After a bizarre night of misfortune, Tim and Tom Coronel were forced to withdraw from the Dakar Rally, unable to start in stage 7. However, they are not heading home just yet; the duo will continue their adventure in the so-called Dakar Experience, where teams participate outside of competition.
“Only 82 kilometers left.” And: “Why us?” Tom Coronel’s words from one of the videos shot in a dark desert still echo. He was visibly and audibly frustrated, in the middle of the night, after experiencing significant electronic issues with the Century C7. The vehicle gave up during the sixth stage, and hours of repair work by the duo initially seemed to be in vain. However, they eventually managed to fix the problem themselves. They were ready to head to the bivouac and the seventh stage. However, they were informed by the organization that they were not allowed to start.
In a press release, the brothers revealed that they had started the longest special stage of this Dakar Rally, a 605-kilometer race, with great enthusiasm. However, in the second part of this stage, they encountered problems with their vehicle. Tom Coronel said, “We were really going at a good speed, until we received two alarms that the batteries were draining. We stopped, but we couldn’t figure out what was wrong.”
‘Never Experienced Before’
What was the issue? A defect in both batteries, which was later found to be due to a broken dynamo. “We have one on the engine – the main dynamo – and if that breaks, it switches to the backup dynamo on the gearbox. But both were broken. That’s truly unprecedented, I’ve never experienced that before,” said the team.
After hours of tinkering, they managed to get things working again. This allowed the brothers to finish the sixth stage with a sense of accomplishment. However, without any sleep, they had to immediately proceed to the start of the seventh stage. The Coronel brothers already had a start card for this, but the officials decided not to grant permission regardless. This marks the end of Team Coronel’s competition in the Dakar Rally standings.
What remains is a continuation of the rally in the so-called Dakar Experience, a category for participants who are out of the rally but are still allowed to complete the remaining stages outside of the competition. “We will show what we’re made of in that,” concludes a determined Tom Coronel on Instagram.
