It was hard work for The Beast in the third stage of the Dakar 2021. And so also for Tim and Tom Coronel. In the 403 km loop at Wadi Ad-Dawasir, they encountered a particularly varied landscape, which demanded the utmost from man and machine. “We moan sometimes, but this is what we come for,” said Tom. “This is the real thing.”

For Tim and Tom it was, as they say themselves, “a great day,” but they encountered a lot of misery along the way. Maurik van den Heuvel’s truck lying upside down in a dune pan, Bernhard ten Brinke’s Toyota on its side after rolling over. Not things that make you happy, especially if you have a long way to go. “We also had two warnings ourselves,” said Tim. “The dunes were really big boys, where you had to kick really hard to get to the top. And on the other side again super steep down. Those getting off were really intense. A little late and you will be launched. We landed on the nose twice. Luckily it went well, but after that I drove a little more diagonally upwards. The trucks can’t, but we can. It is unnatural, because you have to look to the side to have an overview instead of ahead. ”

Other pieces were very fast, but also very mean. “Navigating was difficult, and the speed made it even more difficult,” said Tom. “I made a small mistake, but it didn’t have much of an impact. It doesn’t matter, because we also drive for the story. We have a cool car, we built it ourselves, but we can’t compete with it for the competition. When we do our thing, we compete nicely in the subtop, but we make it at speed – while today we hit the 160 a few times, but then The Beast bounces in all directions. It would be nice to compete for the top, for the competition, with a cool car. Then we have to stop filming on the road and stuff, but I believe that with our experience we could do well for the top 10, 15. ”

For now, the top 20 remains the goal. With the 33rd place in the stage, 57 minutes behind day winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, Tim and Tom were not dissatisfied. “We are still driving”, Tim laughed. “Not everyone can say that. It was a beautiful day. We are content. ”