Africa Race. The 6th stage results

January 4, Mauritania, Bivouac Shami

Today we woke up at 3:45 am; the way was laid to the border with Mauritania. Sports cars passed formalities first. Only after all sports vehicles were in Mauritania, the start time was declared. Special stage had to be not too long, but very difficult. Complexity of navigation was especially noted.
Cars- finishers were hardly visible from the road along which the caravan of Assistance was coming, but a warp speed was felt even from a distance. Jean-Louis Schlesser came first, after him - Jerome Pelichet and then KAMAZ of Anton Shibalov. However, only Schlesser remained on his position. The second was the Belgian crew of Van Kauvenberg, he is behind the leader for 1 minute and 4 seconds, on the third position there is Paulo Ferreira. The crew of "KAMAZ-Master" is the first in trucks category and fourth in the overall, behind Schlesser less than for 3 minutes. They guys could do it thanks to a faultless navigation in the open space, without the possibility to orient on a strong rivals going ahead, with rare reference points. Till the finish line our truck was driving in a group of jeeps, our co-pilot, made an assessment of the situation and the guys were able to choose the best direction, and drive the crew directly to the finish line. Rivals appreciated the situation later, and it cost them the loss of lines in standings. Elizabeth Jacinto is behind Anton Shibalov for 7 minutes and 35 seconds. The third in trucks category was Noel Essers on his MAN.

Stanislav Pogozhikh commented the 6th stage: "The results show that the section was high-speed: the driving at the maximum speed and navigation. The result is in principle normal, I think that it is not necessary to arrange the race with jeeps. This is a high-speed sandy track, it is advantageous for jeeps - they drive fast because they have no speed limit if there is the speed road with hassocks, trucks can win back there, "swallowing" obstacles, and jeeps have to look for approach to overcome them. We carried out some maintenance, after yesterday's repair we "tested" the car, made sure that everything is okay.

Tomorrow dunes will be added, we have to go carefully, take care of the car, do not look at jeeps, and after all we have a training there. By the way, if before only trucks' crews came to our bivouac to look at our car, now mostly jeeps' crews are coming , they look, ask, take interest what is the truck that is ahead of them. "

Evgeniy Yakovlev, the co-pilot of the crew shared his impressions:
- Today it was a very high-speed SS. Half of the section we were driving on a maximum. Monotonous terrain, there are not too much reference points. Strong wind didn't raise a dust, but at high speed we felt it. Very often we had to drive on an off-road.
Somewhere in the middle of rally course jeep overtook us and it stayed ahead. The wind changed, and we drove 20 km in the dust. When the direction changed, we caught up with them very quickly. Sometimes they were ahead, sometimes we could overtake them. There are no roads; each one followed his own course. We didn't interfere with each other.

For 10 km before the finish there was the group of 3 jeeps and our truck. We drove together 6 km. It was the most difficult section in navigation. But having quickly chosen a right reference point, we were able to overtake them for 3 km and successfully finish. SS was quite challenging but interesting.

By the time of the finish there was a strong wind, and everything was plunged into the dusty haze. At the bivouac, situated in the lee of the dune, everything was filled with sand. Guys are very tired today by the time of the finish they already "worked" more than 14 hours, practically with no food and water, but after they had a bite on the run, they started to prepare for the next day: inspection, refueling, scheduled maintenance...

Do you know how the co-pilot works? He is not just looking at the signs and reads them to the pilot. When he receives the legend, he carefully reads it, translating comments, noting directions, reference points and courses. Then he reads it aloud, and if there is some hitch, he learns it more closely and makes notes, which will facilitate him reading at the race. Evgeniy Yakovlev works with a legend for a long time, practically all evening, but then reads so that you can admire him, very clear, without many words. Here is a real school, I want to tell you. The half of success at any race - is an accurate work of the co-pilot, and on the African open spaces, its value increases manyfold.

By the way, just a short distance away from here, there is the largest in the world the reserve of migratory birds, so we're next to a mysterious place where birds aspire to fly every autumn. And we're not birds; we aspire to go on, to the Rose Lake.

Svetlana Klimova

Результаты 6 этапа в классе грузовиков

Pos	N°	Pilotes	Marque	Grp/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1er
1	401	SHIBALOV Anton YAKOVLEV Evgeny SOTNIKOV Dmitry	KAMAZ	T4 / 1	01:33:52
2	403	JACINTO Elisabete MARQUES Jose COCHINHO Marco	MAN	T4 / 2	01:41:27	07:35
3	405	ESSERS Noel LAUWERS Marc BOERBOOM Ulrich	MAN	T4 / 3	01:47:19	13:27
4	400	TOMECEK Tomas MORAVEK Vojtech	TATRA	T4 / 4	01:53:40	19:88
5	402	KOVACS Miklos CZEGLEDI Peter TOTH Tamas	SCANIA	T4 / 5	02:00:25	26:33

 

 

6^th stage results in the overall

 

Pos	N°	Pilotes	Marque	Grp/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1er
1	200	SCHLESSER Jean louis ESQUIROL Cyril	SCHLESSER	T1 / 1	01:30:58
2	204	VAN CAUWENBERGE Joost CASTELEIN Jacques	TOYOTA	T1 / 2	01:32:02	00:01:04
3	218	FERREIRA Paulo MONTEIRO Jorge	NISSAN	T1 / 3	01:32:42	00:01:44
4	401	SHIBALOV Anton YAKOVLEV Evgeny SOTNIKOV Dmitry	KAMAZ	T4 / 1	01:33:52	00:02:54
5	209	ABOUYOUSSEF Abdelhamid NOURELDIN Mahmoud	VOLKSWAGEN	T1 / 4	01:35:11	00:04:13
6	202	PELICHET Jerome PANSERI Xavier	TOYOTA	T1 / 5	01:36:44	00:05:46
7	203	ZAPLETAL Miroslav MARTON Maciej	HUMMER	T1 / 6	01:38:30	00:07:32
8	211	BUNEL GOURDY Thierry BUNEL GOURDY Sophie	PROTO	T1 / 7	01:38:41	00:07:43
9	210	MARTIN Patrick METZ Jean	VOLKSWAGEN	T1 / 8	01:40:49	00:09:51
10	403	JACINTO Elisabete MARQUES Jose COCHINHO Marco	MAN	T4 / 2	01:41:27	00:10:29