16 January, Belen
To the start of 10th stage of Dakar 30 trucks from 44, that started on 6 January in Lima, stay in the race. Not a bad statistics, considering that in other categories the percentage of left vehicles is higher. From 92 cars applied to the rally, only 54 started stage Salta – Belen, from 139 motorbikes – 92, from 49 quads – 36.
Belen place, where today Dakar crews headed from Salta, is situated in the north-west Argentinean province Catamarca known for its dry and hot climate. The rally contestants had to pass two speed sections 243 and 129 km in length separated by 103-km neutralization zone, crossing the assistance route. By the way, in neutralization zone it was allowed to do repair with the help of assistance. Also it was allowed to organize the service point on 138 km of the first special. In this place the “sport” route crossed asphalt, on which assistance teams went to Belen. But stops and time losses in this point were included into the results of contestants and therefore pit-stops in this part of the race route were highly unwanted for anyone.
These places are known for the race contestants – driving on dried-out river-beds and impassibility, dry vegetation, that punctures tires, a lot of tough sands, fesh-fesh. Some river-beds were wet after rains and were like mug traps for contestants. Moreover the race organizers used variety of local landscape in order to create traps of another kind – navigation.
Catamarca is traditionally unfortunate region for KAMAZ-master. There two years ago Eduard Nikolaev’s truck fell on its side and Mardeev’s crew was stuck in the sand. Today’s stage did not become an exception – the breakdown of front reduction unit on Nikolaev’s truck, Airat Mardeev’s loss of time for a wheel change and fire of Anton Shibalov’s truck - that is an incomplete list of today’s misfortune.
Almost from the very start of the special fans were worried by monitoring the timing of Eduard Nikolaev on the special section. The breakdown of the front axle reduction unit, punctures of two wheels on the first half of the route and driving out of a dried-up river-bed in the second part of the stage – all that resulted in time loss of approximately twenty minutes.
Airat Mardeev’s crew punctured front left wheel. Its change in an uncomfortable place took them 17 minutes. Two generators that broke down one by one also did not “contribute” to a good speed of the crew on the route. The crew had to switch off lights and fans in the cab. Vladimir Chagin said that he knew from his own experience what it was like to go in such a heat without fans, with salty sweat pouring into your eyes. It is a terrible challenge. But for these problems Mardeev could greatly improve his position in the general standings, moreover that the Czech Martin Macik lost on today’s stage about 40 minutes. But the third position after 10th stage was taken by stable and fast Belorussian Siarhei Viazovich (MAZ), contesting with crews of Airat Mardeev and Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) for the right to be in top-3.
Federico Villagra, the main rival of Eduard Nikolaev, keeping the lead in the general standings, already in Tupiza regretted cancellation of stage Tupiza-Salta. The Argentinean tries to use every special to cut the gap from the Russian. “ For me it will be easier to do in my native Argentina”, - makes no secret Villagra, and already in Catamarca starts to prove it, not saying about native Cordoba, where as a repeated winner of a national classical rally championship he knows every hillock on the track.
In the end of the day appeared information that the Argentinean’s crew received a ten-minute penalty on a complaint of PEUGEOT pilot Stephane Peteransel. In his point of view, the Argentinean prevented overtaking on one of previous stages.
Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew #502
“Today we tried to secure Eduard Nikolaev’s crew as they are on the first position and drove after them, but after about 100 km stopped for help, as they had two wheels punctured. He said that he had a problem with the front reduction unit and therefore he did not get into turns. We drove after him. It was a hard day. There was almost nothing straight. Impassibility was almost the whole day. Then by the end of the second special we saw Airat, he was standing due to the wheels. We did not manage to drive the second part of the route very fast.”
Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew #500
“There are no easy Dakars. I ascertain it once again. I thought that falling on the side on the fifth stage was the main challenge. But in fact it was not. Today we had a very serious breakdown of the front reduction unit and at some moment I thought that Dakar for our crew was over. Fortunately, our mechanic Vladimir Rybakov suggested to turn on the front inter-wheel lock, as it can save the reduction unit from the final failure. It really helped, though with the turned on inter-wheel lock, the speed was different. We drove in accordance with sounds. We had to listen to transmission in order not to overload it. The truck did not get into turns. We touched two stones by wheels. Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew helped us. Many thanks to them. The second SS was more sandy. It was beneficial for us– lock gears did not “suffer” much. It was difficult to steer. Arms became “clogged”. While the rivals are very strong. I think that Villagra excels Gerard De Rooy in some areas, he is a very strong rival”.
