12 January, Arequipa
On the 12th January the planned day of rest came for the contestants of the Dakar. Contestants are staying at the bivouac in Arequipa. Mechanics of the teams are engaged in regulation and unscheduled work, repairing sport vehicles after the first half of the race and preparing them for the second part of the route. Peruvian landscapes and surfaces are the most in the Dakar style. Killing impassibility, beds of dried-up rivers, movement in courses, huge dunes did not spare vehicles. Mechanics had plenty of work and it was quite diverse. By the evening, the engines began to gun up, the contestants started to carry out tests.
In the morning KAMAZ-master team leader Vladimir Chagin, the driver Andrey Karginov and the doctor of the team Irina Zelenkova visited in the hospital of Arequipa Even Derek Hudson, who had injured his leg at the stage Tacna-Arequipa yesterday.
The working day of mechanics of KAMAZ-master Team also began early in the morning. Mainly these were planned works: replacement of springs, wheels, filters, exhaust manifolds, turbochargers, etc. The cold and fog did not contribute to a good mood, which usually reigns that day on Dakar. Unfortunately, the race fortune is as changeable as the weather in Arequipa. Just yesterday, KAMAZ-master seemed to have secured a comfortable position in the truck classification on the race, taking the first three lines in the general standings of the truck category. The withdrawal from the race of Andrey Karginov’s crew, which happened in the evening on January 11 due to well-known events, changed the distribution of forces. Today it turned out that another crew of the team could not continue the race. Already on the bivouac in San Juan de Marcona cracks were found on the outside side of the engine block of Airat Mardeev. Such a defect in 1,5 years of tests and refinement of the new 13-liter engines appeared for the first time. Ill-fated cracks have arisen in the area of alignment boss of the exhaust system. In order to prevent loss of oil, they were cleaned and sealed. But after the stage Tacna-Arequipa, the cracks increased several times, and after removing the pan, they were also found inside the cylinder block. There are no unsolvable tasks for KAMAZ-master mechanics and they could overhaul the engine (experience of previous years shows that more complicated problems were solved). But the Dakar rules do not allow the replacement of engines during the race. After a detailed analysis of the situation, the team management decided not to risk and not release Airat Mardeev’s crew for the rest special stages, as in case of further breakdown of the cylinder block, it would be impossible to evacuate the truck from the tough dunes of the Sechura Desert. There are very difficult days ahead and in the absence of A. Karginov's truck, backup of the leading crews of E. Nikolaev and D. Sotnikov is extremely necessary. But you need to accept it as a given - only two KAMAZ-master crews remain in the race. The function of fast assistance will be performed by the crew of Dmitry Sotnikov.
The second half of Dakar-2019 will begin with a long liaison in the direction of San Juan de Marcona. Here they are awaited by a 290-km fast special section. The rally-marathon begins to move back to Lima, where the finish of the race will take place on January 17.
