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Eric Vigouroux and Alex Winocq have won the eighth stage of the FIA, TT Rallye Vodafone by 2minutes, 24seconds. The TOYO TIRES Trophy Truck now moves up to third place overall.

Today's special, some 337,1km was a mix of rocky ground and fast flowing sections giving the Trophy Truck the chance to show what it can really do especially on the rough ground where the tire performance was expected to give them an advantage.

Eric and Alex have pushed the Trophy Truck hard with three marathon rallies one after another. Their car and spare parts availability are now stretched. Eric outlined how the special commenced, "Early on, we kept in touch with the two BMW X3CCs of Campos and Novitskiy. We caught up to the rear of the Portuguese driver (Campos), whose pace had dropped and were able to pass him. Maintaining the same pace, we caught Novitskiy and we rolled together for another fifty miles, fighting like cat and dog.”

Eric explained how the terrain affected the special, “It was really nice, because with the ground changing from stony to fast, the opportunities between our two cars were balanced.” Eric continued “Then we came upon a great salt lake, where we knew the peak speed of the BMW gave it the advantage. But the stage was far from over, we did not give up, and it paid off when Novitskiy’s pace dropped near the end allowing us to catch up to almost within the two minutes that separated our starts."

Tomorrow's special is another marathon with 310,8km of timed stage. With a mix of terrain to test the driving skills and plenty of opportunity to test the navigation skills,  it will be a fascinating penultimate stage.