Airat Mardeev, pilot of crew #507
A long and tiring day. A lot of impassibility. IVECO team goes very fast. Frankly speaking, I did not expect it from Villagra, and especially from Genugten. It was seen that in many places he risked. But his truck keeps till the finish. It was difficult to fight with him. We punctured a wheel on the first half. It took us long to change it. The soil was very soft, we had to take two jacks, tracks, so that jacks would not go down under the ground. We even stopped Anton Shibalov’s crew. His crew helped us. The generator “finished”. We drove without charging, turned off all fans, light. On neutralization zone guys quickly changed the generator. We drove further. But as we started, the generator went out of order again. Again we drove without fans and light. There were a lot of fast sections, a lot of impassibility, we were all wet. Moreover, it started to get dark. Realizing that impassibility was our chance, we tried to attack till the end.”
Anton Shibalov, pilot of crew #515
“We were driving in a dried-out river bed, when felt smell of diesel. But the place was so uncomfortable to stop so that you could be stuck, therefore we waited a bit longer in order to stand on the hard place. Jumping out of the truck we saw that there was fire, going out of air-intakes. KAMAZ was like a firedrake. We took fire extinguishers and quite quickly put the fire out. The truck of S.Viazovich was going nearby, they also gave us their fire extinguishers. The reason of fire was a fracture of a fuel-oil pump tube. We were lucky that it did not affect electric circuit much. On the second half of the stage we felt by the engine that there was some fire effect. We started and almost at once finished. We understood that we would get penalties but for us it was more important to stay in the race. Now we would deal with technical problems and fix the truck for tomorrow’s start.”
Ivan Romanov, mechanic of Anton Shibalov’s crew #515
“On the stage we tried to put on wheels Martin Kolomy’s crew.His truck was lying on its side. We came to them. We hooked the rope to the towing eye on the truck body. But when we started to pull it tore off. Kolomy waved us away, as if saying to move on”
1.VAN GENUGTEN TON +05:31:49
2.VILLAGRA FEDERICO + 00:00:33
3.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI +00:11:09
4.NIKOLAEV EDUARD+00:22:14
5.MARDEEV AIRAT+00:24:34
6.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR+00:27:16
7.VISHNEUSKI ALIAKSEI +00:29:23
8.SOTNIKOV DMITRY+00:32:02
9.SOLTYS MARTIN+00:47:46
10.KOLOMY MARTIN+00:51:51
11.SUGAWARA TERUHITO+01:03:42
12.VASILEVSKI ALEKSANDR +01:18:50
13.HUZINK GERT +01:21:53
14.MACIK MARTIN +02:23:14
15.VAN DEN HEUVEL MAURIK+02:25:46
16.SHIBALOV ANTON+02:39:17
1.NIKOLAEV EDUARD (KAMAZ) 34:09:09
2.VILLAGRA FEDERICO (IVECO)+00:24:44
3.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI (MAZ)+03:48:30
4.VAN GENUGTEN TON (IVECO) +04:08:54
5.MARDEEV AIRAT (KAMAZ) +04:25:40
6.MACIK MARTIN (LIAZ) +05:30:25
7.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR (VECO) +05:33:18
8.SUGAWARA TERUHITO (HINO) +05:55:19
9.SOTNIKOV DMITRY (KAMAZ) +06:05:01
10.HUZINK GERT (RENAULT) +07:20:04
11.SOLTYS MARTIN (TATRA)+07:46:05
12.VAN DEN HEUVEL MAURIK (SCANIA)+08:23:06
13.KOLOMY MARTIN (TATRA)+09:09:13
14.SHIBALOV ANTON (KAMAZ) +10:01:53
15.VASILEVSKI ALEKSANDR (MAZ)+19:56:13
16.VISHNEUSKI ALIAKSEI (MAZ)+36:53:01
