18 January, San Juan
In the menu of 13th day of Dakar-2018 are two specials, similar to yesterday, one is 288 km long and the other is 234 km long, 88-km neutralization zone separated them. River-beds, with difficult navigation in some places, a few number of not high dunes, fesh-fesh, stones and trial. For contestants of stage Chilecito-San Juan it is probably last opportunity to use impassibility for changing their position in the general standings. As later, in the last two days of the race on flat as a table pampas to Cordoba, fast straight tracks await the sportsmen, there all sportsmen will go at the same fast pace and it would be almost impossible to play some time back. Especially it would be difficult to do for Eduard Nikolaev. Now the rivalry Nikolaev - Villagra has grabbed attention of hundreds of fans. The Argentinean Federico Villagra nicknamed “Coyote” is a seven-time winner of the national Argentine Rally Championship in the classical rally and he certainly knows local tracks perfectly. Of course, in rally-raids a lot depend on good luck. And today both the Argentinean and the Russian were misfortunate. Lady Luck probably decided that the intrigue in the truck category should remain to the finish on 20 January.
In the beginning of neutralization area assistance teams organized permitted by the regulations service zones. On Nikolaev’s truck there they had to change right front reduction unit. Before that on the track of the special a stone bounced and damaged a pressure control unit of pneumatic system. The functioning control unit was borrowed from Dmitry Sotnikov’s truck (after yesterday’s withdrawal of Anton Shibalov’s crew he has taken a role of fast assistance). It costed to the donor Dmitry Sotnikov almost 4 hours of time loss to repair the broken pneumatic pressure control unit. One more KAMAZ member, Airat Mardeev, had to stop for a wheel change.
Federico Villagra had problems with electronics and stopped to change a wheel. May be a miscount for the reason of not knowing or an intentional decision – the Argentinean today refueled from an assistance truck on the neutralization zone, and that is forbidden by the regulations of the competition. Advantage obtained from illegitimately is the following: the fuel range of the Argentinean pilot is only half , so his truck is only half a ton lighter and, accordingly, faster than other trucks that have a maximum fuel range for the whole route. Let’s see how the Stewards of the race react to this infringement.
Meanwhile drama and tense fight in the truck category is shown in the general standings, where the first position today was taken by the crew of Eduard Nikolaev. 1 second! No more, no less! 1 second after 7518 kilometers – the time difference between Nikolaev and Villagra.
There is also a serious rivalry for the third place. Notwithstanding the fact that an experienced Siarhei Viazovich (MAZ) “settled down” here, theoretically for Dakar bronze among trucks still pretend Airat Mardeev (KAMAZ-master), Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) and Ton Van Genugten (IVECO). Usually prudent and careful Genugten, now showed himself from another side – his style became aggressive and assertive. On the finish of the second special he came on three wheels.
Eduard Nikolaev pilot of crew #500
“Difference in one second in “general”. I don’t remember anything like that. Of course I remember how Andrey Karginov “took” minute-by-minute from De Rooy, but those were minutes. I thought we would take more from Villagra but he drives very fast. By hard adventure, today occurred a breakdown of pneumatic system. Air went out from the system. We knocked the broken valve, tried different things. In the end Dmitry Sotnikov helped us. We took the part from his truck. Then we had to change a side reduction unit, it happened due to main reduction unit breakdown on the previous stage and followed long drive on the lock. But it was already on the service in neutralization area, so fortunately this repair did not affect the timing”.
Dmitry Svistunov, mechanic of Airat Mardeev’s crew #507
“We drove to Eduard Nikolaev. He had a problem with pneumatic system. We helped him to find it, after Dmitry Sotnikov came, we drove for several kilometers – punctured a wheel. We changed it in the river-bed. We lost about 9 minutes for its change”.
Ruslan Akhmadeev, navigator of Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew #502
“Sometimes it is very important to come at the right time and place. Today we helped to Eduard Nikolaev’s crew. We took a necessary part of pneumatic system. Now the whole team works for common result. What about a navigator work, it was not easy today. A lot of tire tracks, river beds. Furthermore, the pilot must be attentive, in order not to puncture tires with dry branches and not to cut wheels with sharp stones”.
1.VAN GENUGTEN TON 07:02:36
2.KOLOMY MARTIN+07:06:47
3.NIKOLAEV EDUARD+00:06:21
4.VILLAGRA FEDERICO+00:07:29
5.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR+00:15:14
6.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI+00:26:20
7.VAN DEN HEUVEL MAURIK+00:32:16
8.VISHNEUSKI ALIAKSEI +00:35:00
9.HUZINK GERT RENAULT+00:38:11
10.VASILEVSKI ALEKSANDR+00:39:02
11.MARDEEV AIRAT+00:47:43
12.SUGAWARA TERUHITO+01:02:28
13.SOLTYS MARTIN+01:28:04
14.MACIK MARTIN+01:47:36
15.ROTSAERT STEVEN +02:06:08
16.KADSHAI AVIV+02:45:24
17.INGELS DAVE+02:46:53
18.SOTNIKOV DMITRY+03:46:19
1.NIKOLAEV EDUARD (KAMAZ) 47:14:31
2.VILLAGRA FEDERICO (IVECO) +00:00:01
3.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI (MAZ)+03:26:14
4.MARDEEV AIRAT (KAMAZ) +05:20:15
5.VAN GENUGTEN TON (IVECO) +05:23:40
6.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR (IVECO) +05:36:25
7.MACIK MARTIN (LIAZ) +07:10:21
8.SUGAWARA TERUHITO (HINO ) +07:20:32
9.HUZINK GERT (RENAULT)+07:43:52
10.VAN DEN HEUVEL MAURIK (SCANIA)+08:18:41
11.KOLOMY MARTIN (TATRA)+08:55:12
12.SOTNIKOV DMITRY (KAMAZ) +09:31:35
13.SOLTYS MARTIN (TATRA) +20:47:04
14.VASILEVSKI ALEKSANDR (MAZ) +24:28:42
15.VISHNEUSKI ALIAKSEI (MAZ) +41:30:56
16.ROTSAERT STEVEN (MAN) +70:51:08
17.INGELS DAVE (MAN) +76:52:00
18.KADSHAI AVIV (DAF ) +77:56:33
