The second stage of the Rallye du Maroc 2025 world championship did not go quite as expected for the Slovak crew of Martin Benko – Marek Sýkora. The connecting rod was broken.
The two hundred and thirteenth kilometer of the second stage of the Rallye du Maroc 2025 event threw the plans of the only Slovak crew of the Taurus T3 Max vehicle in the composition of Martin Benko – Marek Sýkora into disarray, when a cracked connecting rod of the engine slowed them down in their efforts. Of course, you can’t move further without an engine, so they were transferred to the service with the help of the organizer. However, nothing is lost yet, a second engine is ready in the bivouac, along with mechanics who will have to start the night shift tonight.
“Everything was great. The route of today’s stage was challenging, containing dune sections as well as rocky plains, but we managed to handle everything without any problems. These only occurred in the Er Cheba desert, where, thanks to Marek’s excellent navigation experience, we managed to overtake about twenty stuck cars in the dunes. Orientation in the largest Moroccan dunes according to the roadbook is key and a single mistake means an hour’s loss. Several stars from the Ultimate category managed to do that today. We went exactly according to the roadbook and didn’t get stuck. We passed almost all the dunes, unfortunately about a kilometer before the end there was a sudden blow from the engine and, as the saying goes, “the connecting rod gave us a hand”. Of course, with such a damaged engine, we couldn’t continue any further, so we had to arrange towing to the bivouac. Now the mechanics will change the engine and in the morning we will continue with the appropriate penalty,” Martin Benko described the situation.
Such situations commonly occur in long-distance competitions and, as Martin just explained, the Slovaks will not be absent at the start of the third stage of the Rallye du Maroc 2025. Of course, we will inform you again about how they will do in the further course of the competition.