + 2h55m28s
5. Martin Macik (IVECO) + 3h28m08s

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6. JANUS VAN KASTEREN (PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO) + 4h26m57s
7. ALBERT LLOVERA (PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO) + 12h41m06s
8. MICHIEL BECX (PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO) + 14h39m57s

— VICK VERSTEIJNEN (PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO)