Dakar shows its character

The breakdown of Anatoly Tanin’s Assistance car, which occurred the day before, made ​​a good half of the members of the "Kamaz-Master" team to get a feel all "charm" of the true Dakar. Personal items, tents, sleeping bags of many members were left in the car of Farit Badretdinov, towing the broken Tanin’s machine to the bivouac in Arica. 26 tons of its own weight plus 24 tons of Tanin’s KAMAZ, and more than 300 kilometers along the serpentine roads of the Andes’ foothills...

Certainly, such a road-train caught up with the team only in the morning on January 10.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that after the border crossing the rally began to live by Chilean time, and it meant the loss of two precious hours of a dream. Those who managed to sleep that night lied down everywhere they could find a place and covered with anything. Veterans of the team, seeing such situation, were smiling - well, that is a real Dakar!

On Anatoly Tanin’s Assistance car there was a problem with the engine, in addition, when towing on descents it was necessary to brake very often, from that action the brake drums were red-hot heated, and at one point it almost led to the fire of one of the wheels. Stanislav Konopko noticed in time something was wrong. They had to stop and change the whole wheel. Chagin decides to leave in Arica both Assistance cars and maintenance Jeep for repair. Along the way we learn the details of yesterday's Ales Loprais failure that cost him nearly two hours of forced stop. Only 15 kilometers to the finish electrical equipment got out of order.

At the today's stage the rally took the course from the Pacific Ocean to the south-east towards the mining town of Calama. This city, which is one of the centers of copper production, was luckier than many others mining settlements pre-existing in these areas, oriented to saltpeter production. Copper prices increased year by year, but concerning the saltpeter at the beginning of the last century people learned to produce it synthetically. That’s why in the desert it is possible to stumble upon the abandoned ghost towns. In fact, the Dakar competitors after the arrival to the bivouac look like ghosts. Haggard and dirty, tired after a few days of the race. Plus, the surreal landscapes of Atacama - all this creates a feeling of unreality.

At the start of today's SS there were 68 trucks from 75, which took the start in Lima. Good percentage for the sixth day of the race, but today’s day significantly corrected this statistics. 455-kilometer high-speed stage was divided by a neutralization zone from 229 to 326 kilometer. Started the second Eduard Nikolaev at the beginning conceded to Gerard de Roy in speed, but already at the first control point showed the best time. But from the 384 kilometer the disturbing message comes- Nikolaev stopped due to technical problems. As it turned out, the front and rear shock absorbers from the right side of the sports car were uprooted.

"We were driving at the maximum limit speed, which is about 140 kilometers per hour," - says the mechanic of the crew Vladimir Rybakov. "Flew into an invisible ditch, it seemed to me three meters in depth, a very strong impact, at first I thought that there was a problem with the tires, but it turned out that we had no shock absorbers." Experienced Sergey Savostin says that they should rejoice that all survived. Despite serious damage, Eduard was able to reach the finish line slightly reducing the speed.

Crazy rhythm leads to the fact that the pilots make mistakes. Experienced Hans Stacey had only 300 meters to the exit of the complex chain of dunes. But Dutchman car when overcoming the dune turned over and remained to lay on the roof. René Kuipers managed to put it on the wheels, besides the Dutchman was able to continue the movement! But the ASO broadcasters who saw what happened said that they were sure that Stacy threw up the game.

In trucks category stakes are high for each team. "I started today, the 12th or the 13th, I do not remember exactly - says Ales Loprais. This meant that there will be a lot of dust. The first part of the race was really very dangerous. We managed to hold our position and, in addition, to overtake a lot of trucks and jeeps. Sometimes it was just craziness, and I thought - what the hell I'm doing here! It was on the verge, but we did it. I started to increase the speed. Because of yesterday's problems with the electrical equipment, I lost the leadership, so I will continue to attack.

Loprais acts decisively. Vyacheslav Mizyukaev says that Czech often risks. Ales calculates the trajectory and tries not to reduce speeds before ascent.

Ayrat Mardeev’s crew didn't manage to avoid problems today; the car was hanging on one of the dunes. Fortunately, Andrey Karginov came to the rescue. Help was very handy, both crews continued the movement. This stop didn’t prevent the Karginov's crew to be today the second at the stage. He lagged behind the leader Gerard De Roy for only 34 seconds! The call from Vladimir Chagin to the bivouac. He is on the way and asked not wait for him, to find in Calama the trawl to tow the Artur Ardavichus car in Santiago. Unfortunate retirement - a furious pace led to engine damage. Once again, Russian jeepers participating in Dakar come to the rescue. Anton Nikolaev already brought to the bivouac KAMAZ mechanics which were in the Anatoly Tanin’s car. And helpfully respond to a request to go to the city. Apparently racers have a special intuition for any tows - we quickly find a transport campaign. Chilean guys today will have a lot of request; Dakar-2013 is a very difficult one.

In the evening at the KAMAZ-master bivouac Gerard De Rooy came and reported that by all appearances Hans Stacey will not be able to continue the race.

The mechanics of KAMAZ-master team will have a difficult night ahead; there is not enough time until the morning. Finally there is good news: the Anatoly Tanin’s car is repaired and together with the Farit Badretdinov’s Assistance car is driving to Calama.

Eric Khayrullin

The results of the 6^th stage

General classification after the 6^th stage

Position	Name	Team	Time	Variation
1	Gerard de Rooy	Iveco	17:23:45
2	Eduard Nikolaev	KAMAZ	17:42:25	00:18:40
3	Ayrat Mardeev	KAMAZ	17:54:17	00:30:32
4	Martin Kolomy	Tatra	18:02:16	00:38:31
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