Elisabete Jacinto and OLEOBAN® team rose today, for the fifth time in seven participations, to the podium of the category truck of the Africa Eco Race. The Portuguese completed the 24 timed kilometers of the journey of consecration of this event, which takes place along the banks of the Lac Rose, in fifth place of the trucks. Since this selective sector no longer enters the final classification the Portuguese trio assures, after completing 12 stages and made about 6000 kilometers, the third position of the T4 and the 14th of the joint table auto / truck.
After completing in Dakar, the special that is held in one of the most famous scenarios of the great competitions of off-road, Elisabete Jacinto was happy to having reached the end: « The special today is always very fun. But a funny situation happened that still tore us some laughter at the end. We left next to the other trucks and, as usual, I had a good start. However, at some point we decided to go around a puddle of mud and ironically we got sunk. This special is so short that we cannot afford to waste time. Fortunately, the MAN that came behind us pulled us and helped us to get out. Above all we are very pleased to reach the end of our seventh presence in this great race, « said the Portuguese pilot.
The OLEOBAN team celebrated another podium in the Africa RaceThe 2016 edition of this African marathon was considered one of the hardest in recent years particularly when the rally entered in Mauritania. It is also in these tracks where the Portuguese trio formed by Elisabete Jacinto, José Marques and Marco Cochinho tends to have greater difficulties due to the higher weight and lower power of the MAN TGS of competition. Still, the OLEOBAN® team managed to overcome all obstacles in an effective way maintaining a consistent pace that allowed them to show their competitiveness: at the fourth stage they came in second among the trucks; in round eight achieved the seventh position of the joint table auto / truck; in the ninth finished second among the T4, ahead of the two trucks of KAMAZ team and on the penultimate day of the race they just spent another six seconds than the Czech Tomas Tomecek to complete the selective sector on a journey in which they secured the final podium.
For Elisabete Jacinto, the balance of this Africa Race is obviously positive, « this rally was undoubtedly one of the toughest I’ve ever done. So we are very happy to reach the finish line in the third place among the trucks and in the 14th overall position. I’m as happy as if I had won the race. We had several problems throughout the race, but its how we deal with adversity that dictates our place in the final standings. Marco was the hero of this rally. He did much of the work alone and was undoubtedly a great professional. My navigator José Marques was also excellent and did a magnificent job. The team gained new impetus in this race and we are all to be congratulated » said Elisabete Jacinto.
The absolute winner of this Africa Eco Race 2016 was the Kazakh Kanat Shagirov, driving a Toyota. With regard to the T4 category, in the first place was the pilot of the official team KAMAZ, Anton Shibalov, unchallenged leader since the start of the race, while Tomas Tomecek reached second place after having dominated the race in the steps that were disputed in Mauritania.
Anabela Marthino,