Start of the 10th stage of Dakar Rally was promising for Russian rally viewers. After yesterday’s stage the gap in the standings between .the Netherlander Gerard de Rooy and Eduard Nikolaev, following him, was 27 min. In order to make it more entertaining, start of today’s stage was organized the following way: the start was given to first 10 motor riders together, then – to the first ten car drivers and later to the first five best trucks.
Early in the morning 3 vehicles of Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco – Gerad de Rooy, Federico Villagra and Tony Van Genugten, and 2 KAMAZ trucks of Eduard Nikolaev and Andrey Karginov started the route. They made the best performance yesterday.
At first, Eduard Nikolaev led the category. It continued to the 180th kilometer. Then the gap between Nikolaev and De Rooy (everyone was interested in their duel at the moment) reached 16 min. It seemed a miracle that the Russian caught up his rival and 27 min in the general classification were melting so fast…
Perhaps it was the frenetic pace or huge responsibility, that became the reason of a sad mistake – Nikolaev’s truck fell on one side on the 180th km of the special. Following him crew of Andrey Karginov could not help immediately, as his sump was punctured on the 153rd km. Before giving a hand to Eduard Nikolaev, they had to take it off, caulk the puncture and fill with oil. Nearly an hour was spent.
Airat Mardeev saved the team on the stage. Although, it was not easy for his crew as well: “Today’s SS was planned to be at the length of 278 km. But it was shortened for 35 km before the finish, - told us Airat Mardeev after the finish. – There was a one-hour start delay due to two accidents.by Nasser and Van Loon (both of them fell on the side of the vehicle). The stage began quite well. We overpassed some trucks ahead. We saw, as people made navigation mistakes. We did not have any of that kind. On the 48th km we caught a bush. We even did not feel it, but the wheel started to blow off. We changed it during 9 min and continued our way. We caught up those who had overpassed us during the wheel replacement. Then sands and crossings began. One motor rider prevented us from taking it on the speed. Moving back, we hit on the hill and stuck in the sand. We started to dig. The sand is very tough. The truck does not move. Vratny on Tatra (thank him very much!) tried to pull the truck out. But power of his vehicle was not enough for it, he almost nearly stuck himself. Eventually we waited until Dmitry Sotnikov pulled us out. Unfortunately, we spent almost half an hour there. Then we tried to win back. The route was good, ‘ours’, dunes were challenging. From time to time there was an engine overheat. There were some long rises, where we drove on the edge, in order not to break the engine.”
Another pilot of “KAMAZ-master” Dmitry Sotnikov told, that he did not have engine problems, though the route was very challenging with loose sands and big rocks, which did not cut tyres but could puncture a half-flat ones, if touching the rim. A driver tried to avoid bushes in order not to have cuts. As a result, our crew lost time only because of navigation problems and stops for helping our teammates – pulled Airat Mardeev’s vehicle out of the sand, gave Eduard Nikolaev 10 litres of the engine oil.
Andrey Karginov and Eduard Nikolaev came last to the bivouac in the evening. It was 11.00 p.m. local time.
Andrey Karginov also told about the main issues of today: “ There was a hole in one river bed, where was a huge rock. While passing it between our wheels, we heard a hit. It was dangerous to slow down, as we could stick for a long time. Later, approximately 20 km before the end of the first timed section, when we helped Eduard Nikolaev to change the punctured wheel and he left, we noticed oil leak from the punctured sump. We had to take it off, do cold welding, and covered it with a special scotch tape for reliability. After neutralization area we started the second SS and on the 9th kilometer saw Eduard’s truck lying on one side. First we turned the truck then managed to put it on wheels”.
