Sergey Savostin, the leader of “KAMAZ-master” team in Africa: It was a challenging stage yesterday. Unfortunately, technical problems didn’t pass us by. Engine clutch of Sergey Kuprianov’s truck couldn’t stand hard usage conditions.
Two crews tried to repair the vehicle in situ together, but it was impossible to continue the race with challenging dunes having this clutch.
Shibalov together with his crew pulled 608 out of sand and lead the vehicle on the pull string to CP1, where it could be left for evacuation, and continued the race on his own.
Kuprianov’s truck managed to come back to the bivouac, avoiding the sands.
The vehicle was repaired during the night, the clutch was replaced. The crew got penalty for not passing the total special section of T-maximum (this is the maximum time to pass the section), their time is 9 h 28 min.
In the standings Kuprianov moved from the second position to the 4th, but the fight continues to the bitter end and today the crew has started.
Anton’s crew manages to keep the first line in the truck category.
Sergey Kuprianov , pilot:“Our crews started today one by one. Fast roads together with hard navigation didn’t prevent us from reaching first dunes. The biggest ‘heap of sand’ in Mauritania was in front of us. Expected challenges happened. However, we had no concerns with driving or navigation, but with the vehicle. Unfortunately, we could not get outside the problem in situ. The truck which had served us faithfully for so many days, refused to drive. Engine clutch was broken. We hardly reached the CP1 and realized, that not all the team would continue the way. Shibalov flew to the finish of the special. And Kuprianov’s crew shortened the route and went straight to the finish at first speed which they managed to get. Time is lost, but finish and the race continue. Tomorrow is the last stage which enters the classification.
We are not alone in having a hard day today, our friend Anton Grigorov (VEB Racing) broke down his car. His jeep did a flip, made two turnovers. It was almost ruined. Anton has left…”
Anton Shibalov, pilot: Today’s stage was not the most difficult, but there was the largest number of dunes crossings. Today we had to deal with the highest Mauritanian dunes, all the sands in Mauritania are hard and the sand is very soft. It is very difficult to take run at the dune crossing when there is a sharp jump and an immediate climb to another one. All that is ok, but for the failure in the truck of Sergey Kuprianov.
At passing Mauritanian sands their clutch disc broke because of such loads. Although we tried to bring the truck to life, nothing has resulted from our efforts. And the decision was made to pull the truck out of sands to CP 1.
Then we drove further and the guys stayed there to wait for assistance. We reached the finish and after a while they returned to bivouac, too. We were very happy to see them!
