Unlucky Klein: “I had to stop and remove the tank"

The fourth stage of the Dakar 2023 wasn’t a happy moment for Mason Klein. The 21-year-old American rider seemed to be heading towards a win in the second stage until a problem with the fuel pump made him lose precious minutes, relegating him to an 11th place, after Nacho Cornejo assisted an injured Joaquim Rodrigues.

“The stage was really nice, everything was going really well. I got to open a good amount, so that was really nice. I got some bonus time, which is probably going to really help me, because after about 400 km my fuel pump went out. I had to stop, take the tank off and pour it in the back. Then I couldn’t get the skid plate bolt back in. I was getting very stressed,” Mason Klein said when interviewed for the official Dakar website.

A misadventure that pushed Mason back to 6th place in the overall rankings, at 10’05” from the leader Daniel Sanders. “It’s pretty disappointing because the day was going so well, but at least we made it here. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll try and make up some time again, I guess. It’s pretty hard. You can’t really make up time, you know? You just lose it,” he  admitted. “I have a bunch of tools with me, so I basically ran out in the dunes, got my seat off, took out the tools, dropped it the ground, undid a couple of clips, undid three bolts, then I poured it back in. It didn’t go that smoothly though, because I couldn’t make the bike stand up until I had some gas in the tank again, so the whole time I had to balance the bike while taking everything off. You can’t get the skid plate off when it’s just laying on the ground. It’s just difficult. It took too long.”