The Africa Eco Race started this Tuesday and, in the cars category, the T4 and T3 dominated between Nador and Boudnib. Carlos Vento was the fastest, with the Portuguese duo Rui/Bernardo Oliveira in second place.
On board an Old Friends Rally Team BRP Can-Am, Vento completed the 173.56km timed stage in 1h58m17s to surpass his teammate Rui Oliveira – navigated by Bernardo Oliveira – by 3m11s. Both also won in their respective categories, T4 and T3. In third place was Heatcliff Zingraf (Casteu Trophy/Can-Am).
Fourth place went to Frédéric Henricy (AT4R/Polaris), who prevailed among the SSVs, while newcomer Gautier Paulin (Apache) finished fifth and second among the T3s, 4m15s behind Vento. In the T1 category, the Feryn Dakar Team was the strongest, with Koen Wauters in sixth place and Pascal Feryn in seventh place in their Toyotas. The Belgians were separated by 35 seconds.
In the truck race, whose classification is combined with that of the cars, SSVs, T3s, and T4s, the strongest was Tomas Tomecek (Promet Czechoslovak Group Team/Tatra). The Czech surpassed Cédric Feryn (Feryn Dakar Team/GINAF) by 2m33s. Aad van Velsen (Van Velsen Rally Sport/Scania) finished third among the “heavyweights”.
Top 15 of the first stage and overall:
