The special part of the race began: since 2005 for participants on jeeps and trucks marathon stages were organized (when during spending the night between two stages of the race the repair and maintenance of the car can be made only by the crew without the help of the team). There will be other innovations for the sportsmen. Such, for example, as different rest days for participants of different categories: January 10 for bikes and quads, January 12 – for for jeeps and trucks.
But before long-awaited rest day there are still 2 exhausting days ahead with spending the night on the special isolated marathon bivouac access to which was closed even for journalists. Start of the stage Iquique – the Marathon bivouac was appointed to 11:35 am on January 10, departure from a bivouac - at 9:00 am. The repair of Andrey Karginov’s car, the victim of the failure happened the day before, was finished very close to that time. The crew was already sitting in the car when mechanics put the last screws. When the car drove off from a bivouac there was very touching moment. Participants of the teams standing near the KAMAZ bivouac started clapping. The applause was quite deserved, after all work on the truck began directly after its arrival on a bivouac and wasn't slowed down even for a second within more than 14 hours! By the dawn mechanics were ready to drop from fatigue, at the same time they managed to repair cars of Eduard Nikolaev, Dmitry Sotnikov and Ayrat Mardeev.
For participants of trucks category at their 335-kilometer marathon stage organizers prepared the special stage route developed especially for them. Of course, pilots had to show at a stage who is who. But here on a long-awaited bivouac, the crew mechanics had to become key players of a marathon stage. However, someone had to start his direct duties already at a stage. Eduard Nikolaev's crew till today heading the table of general classification lost more than an hour because of turbocharger breakdown. Considering that its operating temperature in working order is about 700 degrees, such speed of replacement can be considered as a unique record. But this can hardly sweeten the situation. Today many have lost time. For example, Hans Stacey and Martin Kolomy lost for half an hour today.
The victory at a stage was celebrated by Ales Loprais who made himself a unique gift – today the Czech has a birthday.
We will get the details of two difficult days tomorrow on January 11 when after 273-kilometer SS crews return to the bivouac in Iquique.
General classification after the 7th stage
