Dakar Legends visiting UMS
Today Urban Mobility Systems received a very special visit from two Dakar Legends. Pascal de Baar and Mario Kress came by to have a look at our electric buses.
De Baar is a real Dutch Dakar Legend and drove his first Dakar in 2005 on a Yamaha 450. He gained a lot of rally experience as a motorcrosser, but also as a truck driver. After driving three Dakars on a motorcycle, De Baar switched to a truck in 2009 (The “Silver Bullet”). Soon another switch followed, as De Baar joined Veka MAN Rally Team, followed by a period at Mammoet Rallysport. In 2014 he met the German racing truck manufacturer and MKR team owner, Mario Kress. The meeting between the two, led to a collaboration and the development of the MKR Renault rally trucks. Within four years these Renault trucks were clearly able to compete with the top.
Dakar highlight for De Baar was winning the 10th stage in the Dakar of 2016. That year, he started as a back up for Martin van den Brink (Mammoet Rallysport), but managed to finish in 6th place overall and the first Renault. During the Dakar of 2017 he was allowed to go for his own chances, but things turned out to be different during the rally within the Mammoet team. In the early summer of 2017 De Baar made the switch from Mammoet Rallysport to Riwald Dakar Team. The Renault truck was then sold by MKR to Mammoet Rallysport and since then, we haven’t seen him in the Dakar. But the Dakar Legend is still passionate about the rally and the collaboration with truck manufacturer Kress.
