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Four crews competing in the car class also sat on a plane: Benediktas Vanags and Filipe Palmeir’s Inbank Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics, and Edvinas Juškauskas and Aisvydas Paliukėnas ‘Heston Airlines Team Pitlane, and Antanas Juknevičius and Darius Vaičiulis’ Kredeo, and Agroroda. scored by Paulo Fiuza. Arūnas Gelažninkas, representative of the Zigmas Dakar team, which will compete in the solo motorcycle class this year, as well as Laisvydas Kancius, who will compete in the motorcycle class, also left. Another Lithuanian crew, Gintas Petraus, with last-minute co-driver José Marques, Petrus Kombucha Team, departed for Jeddah a day earlier, with a flight organized by the Dakar Rally organizers.
Although the teams were happy, there were moments before the start when everyone was in the dark: it was unclear if the Dakar Rally would take place, as Saudi Arabia announced the closure of its borders and a ban on all international flights. In this way, the country has announced that it will try to protect itself from a highly contagious strain of coronavirus that has begun to spread in Great Britain. After learning that planned flights were being canceled, the Lithuanians did not give up: they organized a plane from a private company, which, according to the Saudi government, will be accepted in the country.
Mandatory inspection procedures have started before leaving Lithuania. This year, Saudi Arabia aims to create a medically safe bubble that the coronavirus should not enter. To do this, all participants in the Dakar Rally had to carry out the coronavirus tests no more than 72 hours before the flight to Saudi Arabia. The latter was unsuccessful for some teams. Here, V. Damage Agrorodeo had to look for two mechanics, because of the three who had to work on the rally, two, as it turned out, were infected with COVID-19. G. Petras had to urgently search for a new copilot, because Povilas Valaitis, who was supposed to take the place of the copilot this year, was also infected. Also, Mindaugas Plukys, one of the iGo2Dakar team members, will not participate in the Dakar Rally.
However, all the teams solved the problems in a jiffy, so the planned starts in the rally will be carried out. The Dakar Rally is scheduled to start on January 3, but on January 2. A prologue awaits, a 10 km long track that all Dakar Rally participants will have to cover.
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