After 14 tough stages of dust, gravel, sand and mud, adding up to 4500 km of timed specials, Dutch privateer driver Gerard de Rooy, powered by an Iveco engine, crossed the Dakar Rally 2009 finish in Buenos Aires on Sunday with his feet firmly on the last step of the podium.

After 14 tough stages of dust, gravel, sand and mud, adding up to 4500 km of timed specials, Dutch privateer driver Gerard de Rooy, powered by an Iveco engine, crossed the Dakar Rally 2009 finish in Buenos Aires on Sunday with his feet firmly on the last step of the podium.

Although he finished in a solid third position, in the process yielding just one hour to the leading Kamaz factory drivers Kabirov and Chagin, de Rooy had been the early star of the Dakar Rally 2009, winning two of the first four stages to lead the truck category during the opening days in his Ginaf truck, powered by an Iveco Cursor 13 engine. De Rooy was driving essentially an Iveco Trakker; however due to homologation problems the team had to change the cab of his kit truck for one supplied by GINAF, a Dutch manufacturer of special transport vehicles. The engine remained the powerful Cursor unit though.

It went wrong for De Rooy on the muddy sixth stage when the Dutchman got stuck and dropped down to third place, loosing 25 minutes and his overall lead to the two highly fancied Russian Kamaz factory drivers. From then on though he was able to maintain his position comfortably and step onto the podium in Buenos Aires with a massive five and three quarter hours advantage over the next competitor.

This was the first time the Dakar Rally has ever left the deserts of Africa, instability on that continent meaning that the whole show was shipped to Latin America as the organisers chose a route that took the crews through Argentina and Chile. Kabirov and Chagin, the team mates virtually inseparable at the finish line, set a new record on the world’s toughest cross country rally as they finished with a total time of less than 50 hours, making it the fastest Dakar Rally ever. No other truck team could keep pace with the Kamaz duo and de Rooy, the latter scoring three stage victories and being the only driver who constantly finished in the top three. In contrast to the Ginaf factory team which was relying on an 18 litre Caterpillar engine, Team de Rooy preferred to use Iveco's smaller but very powerful Cursor13 and it proved to be the wisest choice. In the end 52 of the 81 competing trucks reached the finish line. Title defender Stacey, driving a factory MAN factory truck, never could make it into the top spot and he withdrew during stage six after getting stuck in muddy terrain.

Dakar Rally 2009, final overall standings, truck category: 1 Firdaus Kabirov (Kamaz) 49:35; 2 Vladimir Chagin (Kamaz) +00:03; 3 Gerard de Rooy (Ginaf-Iveco) +01:00; 4 Ilgizar Mardeev (Kamaz) +06:43; 5 Franz Echter (MAN) +07:20; 6 André de Azevedo (Tatra) +09:31; 7 Pep Vila (Mercedes) +16:07; 8 Wuf van Ginkel (Ginaf-CAT) +16:30; 9 Jordi Juvanteny (MAN 6x6) +19:54; 10 Zoltan Szaller (MAN) +20:27; selected finishers: 17 Luisa Trucco (Iveco Eurocargo) +32:34.