DAKAR 2024

Eryk Goczal and Oriol Mena outside the Dakar 2024

The 'wonder boy', Eryk Goczal (who has the Spanish Oriol Mena as navigator) is out of the Dakar 2024 due to a technical irregularity in the Taurus of his private team Energylandia.

A composite material clutch has been fitted to the Challenger T3 of the Pole, who led the Dakar with overwhelming success (he had more than an hour ahead of Mitch Guthrie and achieved an impressive fifth place overall in the eternal 48-hour stage) ( carbon), prohibited by the regulations.

The clutch, a point of contention...The stewards, who received a notice from the FIA technical delegate after inspecting the gearbox and clutch of Goczal and Mena's car, have concluded that this last element does not comply with the technical regulations of the race and have decided to disqualify them from Dakar 2024. Likewise, a second team car, that of Michal Goczal, has also suffered the same fate.

The clutch of Taurus number 302 was made of composite material, something that is expressly prohibited by the technical regulations in its article 286-2.3, which lists the elements of the vehicle in which carbon is allowed, where the clutch does not appear.

The Energylandia team, however, considers that another article of the regulation, 286-1.1.1, gives freedom to the clutch mechanism and, therefore, they interpret that the material is also free. However, the commissioners have not accepted this argument, since they consider that this freedom does not include its materials (as stated in the article with which they justify their decision), and they have decreed its elimination.

Alerted by the irregularity of Goczal's vehicle, the rest of the prototypes from the same manufacturer (including that of Cristina Gutiérrez) were also subjected to an exhaustive inspection today by the Dakar technical marshals, but in none of them a similar clutch has been detected. .

Cristina Gutiérrez, second...Goczal's disqualification radically changes the panorama of the category classification. And one of the big beneficiaries is Cristina Gutiérrez, who goes from third to second place... but now she has victory within reach.

The new leader is the American Mitch Guthrie (Taurus), who will start tomorrow for the second week of the Dakar with 24 minutes of difference over the Spanish.

​Reporter: Enrique Naranjo