The Morocco Desert Challenge’s bivouac in Smara woke up to strong winds and sand blowing everywhere. Had Martin van den Brink been able to squeeze just enough juice out of his truck, the wind would’ve also blown the stage win out of his hands.

Van den Brink’s IVECO Torpedo battled with Kay Huzink’s Renault C460 for the Truck stage win on Wednesday. The former was somewhat slowed by the right front brake, which had leaked in Stage #4 and been repaired using a makeshift rubber piece but consequently caused the Torpedo to brake slightly to the left.

By the end, Huzink narrowly won by just 42 seconds on van den Brink. The margin was fluffed up to 2:42 because of a time penalty on van den Brink afterward, though it didn’t dampen the mood in the Eurol Rally Sport camp.

“We had a great day,” said van den Brink. “After 375 kilometers, we finished 42 seconds behind Kay. It was a great battle.”

If not for the penalty, Huzink had a few missteps that probably would have swayed the win in van den Brink’s favor. All five Truck stage wins so far have been within the Huzink family, with Kay notching three and Gert holding two. The latter finished Stage #5 in third, seven minutes behind his cousin.

Gert remains the overall class leader with 23:37 on Kay, while van den Brink is 56 minutes back.

“We had a good start until we lost the right track at kilometer 25 which cost us between 5 and 10 minutes. Later, we were able to quickly get back on course thanks to Joël (Ebbers) finding the correct path,” Huzink recalled. “Later on, we had a lot of dust in the fesh-fesh but still managed to push hard all the way to the finish.”

While van den Brink came up short, his son Mitchel continues to lead the SSV overall with his third stage victory. He cleared Tuesday winner Lex Peters by two minutes and Erik Van Loon by three, the latter also the victim of a one-minute penalty.

Peters’ Arcane T3 is faster than the younger van den Brink’s Can-Am Maverick T4, which allowed him to close the gap on the faster sections before the latter pulled away in the more technical sectors. While the 375-kilometer course was not as wide as Stage #4’s, there were fewer twisty sections than expected and Van Loon noted he was once again driving flat out for most of the day.

“We basically rode in others’ dust all day. That makes it hard to find your rhythm and attack,” Van Loon explained.

Simon Vitse’s MD Optimus was the only competitor to set a time below four hours en route to his fourth consecutive stage win for Cars. He moves from seventh to fifth in the overall, almost 43 minutes behind Wednesday runner-up Lionel Baud.

Stage #5 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Bike	101	Amaury Baratin	Horizon Moto 95	4:49:56
SSV	201	Mitchel van den Brink	Eurol Rally Sport	4:20:17
Car	303	Simon Vitse	MD Rallye Sport	3:59:20
Truck	505	Kay Huzink	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team	4:24:54

Leaders after Stage #5

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Bike	107	Nicolas Horeaux	Nomade Racing	23:04:11
SSV	201	Mitchel van den Brink	Eurol Rally Sport	19:53:48
Car	306	Lionel Baud	X-raid Mini JCW Team	19:13:05
Truck	502	Gert Huzink	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team	20:17:59

Featured image credit: Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team