The winners cheering on the podium!!!

Category “Bikes”

Winners of the category “Cars”

Winners of the category “Trucks”
Christian Scholze (MARCOM Henkel) was there representing Loctite and Terosone brands, official suppliers of the Central Europe Rally and sponsors of winning truck #400 of the team MAN Racing.

The Charlies have finished their job yesterday evening. After securing truck tools and products an early sleep was really necessary after these very busy days. This morning we were there in Veszprem close to the track, once more, to see competitors pushing their vehicles for the last final run. Stay tuned on www.dakaradventure.com for upcoming pictures and video of today´s special and the images of the cheering winners on the podium!

April 26th, 2008
FROM Veszprem, Hungary TO Veszprem

Length of stage
Total 197 km | Special stage 155 km | Connection 11 km

Landscape / Terrain
Plains, changing terrain | Changeful road

Weatherforecast
Partly sunny | Near 18°C | Winds N at 9 to 14 mph
Chance of rain 40%

This is the overall ranking of our sponsored drivers/teams after today:

BIKES

#15 Miran Stanovnik (SVN) KTM 690 Rallye Replica – overall position: nr. 14
#66 Annie Seel (SWE) KTM 525 EXC – overall position: nr. 23
#89 – Daniel Vermeloux (FRA) KTM 525 ETX position nr. 61

CARS

#221 Balazs Szalay (HUN) Opel ANTARA RR – overall position: nr. 14
#231 Eric Van Loon (NDL) VW Buggy TDI – overall position: nr. 52
#235 Eric Bernard (FRA) BMW – overall position nr. 24
#275 Stephan Schott (GER) Mitsubishi Pajero – overall position nr. 44

TRUCKS

#400 Hans Stacey (NDL) MAN TGA – overall position nr.1
#405 Geert Verhoeven (NDL) MAN 18.480 TGA – overall position nr. 7
#409 Franz Echter (GER) MAN 18.285 TGS – overall position nr. 4
#413 Zsolt Darasi (HUN) MAN 18.280 LAK – overall position nr. 11

Every evening after the race, people gather next to the Loctite service point and watch the images of the day A.S.O. produced by filming from helicopters. Watch the summary of the last stage.

Yesterday Dirk and I were there, at the HUMMER service center, watching how the team of mechanics use Loctite products. Every piece of this vehicle is hand made, and each time so impressive to look at and to hear! Watch the pilots prepare and start in this video I took this afternoon at the start of the second leg of 6th Special Stage.

Yes, we made it in time! Another competitor´s team with the Loctite sticker on its vehicle happy that the Charlies could repair in time the damages of a heavy rollover. Eric Van Loon with buggy #231 can now start tomorrow morning for the final leg of the race. Dirk and Joachim just returned the body part to the team, while the last vehicles are coming in and getting ready for the last stage tomorrow morning.

Windy and cold here at the Balaton sea in Hungary. It has been raining all morning, and now a strong wind blows over the bivouac. While Joachim and Dirk are repairing the body of the Buggy the second leg of today’s special is ongoing. The temperature dropped a few degrees in only 30 minutes, and more bikers just came for support.

Quite chilly today here in Veszprem at the 6th day of the Central Europe Rally. I have put together some sequences taken during the last days. Watch yourself!!!

April 25th, 2008
FROM Veszprem, Hungary TO Veszprem

Length of stage
Total 317 km | Special stage 246 km | Road section 107,5 km

Landscape / Terrain
Plains, changing terrain | Sand, tarmac

Weatherforecast
Partly sunny | Near 18°C | Winds WSW at 3 to 5 mph
Chance of rain 50%

Summary of today’s activities of the Loctite Charlies: 23 different reparations on cars and bikes including engine and plastic repair, gasketing, threadlocking, tank repair, windscreen replacement, metal bonding and cylinder housing.  Because of the very short stages, compared to the African Rally Dakar, all vehicles are pushing the engines to the limit.

Very impressive the front grid of Robby Gordon´s HUMMER. Watch what Bob, chief mechanic of Robby´s Team has to say about Loctite and our presence at the Rally Dakar. He particularly like those silver boxes full with our products… and yes! we do give them away for free at the Rally!

This is how the dutch guys (Pieter van Kruijsdijk and Cees Bohnenn) racing with Bowler #273 approached us! Holy ?+#$!! We have glues, no parts! Nevertheless Dirk found a way to get the part from another team, and in 15 minutes the they were reassured because the windscreen was replaced thanks to us and they were able to continue the race this afternoon! As I post this entry they are racing!

We are good! but to fix some things you need a miracle. Watch Annie Seel´s tire after her ride on the highway. The heat melted the mousse and the tire exploded!!!!

Annie used a piece of Pattex Power Tape to write us a message: “Can you fix this?”

Hear from Annie how this happened yesterday during the rally!

April 24th, 2008
FROM Veszprem, Hungary TO Veszprem

Length of stage
Total 317 km | Special stage 246 km | Road section 107,5 km

Landscape / Terrain
Plains, changing terrain | Sand, tarmac

Weatherforecast
Sunny | Near 16°C | Winds N at 6 to 9 mph
Chance of rain 0%

A few impressions from the action scenes I was able to capture today on video and photo at the 4th special stage of the Central Europe Rally. The video was shot today in Dabas (morning) and Veszprecem (afternoon) in Hungary, while the images are of this afternoon. (SL)

Carlo Souza with his VW Touareg jumping like crazy!!!

Robby Gordon´s Hummer today had problems. In the hotel he approached us just a few minutes ago before going to sleep , explaining that the brakes of his Hummer gave up today!!

Sponsored driver Eric Bernard (FRA)with his BMW reached today overall ranking of 36th