Till the very morning night mechanics worked without rest on Astrakhan bivouac, getting the trucks into such a condition befor the marathon stage, so that crews after the special needed only washing. The marathon stage means that the sport crews will go to the closed bivouac and only crew members will be allowed to repair vehicles, without assistance teams who stay in Astrakhan. Unfortunately, here in Astrakhan stay Martin Van Den Brink’s crew, who could reach the base only by the morning. But the Dutch team doesn’t give up and prepare the truck to the next bivouac Elista-Astrakhan (according to the competition regulations, a crew can continue the race if they have to miss one stage). “We will not lose our heart and will continue testing the truck before Dakar, moreover that Astrakhan steppes are a perfect training area for a pilot” – said the Dutch racer.
Arrival of SWR contestants to Kalmykia was a real motorsport festival. On the central square of Seven Pagoda’s was held a ceremony of meeting the crews finishing the marathon stage. Today contestants had to pass 365 kilometers of speed tracks and somewhere impassibility in order to reach the bivouac, situated in The City Chess in Elista. The race organisers took care about participants and compensated the absence of assistance groups by a comfort able stay. A swimming pool, guest houses, delicious dinner – and even more than this awaited the sportsmen after a challenging stage.
The day was unlucky for MAZ Team – one of the crews couldn’t toe the starting line due to the technical issues. The team leader Sergey Vyazovich couldn’t avoid problems as well. Generally, all 4 Belorussian crews faced them. On the finish the racer said that on the hundredth kilometer of the stage a turbocharger was broken and 80 km before the finish the truck became simply “atmospheric”. It is the same breakdown as yesterday the truck of Vyazovich faced with.
Chelny crews of KAMAZ-master Team show stability. Andrey Karginov became the leader of today’s stage, careful but fast driving helped to avoid mistakes and take the first place.
Eduard Nikolaev, leading during almost the whole special, punctured a wheel 20 km before the finish. This mistake costed his crew 8 minutes. After a penalty of Mardeev and Nikolaev, the third place was taken by Anton Shibalov’s crew, acting as a fast assistance.
Andrey Karginov – pilot of crew 309:
“Today was a fast special section, very fast. There was a lot of mud – due to which trucks were not seen on the finish. Fast roads were slippery, you had to keep the truck in the running condition. We couldn’t cut a lot, as we wanted, because there were rain channels, holes and very often we had to drive along the wheel treads. The truck performed well, we realized that there wouldn’t be mechanics that day and we had to bring minimum of work. If there was necessity in a difficult repair – we might not cope with it ourselves, without help of assistance, therefore we tried to drive fast but not to risk”.
Sergwey Kuprianov – pilot of crew 311:
“Today we rolled into the race a bit better, the route was fast, Kalmyk one. Somewhere was mud. It seemed not so hot as yesterday… Only in one place we rigidly caught a cross hole, even my eyes dimmed, but I could keep the steering wheel, and the crew endured it, so it is ok! We saved gas today to keep it for two stages, as in Elista there won’t be a fuel station with methane”.
Sergey Vyazovich- pilot of crew 302:
“Today we didn’t like our starting position much, as there weren’t seen any treads and on the crossroads it was difficult to choose a correct direction. One tread was of Dmitry Sotnikov, we tried to keep it and were driving carefully. But on the hundredth kilometer the boost started to fall. Andrey Karginov caught us up, Dima Sotnikov lost the way and we caught him up, but we couldn’t keep the speed, as there was no power at all. And approximately 60 km before the finish the boost disappeared completely and we reached the finish with the speed of 60-90 kmph. No other complaints about the truck, but we lost much time. At Vishevsky’s truck a ventilator broke down, fell on the water pipe and cut it. It wasn’t difficult to change all that, but with a touch of fortune. While we were repairing, a Turkmenian team came to us and said that 10 km from us Vasilevsky got stuck and nobody could pull him out. Therefore straight after repair drove for him and only together with HINO could pull the truck out”.
