After yesterday’s fast and comfortable special section, race organizers prepared a big and difficult day for the sportsmen. Everyone –pilots, co-pilots and mechanics - had to work hard. Not high but insidious and cragged dunes interchanged with ‘taxiways’ among vegetation and big plateaus. Drivers didn’t have time to take a breath, they had to be concentrated and work at the wheel, they even could drink only on CPs in the speed limiting zones. Co-pilots had to follow the track very attentively in order not to veer off the course as the main road is scarcely noticeable. And mechanics suffered a lot in the sand when three vehicles stopped at one time at the track filled with sand, but Sergey Kuprianov’s attempt to avoid this place at the right was not successful. The truck got stuck in the mild sand with an uncomfortable incline on the left side. Left side wheels sank more than a half into the sand. Anton Shibalov gave a hand. It was impossible to pull back the truck. Our mechanics unwound and connected four pull ropes, while Kuprianov was digging out the truck. Only after that the truck could continue its way. Then we passed the rest of the route without any problems. We saw somebody’s belt of the engine and realized that soon we will see the owner. That was right! In a kilometer distance a buggy was being repaired. All in all, a lot of cars had to use dovetails and shovels. Moreover, Anton Shibalov was towing.again just after the finish and Yuri Sazonov’ from Kazakh Mobilex team ran out of engine. The positions of the stage today are the following: Anton Shibalov is first, Sergey Kuprianov’s crew is the second, just 34 seconds behind his teammate. The position in the general classification didn’t change.
Tomorrow we are expecting the route of 377 km in length, stone plateaus, crossings of dried-up beds of rivers, sand with rocks and some dunes. We continue the fight!
stage results
|
400 |
SHIBALOV ANTON |
05:04:11 |
|
403 |
KUPRIANOV SERGEY |
+00:00:34 |
|
401 |
TOMECEK TOMAS |
+00:09:58 |
|
405 |
KOVACS MIKLOS |
+00:13:11 |
|
402 |
JACINTO ELISABETE |
+00:48:34 |
overall standings: http://www.africarace-live.com/en/cla-etp7.html
