Mooi verhaal over Annie, de echte Dakar spirit, nooit opgeven:
A Genuine Dakar rally “the Annie style”. Date 13th…
- The competition is over, but the adventure begins. What a drama! At 170 km after wp 5 the engine just stopped. The gasket box had got loose and all oil had run out. And the water had evaporated from the hot engine. “So, that’s it, end of rally.” She lay down in the shadow, when Merkit Kemal stopped and told her to make a try. He took her to some spectators who had cross bikes. They had oil and followed her back to her bike. Annie put the gasket back and secured it with wire ties. When the engine had cooled it could rotate, but did not start, not by kicking and not by towing. Annie figured that because the engine had run hot without oil and water, maybe the valves got stuck, so she adjusted them. And it started! The endgine does not work very good and the clutch is broken again, but she was on her way. She made some more fixing on the gasket and filled up oil and water at a gas station. Then went on to the the last section of this stage, about 150 km.
The engine has run quite good, Annie rode at only 50-90 km/h to keep the temperature down. Stopped at the last cp 20 km from finish because of overheated engine, filled up oil and waited for cooling. She reached finish as the last biker past midnight, over 15 hours on the way.
The stage was shortened by 90 km to 530 km (622 km) because of heavy rain that had destroyed the tracks.
