Juruj Ulrich and Daniela Ulrichova stood in the blazing heat of the Liwa desert watching their life go up in flames. The aftermath was featured on the sport front page on Thursday, April 2, 2015.
The Slovakian couple, competing in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for the first time, were about five kilometres into Monday’s second stage when their Ford Raptor combusted.
By the time the blaze was brought under control, the car could not be salvaged. Inside were passports, driving licences, phones, a tablet, money, cards and a laptop.
Click here to read full report from Gary Meenaghan
Such is the inherent danger of motorsports, insurance for racing vehicles is neither widely available nor financially viable. Ulrich and Ulrichova were, like the vast majority of teams who compete in cross country endurance, competing without indemnity.
“It is very difficult to discuss,” Ulrichova said Wednesday at the event’s bivouac, alongside husband Juruj and daughter Sandra. “One minute we were in the car, then we saw flames, and two or three minutes later they were so intense it was pointless even trying to fight.
“The hardest thing is that we have lost everything – even the little elephant that we had been carrying with us for luck for the past 10 years.”
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