Mitchel van den Brink’s quest for a third consecutive Morocco Desert Challenge victory got off to a blazing start on Saturday as he set the fastest time for SSVs.

His Can-Am Maverick R led the way with a time of 1:03:27, 1:52 faster than the Arcane T3 of Lex Peters and two more seconds ahead of Erik Wevers’ Taurus T3 Max. It was a strong rebound after finishing third in an untimed Prologue, where he hit a rock and suffered a flat; with just one spare remaining, he had to “walk on eggshells a bit” to the finish.

Fellow Maverick R and race favorite Erik Van Loon finished Stage #1 second to last in SSV, over 43 minutes behind van den Brink with a time of 1:45:06. The uncharacteristically poor finish was not due to pace, however; in fact, he had been leading until his car ran out of fuel.

“The driving went very well. Working with Wouter (Rosegaar) was also great and the car is great, so we’re holding on to that,” commented Van Loon. “It is very unfortunate that the car stopped and we lost a lot of time because of that. The rally is still long, so we’re going to see what is still possible.”

André Thewessen was at the bottom of the order for SSVs, though also because of misfortune as a shock absorber broke off just ten kilometers into the stage. ATS Rally came up with a workaround by using a tie rod as a substitute for the shock, though it meant Thewessen had to drive very slowly to avoid damage.

Arnau Lledó narrowly held off Amaury Baratin for the bike win, beating his fellow KTM rider by just three seconds.

Century Racing is well represented at Morocco with eight cars entered, though this also means the manufacturer has both very high highs and very low lows. In Saturday’s case, Michiel Becx was the fastest car as he cleared Mike van Eikeren by 1:22 despite a one-minute penalty, while colleague Dario de Lorenzo suffered a broken driveshaft on his CR6 that relegated him to 20th.

The six-wheeled Jules II Proto of Pieter Peerlings was among the stage retirements.

Stage #1 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Bike	103	Arnau Lledó	Pedregà Team	1:17:07
SSV	201	Mitchel van den Brink	Eurol Rally Sport	1:01:35
Car	308	Michiel Becx	Shiver Offroad	58:30
Truck	505	Kay Huzink	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team	1:01:48

Featured image credit: MMphoto