Vladimir Chagin:”The more serious the rivalry, the more interesting the fight is”.

Termas de Rio Hondo, 4 January

On the third day after the start in Buenos-Aires caravan of Dakar Rally 2016 reached Termas de Rio Hondo, a place known for its healing thermal springs and the route for the World Moto Racing Championship. Yesterday the sportsmen looked like seamen without sails catching breeze, because due to well-known reasons the first real sports day was only today. As a reminder, the prologue of Dakar 2016 didn’t happen because of the accident, on 3 January the special section was neutralized due to heavy rains, which had washed out the route.

But today’s race start happened right off the bat. The planned for 4 January special 510 km long on the route Villa-Carlos-Paz – Termas de Rio Hondo was to be the longest in the rally of the year. However, weather conditions, which are quite extreme in this part of South America in January, made their “contribution” to the race. Thermometer in the assistance vehicle of Nikolay Strakhov shows 42 degrees of heat. Even wind doesn’t save us from heat. Fortunately for new racers the special stage was cut to 387 km.

It was clear from the brief description and infographics that today’s stage is going to be more of WRC-type on fast, curvy, somewhere rocky roads. The race organizers separated special sections for motorbikes and quads, but trucks (55 crews) started together with cars.

On CP1 the winner of Dakar 2007 Hans Stacey, who participates in the rally the tenth time, takes the lead in the truck category. Not bad anniversary performance was shown by the Netherlander, considering that some parts on the rally course were unusual for Europeans – due to the rains the special section was more like trofie rather than rally-raid. This year Gerard de Rooy’s cousin ‘betrayed’ Iveco team, getting behind the wheel of Pieter Versluis’ MAN team. However, the holy place is never empty and two top drivers Czech Ales Loprais and Argentinian Federico Vllagra joined Gerard de Rooy’s team. Villagra made his debut in the heavy category on the race in Morocco. Last year the Argentinian on his Ford Ranger was the twelfth at the finish of Dakar. First time he participated in Dakar in 2014. He was at the wheel of Mini with X-Raid team on the 27^th position in the general classification. The Argentinian is very fast on rally courses. His preparation and experience in classic rallies made an impact on his performance. Considering the lack of sand on the route of Dakar 2016, Villagra is a potential pretender for the podium in T4 category. Just after the CP2 the ambitious sportsman reminded about it by changing Hans Stacey several times at the top of the table as the stage progressed.

Disappointing news come from the route – Reno of Martin van den Brinke has burnt to the ground. Fortunately no one was hurt in the accident. One of the main claimants for Dakar prize leaves the ‘battle’.

Russian spectators are certainly most interested in the results of “KAMAZ-master” crews: Airat Mardeev, Eduard Nikolaev, Andrey Karginov and Dmitry Sotnikov finished today’s special on 8, 9, 10 and 13 positions. Although the time difference with the leaders is small, such a start could be called careful. 14 min difference between Dmitry Sotnikov and Hans Stacey are explained by the fact that the Russian crew stopped to extinguish the truck of Martin Van Den Brink. 4 min spent on it will be compensated automatically by the jury. Moreover, on the road not far from the bivouac a jeep of one of the crews burnt.

Airat Mardeev’s crew came to the bivouac with broken wind screen. The reason is broad-crowned trees, growing along the roads. Starting first his truck #500 had to ‘clean’ the road for other following trucks. Apart from the wind screen replacement, this night they would have to adjust the brakes on all KAMAZ trucks – their work was not ideal.

Eduard Nikolaev remarked that due to not correct schedule of the day the crews were quite nervous when reaching the start of the special section. Organizers gave only an hour and a half to pass 90 km of the liaison, and they had to drive along narrow roads of local villages. As a result, the start was delayed for 20 min. “In general, the special was quite fast, where engine pull down, on-time gear change and reliable brakes played a more important role than, for example, a suspension. Reaching the washed out field we saw a slough appeared there from vehicles that had already passed. We preferred to go round this place,” – told Eduard the journalists later.

Being a bombero (firefighter, Spanish) today Dmitry Sotnikov told that approximately on the 275^th km of the special section they had suddenly noticed Reno of Martin Van Den Brink: “its cab was dented and in the rear part of the truck fire was rising. We didn’t see anyone, we were afraid that people could be inside. We rushed to fight fire. Fortunately the crew wasn’t hurt. But we didn’t succeed in saving the vehicle. Two fire extinguishers of the two crews were not enough to stop the fire.”

Crew of Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov on Toyota prepared by Belgian Overdrive team, made a sensation in the car category. Russians were only for 2 min 38 sec slower than the famous leader Sebastien Loeb, nine-time World Champion in the classic rally (the Frenchman made his debut in rally raids only this year). Second position takes Staphane Peterhansele (+00:02:23).

One more Russian Sergei Karyakin performing in the quad category was the 16^th today(+00:16:26). On one of the closed turns Sergey had to swerve off the route in order not to hit two other crashed quads on the road border. Also, Karyakin ran into a stone in the high grass and turned over. Luckily, it didn’t have serious consequences, the sportsman got off only with scratches. The cracked aluminum tank for water was welded by KAMAZ-master on the bivouac in the evening.

To sum it up, the leader of the team Vladimir Chagin remarked: “ Today it was unusual for our spectators to see the crews not leading the race. Of course, the buck fever could influence, too. Previous years Dakar started similar. This year we must take into consideration that rivals have been preparing more than ever before during 2015 season, they have improved their vehicles, a lot of trainings have been held in Africa, and now we see the result. I have told many times that this Dakar will be challenging in terms of rivalry in the truck category. However, the whole race lies ahead, this is sport. The stronger the rivalry, the more interesting the fight is”. 

Dakar 2016. Trucks. 2 Stage results (first 14 crews)

Dakar 2016. Trucks. General Classification after 2 Stage (first 14 crews)