January 19, Santiago
The last special stage of 157 km between La Serena and Valparaiso certainly don’t let the fans of the KAMAZ-master Team to relax in anticipation of such a close victory of Andrey Karginov who leads the overall. But anybody didn’t expect dramatic developments, such tension and intensity of emotions that have happened the last day of the Dakar-2014.
Let’s reconstruct the course of the events. The 50 juggernauts still in the race roared into today's special at 11:27 am local time, with Gerard de Rooy leading the charge ahead of Andrey Karginov and Eduard Nikolaev. Fans can only monitor tracking system and wait for the competitors at the finish. Very fast special is laid in a narrow valley between two mountain ranges and a gravel road winds between few settlements. Andrey Karginov leads the general classification after 12 stages; he is in front of De Rooy by 7’25”. It is a small gap given that, for example, it takes 10 minutes to change the tyre. Dutchman Gerard De Rooy was first to cross the finish line. Team leader Vladimir Chagin begins to countdown in anticipation of the crew 506. Hundreds of thousands of fans of the KAMAZ-master Team are in anticipation too. Time slips along. Karginov is not at the finish yet. The shock and confusion lasting a few minutes were interrupted by live feed: "90 km into today's special, China's Zhou Yong made a mistake; his car crashed and blocked the road”. The crews of Karginov and Nikolaev helped to set the car back upright. Later the video from the place appeared on TV channels: Gerard De Rooy with his truck №501 was first on this place. It is clear that China's Zhou Yong asked for the help, but De Rooy passed there touching the damaged car, but he didn’t stop to help the crew. Gerard de Rooy slipped ahead. It is strange but this moment disappeared then from the video on the Dakar official website.
Broken car blocked the road, more than that it represents a serious danger to the participants going at maximum speeds. Then the crews of Karginov and Nikolaev arrived and tried to put the car on wheels by hand, but it was without success. They managed to set the car back upright just with the help of the truck of Andrey Karginov.
After the stage race officials had to deduct 5’20” from the time of the KAMAZ №306. Andrey Karginov won the rally Dakar-2014 by 3’11” over Gerard De Rooy! De Rooy is the second. Behind them, the other KAMAZes hogged places 3 to 5, with defending champion Eduard Nikolaev, Dmitry Sotnikov and Anton Shibalov.
Race and assistance crews head to Valparaiso, where the official awarding ceremony the evening should be held. But on arrival in the city, another surprise was prepared for the crew 506. De Rooy registered a protest to the Stewards: Chinese crew allegedly didn’t need help, and Karginov hadn’t to stop there. Strange logic! More than that many motorsport fans will never forget the story that happened after the accident of Ayrat Mardeev at the stage San Luis - San Rafael. KAMAZ crashed and turned completely onto his roof. De Rooy decided to go round but got stuck hundred meters from KAMAZ. In this situation De Rooy told the whole world without batting an eye that he helped Ayrat Mardeev. Despite the fact that there wasn’t any help, but even any request, Sport Stewards didn’t invite the crew 503 to confirm the fact and returned 22 minutes to De Rooy, and it allowed him to be in the lead of the trucks general classification. But this time race officials didn’t accept the arguments of Gerard. The victim of the accident Zhou Yong and witnesses Aydin Rakhimbaev and Vladimir Demyanenko were invited to the officials to analyze the situation; all of them didn’t understand the behavior of Gerard. However, according to the KAMAZ navigator Andrey Mokeev, Chinese crew thanked the Russians once again, and race officials congratulated the crew with the victory. This victory was won on the track, and not by writing protests.
It was especially difficult to win this year. By all accounts the Dakar-2014 has become one of the most difficult in its history. From the very beggining the marathon wasn’t simple for our team. Only three days before the end of the race Andrey Karginov became a leader in general classification. He had stage by stage, minute by minute to win back lost time at the beginning because of a puncture and the notorious 22 minutes, presented to the main rival Gerard de Rooy by Sports Stewards. One moment was behind the scenes: after one of the stages Karginov fainted from overheating, he was hospitalized and spent the night at a medical bivouac.
Vladimir Chagin commented the final day and the whole results of the race: "The guys are absolutely right, they stopped near an overturned car, set it back upright and unblocked the way for the competitors. It is a good end of the race. I am very pleased and proud that the guys can not only drive fast, but also to act correctly in unusual situations.
We had a lot of important tasks on this Dakar. Two young crews: Dmitry Sotnikov and Anton Shibalov participated at the Dakar for the first time. In general few drivers can reach the finish line from the first time, and our guys could do it, but also they could show the best possible result. Of course, it’s impossible to be on the podium from the first time, but the fourth and fifth place – it is a very decent result for beginners.
We tested our new engine in extreme conditions of the marathon and got a lot of useful material for its further improvement. Most of this work has been assigned to the crew of Eduard Nikolaev and he did his best: he fought on the race track and at the same time tested the new engine. There were some difficulties and nuances. I am glad that finally this crew is on the podium, it is the first Dakar for a young co-pilot Evgeny Yakovlev. Of course, their third place is a good result for the crew.
Ayrat Mardeev was unlucky this year, but it is a sport, he and his crew have shown themselves to be real fighters. I’m very pleased with the work of our mechanics and the entire assistance group. Thanks to the coordinated action of the team, four our crews are in the Top-5, and gold and bronze Dakar coups are on the way to Russia!"