The picture according to Eduard’s words: “First it shaped well until we punctured a wheel. Crew of Karginov helped us to replace it. We continued our way. Then quite challenging dunes began, where a driver had to control the vehicle inclination and not to get stuck in the loose sand. Some vibration occurred in the engine. It happens when sand covers the fan. We stopped at the top of a dune. We shut down the engine and ‘fired up’ – the vibration was still there. We decided to go down the dune, started to move but at the very moment the truck suddenly inclined to the side and fell. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
The vehicle was not harmed much, but the problem was that we were the last in the top five and there was nobody who could help. Genugten’s (Gerard de Rooy’s team) truck passed us by. We prepared everything, cleaned the sand around. On the right side both wheels became half-flat, as there was no air, and we could not turn on the engine to pump the tires as the truck was on the side.
We also could not get to valve cores. We were waiting for Airat and Dima. But it turned out, that Karginov stopped behind us and was first who came to help. We righted the overturned truck, put oil. It is very sad, that we lost so much time.”
As a result of that dramatic day, the Netherlander De Rooy managed to have a stable leadership in the general classification. Airat Mardeev took the second position with the gap of 1 h 15 min 19 sec. he is followed by the Argentinian Federico Villagra (+01:32:47) and the Netherlander Hans Stacey (+01:48:57)
Eric Khayrullin, press of “KAMaZ-master” team
Trucks. Results of the 13th stage.
1. DE BAAR (RENAULT TRUCKS) 04:51:41
2. DE ROOY (IVECO) +00:02:36
3. MARDEEV (KAMAZ) +00:26:06
4. KOLOMY (TATRA) +00:26:25
5. STACEY (MAN) + 00:27:25
6. ARDAVICHUS (TATRA) +00:31:29
7. SOTNIKOV (KAMAZ) +00:46:02
8. VASILEVSKI (MAZ) +00:52:01
9. VILLAGRA (IVECO) +00:53:59
10. VAN DEN HEUVEL (SCANIA) +01:01:30
11. VILA ROCA (IVECO) +01:11:04
12. SUGAWARA (HINO) +01:13:47
13. VALTR (TATRA) + 01:16:16
14. ROTSAERT (MAN) +01:30:10
15. VAN GENUGTEN (IVECO) +01:34:29
16. HUZINK (TATRA) +01:52:38
17. VAN WERVEN (DAF) +01:53:40
18. VERSLUIS (MAN) +02:08:50
19. MACIK (LIAZ) + 02:16:45
20. VASILEUSKI (MAZ) +02:24:22
21. HOONDERT (DAF) +02:31:28
22. VRATNY (TATRA) +02:33:05
23. ESSERS (MAN) +02:37:39
24. WIGMAN (GINAF) +02:49:51
25. SCHOONES (DAF) +02:51:36
26. SUGAWARA (HINO) +02:55:09
27. HUIGEVOORT (MAN) +03:23:01
28. JUVANTENY (MAN) + 03:24:53
29. NIKOLAEV (KAMAZ) +03:30:44
30. KARGINOV (KAMAZ) + 03:36:36
31. BAEUERLE (IVECO) +03:49:39
Trucks. General Classification after 13 stages (First 20 crews)
1. DE ROOY (IVECO) 33:25:03
2. MARDEEV (KAMAZ) + 01:15:19
3. VILLAGRA (IVECO) + 01:32:47
4. STACEY (MAN) + 01:48:57
5. VAN GENUGTEN (IVECO) +02:16:55
6. DE BAAR (RENAULT TRUCKS) + 02:37:29
7. VERSLUIS (MAN) +02:55:14
8. VAN DEN HEUVEL (SCANIA)+ 03:44:34
9. VALTR (TATRA) +03:52:22
10. NIKOLAEV (KAMAZ) +03:55:20
11. VILA ROCA (IVECO) +04:11:54
12. SOTNIKOV (KAMAZ) +04:26:57
13. ARDAVICHUS (TATRA)+04:37:15
14. SUGAWARA (HINO)+ 04:45:06
15. MACIK (LIAZ) + 05:13:32
16. KARGINOV (KAMAZ) +05:15:31
17. VRATNY (TATRA) + 06:11:10
18. HUIGEVOORT (MAN)+ 06:51:25
19. VASILEVSKI (MAZ) +07:18:52
20. HOONDERT (DAF)+07:32:16
