KAMAZ-master had a difficult day today. The team spent its birthday in the field, travelling from one Chinese city to another. At night in Bortala the time was changed for local (difference with Moscow +5 hours), the sportsmen had to wake up much earlier than usually in order to get on time for the start. The second week is becoming more challenging. Day by day it becomes harder for the contestants to move forward. Racers passed a serious distance 900 km long to get to the bivouac, 256 km of them was a special section.
A peculiarity of the stage was a long liaison to Urumchi town. In order to avoid huge cities and show the sportsmen wonderful landscapes, the reconnaissance group led them to such impassibility and sands that sportsmen were really astonished.
The pilot of KAMAZ-master team Airat Mardeev finds this leg the most interesting: “Everything was the way we like: a difficult special, a lot of impassibility, sandy roads, camel thorns.” The crew of Airat Mardeev (306) finished the section on the second position, giving the lead to Martin van den Brink. His crew could even show the better result but they had to help the crew of Eduard Nikolaev (310).
After yesterday’s stage, where Nikolaev broke the carter and lost his first place, the pilot was going to return his leadership. His truck was prepared, so by morning it was as new. Most of the part the crew was going fast. Despite his starting position (he didn’t start first) he was showing a good result. He was awaited at the finish line when suddenly they learnt that the KAMAZ truck stopped. Eduard Nikolaev explained his delay the following way:
“We stuck on a dune. I tried to be careful. I didn’t absolutely get used to the truck. I didn’t go slower and got in a trap. I didn’t change gear and we stuck on a dune and couldn’t move. The crew of Airat Mardeev helped us to get out. I need to get used to drive in a bonnet truck in dunes, get used to the engine, it works slightly in a different way. Tomorrow dunes again… I have no other variant than try to go over dunes at a fast speed, feel the truck as our rivals. Notwithstanding small disadvantages in dunes, this truck is the best.”
The third position among trucks was taken by Dmitry Sotnikov (300). He told us that the day was quite successful, though he couldn’t take one dune from the first try because of a car in front of him. But the second try was a success and he caught up the missed time. Now the crew of Dmitry Sotnikov takes the second position in the general classification.
Anton Shibalov (303) could join the top-three today. Yesterday he showed the second result and he could keep it, if…
“We didn’t have a good day today, - says the pilot. – We faced navigational problems at the start, and got lost a bit. When we started to catch them up, 30 km before the start our wheel was punctured. We had to stop and change it, but the place wasn’t good. The ground turned to be loose and we spent a lot of time with the jack because it sank into the ground. Therefore it took us more time than usually. There were loose road, solid, impassibility, a lot of plants, camel thorns. Our truck is new and good but it hasn’t passed such a test yet.” The crew of Anton Shibalov got the fourth position.
On the 18th of July the contestants of the Silk Way Rally will finally get to the sands. The stage to Hami town is in African style. 384 km on sands. Moreover, the weather forecast promises 45 degrees of heat.
Silk Way Rally. Results of the 8th Leg. Trucks.
1. M.van den Brink / P.Willemsen / D.Kozlovsky (Renault) – 3h 27:30
2. A.Mardeev / A.Belyaev / D.Svistunov (KAMAZ) +5:47
3. D.Sotnikov / R. Akhmadeev / I. Romanov (KAMAZ) +6:11
4. A.Shibalov / R.Amatych / A. Khisamiev (КАМАZ) +18:02
5. H.Hougning / Sh. Xin / A.Mokeev (KAMAZ) +18:28
General Classification after 8 Legs. Trucks.
1. M.van den Brink / P.Willemsen / D.Kozlovsky (Renault) — 16h 33:44
2. D.Sotnikov / R. Akhmadeev / I. Romanov (KAMAZ) +18:40
3. A.Shibalov / R.Amatych / A. Khisamiev (КАМАZ) +24:37
4. A.Mardeev / A.Belyaev / D.Svistunov (KAMAZ) +30:32
5. H.Hougning / Sh. Xin / A.Mokeev (KAMAZ) +56:40
