January 9, Tucuman.
The beginning of the day was very great! The stage Chilecito-Tucuman with two sections of 211 km and 106 km (the second part of the stage was modified) separated by the zone of neutralization promised to be a turning point in the trucks standings of the Dakar-2014. We don’t know what tactics was chosen by Chagin on the eve, but all crews of the KAMAZ-master Team began to set the pace on the track from the start. Eduard Nikolaev showed the best time at the first checkpoint and increased his advantage over their pursuers. According the results of the third checkpoint, Gerard De Rooy appears to be 15' behind Nikolaev. And other KAMAZ crews keep up with Eduard. Andrey Karginov, for example, goes ahead Dutchman, 8 minutes of difference. And this is just what we need now. It is clear that using the same tactics as Chagin, Gerard could get a comfortable lead over the other candidates on the podium with a good pace from the start of the race, and probably he will go quietly to avoid mistakes and to reach quietly the finish line in Valparaiso. But if we will keep up with the leader creating psychological pressure, this tactic can force our rival to make mistakes.
It seemed that everything began to develop according the required for KAMAZ- master scenario. But by the end of the first part of the special, something strange happened. The leader of the cars standings Carlos Sainz opened the way on the day’s special, but he crossed the finishing line 1:01'49" behind the day's winner Spaniard Nani Roma (Mini). There is a talk about the navigation mistakes, incorrect Road-book and Waypoint at the bivouac. In fact at km 162 the competitors had to go 18 km off-road (the way according this cap without visible tracks on the road), and it seems that after this section it was very difficult for navigators to get the new checkpoint. Today’s special can be definitely called the day for navigators. Those who managed to keep cool head in the heat battle (literally and figuratively), could cope with surprises on the stage.
Dmitry Sotnikov has won the day's special stage with a time of 4:47'46", in front of his team-mate Andrey Karginov by 2'56" and the Iveco driven by Gerard de Rooy by 12'07". Dmitry modestly explains that today's success was provided only thanks to competent actions of the experienced co-pilot Vyacheslav Mizyukaev.
Although it should be noted that only the competent teamwork of both (pilot and co-pilot) could ensure such result.
Andrey Mokeev – co-pilot of the crew of Andrey Karginov was also at his best. The mechanic of the crew, Igor Devyatkin tells about the harmonious teamwork of pilot and co-pilot: «We went 60-80 kilometers per hour on rocky track and "camel grass", it didn’t seem to me to be dangerous, I'm just worried that these sticks strong as nails will puncture tyres, it would be very wrong time. One of such stick broke through the protector, but fortunately, we managed to get the neutralization and change tyre there. Today’s special had something common with the Silk Way Rally. Do you remember that in 2011 Stephane Peterhansel said that he had never met such difficult stages? So that, the experience of our race was very useful to us."
The most unlucky was the crew of Anton Shibalov, they didn’t find a waypoint in the river bed, and they got a penalty of 1 hour. This penalty has significantly changed the position of the crew in overall standings.
Eduard Nikolaev liked this stage: "The current Dakar is more difficult than previous editions. Today's stage is a good confirmation. We have never such long off-road sections. I even heard the hard breathing of my co-pilot and mechanic. It was very tough. On straight sections our rivals’ vehicles are faster than ours, but in such sections our KAMAZes go better. We lost about half an hour because of problems of navigation. I saw how upset is Evgeny Yakovlev, he is for the first time at the Dakar, but I tried to calm him down. Cars and trucks were rushing in different directions to find waypoint on these notorious 18 kilometers. This confuses and disturbs, even experienced navigators made mistakes at this section. "
After the day’s stage the team leader Vladimir Chagin said: "Today's stage is the fourth which the pilots of the team KAMAZ-master won at this Dakar. All these stages are won by different pilots, and unfortunately this does not yet allow the team to lead the general classification of the race. But if we manage to have the same results as today, the classification could be modified.
