The Argentinean Federico Villagra from IVECO team abandons the Dakar Rally. The report of 13th pre-last stage could be finished on that information. It should seem that the chapter on rivalry Nikolaev-Villagra is closed and the fate of the golden 40th Dakar Bedouin is already determined. But let’s not rush. Firstly, on 20 January crews will have to overcome 120-km loop section Cordoba-Cordoba. Secondly, today’s situation on the stage San Juan – Cordoba kept the fans of KAMAZ-master Team on tenterhooks to the very finish of Eduard Nikolaev’s and Airat Mardeev’s crews, but first things first.
124 kilometers of hillocky sand tracks, like Astrakhan ones, dried-up river-beds, impassibility. Then there were 382 km of link section, so called neutralization zone. And here assistance teams were allowed to organize service zones. On today’s second section crews awaited fast curvy stony tracks.
Information about Federico Villagra’s problems appeared almost in the very start. On the 79th km of the route the Argentinean lost about 40 minutes – gear box problems. Almost at the same time appeared information that not everything went smoothly on the truck of Nikolaev – the clutch was out of order, the pilot shifted gears with difficulty, but due to its complexity and labor intensity the repair on the service area was impossible. Too much time was needed, therefore it was clear that Nikolaev’s crew would have to continue their way trying to shift gears as little as possible. Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew came to the service point with a punctured radiator. The leakage was quickly repaired. Airat Mardeev also had a problem – a radiator hose was injured. But KAMAZ-master mechanics were perfect. Despite the sleepless night, on the service point they did a fast, irreproachable and effective job. It was clear that after Villagra’s withdrawal, Airat would move to the third position in the overall. But according to yesterday’s ranking he was not alone to pretend on that place. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) was only a 3 minutes behind and Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) trailed by 16 minutes. But Genugten also had a bad day – a standstill on 596th km due to the technical problems. Apparently, the pilot was blinded by the setting sun and the truck drove into a pile of stones. Rush and excessive risk resulted in the steering breakdown. And Mardeev did not miss a chance to consolidate on the third place.
Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew #500
“It was a very hard special. In the first part of the route, near the finish, the clutch went out of order. And gears shifted only by throttling. The second part was curvy and brought a lot of adventures. That was really something! We are very tired. We spent 14 hours in the truck, came very late. We thought that it would be just a curvy section in WRC-style but last 30 km brought us to some ravines, mountains, stones, trial… If someone punctures a wheel in that place, there would be a traffic jam. A lot of contestants may come only in the morning. Dakar is very interesting. Today we extracted everything from our crew and the trick”.
Airat Mardeev, pilot of crew #507
“Today we acted as “armor-bearers” of Eduard Nikolaev. We secured them throughout the whole route. It should seem that the race is coming to its end, but today’s speed section was surprisingly interesting and varied. Even today, instead of expected fast straight rally tracks, there was a full package of traditional raid surfaces from fesh-fesh to stony trial. In my opinion the Race Director of Dakar Marc Coma did a great job by developing this route”.
.NIKOLAEV EDUARD 05:59:02
2.MARDEEV AIRAT +00:00:50
3.KOLOMY MARTIN +00:06:06
4.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI +00:27:45
5.SOTNIKOV DMITRY +00:32:54
6.SUGAWARA TERUHITO +00:39:16
7.MACIK MARTIN +00:52:30
8.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR +01:00:12
1.NIKOLAEV EDUARD (KAMAZ) 53:13:33
2.VIAZOVICH SIARHEI (MAZ) + 03:53:59
3.MARDEEV AIRAT (KAMAZ) +05:21:05
4.ARDAVICHUS ARTUR (IVECO ) +06:36:37
5.SUGAWARA TERUHITO (HINO ) +07:59:48
6.MACIK MARTIN (LIAZ ) +08:02:51
7.KOLOMY MARTIN (TATRA) +09:01:18
8.SOTNIKOV DMITRY (KAMAZ) +10:04:29
9.SOLTYS MARTIN (TATRA) +21:44:54
