Watch Dakar Truck Teams Help Recover Two Side-by-Side Racers From Insane Flash Floods

The Dakar Rally is on its third continent since the 2000s, but the hallmark of the rally raid event remains running through untamed deserts at very high speeds. That comes with all sorts of risks, but none more dramatic than what happens when a desert suddenly sees a torrential downpour. For two Red Bull-backed side-by-side racing teams running in the third day of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday, the floodwaters from one such storm were a worst-case scenario.

By the time the clip from Red Bull Rally starts, both the No.

300 and No.

302 buggy teams of drivers Francisco Lopez Contardo and Cristina Gutierrez Herrero were stuck in the middle of what had already become a raging river. The lightweight side-by-sides are easily moved by the floodwaters, which continue to be pushed away by currents even as co-drivers climb out for the river banks with winches in hand. In a situation this dire, buggies like these would eventually be flushed away without fairly serious recovery help.

Fortunately, the Dakar Rally still has a class for racing trucks. The No.

502 and No.

508 truck teams stopped to help the stranded buggies, eventually recovering each buggy from the stream with a winch and a serious tow. According to the rally's official highlights from the stage, the two buggies each lost an hour of racing time in the recovery process.

The trucks, however, were not held up by the stream at all; after recovering both stuck buggies and resolving a very scary situation, the No.

502 truck is seen effortlessly fording the river and continuing on as if nothing ever happened. Despite Tuesday's delay, the No.

302 and No.

300 teams are currently in fourth and fifth in their class, respectively. Both are more than 2 hours behind the leaders after five stages of the Dakar Rally, which started on Sunday and ends on January 15.

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