Contestants of Africa Eco Race 2017 have already left the 10th stage behind. It was next to last special in the rally-marathon. The race officials made the circular SS quite challenging for the sportsmen, although the crew of Andrey Karginov could keep the leading position among trucks in the general standings.
Both KAMAZ-master crews (crews of Andrey Karginov and Sergey Kuprianov) passed the most dangerous sand section together, backing up each other.
According to the pilot Andrey Karginov, loop specials are intentionally made more difficult to make the evacuation of the contestants, who leaves the special and has serious problems, easier.
“We had prepared for a heavy stage. That is the reason why we went together with Sergey Kuprianov almost the whole day on the sands - to be able to help”, - explained the pilot Andrey Karginov.
During a maneuver, Sergey Kuprianov’s crew punctured a wheel and they had to spend much time to change it.
“We tried to outrun buggy but we couldn’t for a long time. It was an open place, we were driving at the max speed. We tried to catch it up, were closer to it. During one more try to outrun it we decided to cut the turn across the virgin land and due to the dust didn’t see a balk and punctured a back wheel. We had to stop. We spent approximately 30 min”, - told the co-pilot of Sergey Kuprianov Aleksandr Kuprianov.
Andrey Karginov faced with tire problems as well. “Today there were plenty of stones, a lot of impassibility. Having punctured a wheel, we tried to drive carefully but at the same time keep the pace to keep up the rivals”, - told the mechanic of the crew Dmitry Nikitin.
Despite the difficulties the navigator of Sergey Kuprianov’s crew Aleksandr Kuprianov added that he didn’t find it the most challenging special in the rally-marathon.
“In my opinion before last special was harder. Comparing with SS of recent editions of Africa Eco Race, it doesn’t seem difficult. Certainly there were some moments but dunes, for example, today were not so dangerous. And last year there were some - one would be scared even to look at them , not speaking of passing them. Now there were no such dunes. I don’t know if it is good or bad”, - told Aleksandr Kuprianov.
The last battle of Africa Eco Race with the length of a bit more than 200 km still awaits the contestants. Andrey Karginov said that his crew is in a combative mood.
“The battle continues. It is a rally-raid, and I faced many times with the situation that people got into adventures on last kilometers, so we don’t relax. We are preparing and remember that the whole stage is still ahead”, - mentioned the sportsman.
Tomorrow the sportsmen will leave Mauritania and enter the last country of Africa Eco Race – Senegal. The racers will have to cover more than 200 km of SS and 300 km more of public roads. On Saturday, 14 January, a finish of the race will be organized on Lake Rose and the winners will get their deserved prizes.
