Eduard Nikolaev Strengthened His Leadership in the Truck Category of Dakar

Erik Khairulllin, press attaché of KAMAZ-master, reports fr om Rio Cuarto (Argentina),

"Already yesterday on the bivouac in San Juan, arriving at South America Russian fans started to congratulate KAMAZ-master with their success in the race. “It is early. You will congratulate us if we stand on the podium in Buenos Aires on 14 January”,- wisely noticed the veteran of the team Aidar Belyaev. And that is true. Dakar has always been a competition till the very last meter. 

Today’s special San Juan - Rio Cuarto has boosted confidence, that the main trophey of the rally will go to Russia. KAMAZ-master crews successfully finished the 288-km SS.

However, the first part of the SS with 50 km of dunes had raised fears. Fortunately, not a single KAMAZ crew had problems as on this section, so on the rest kilometers of the special. Eduard Nikolaev showed the best time today increasing his lead for 14 minutes of the main rival Gerard De Rooy. Only the Argentinian Federico Villagra could wedge himself during the stage in the Russian trio - Nikolaev, Mardeev Sotnikov. Villagra on his Iveco showed the second best time today, the gap with the leader Nikolaev was 52 seconds. Anton Shibalov had to stop on the track in order to help Ravil Maganov (No 378), whose gearbox broke down, and towed him to the bivouac.

Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew No 505, "Today’s stage was divided into two special sections - 113 and 175 km long. Between them lied a very long neutralization zone (300 km), wh ere you could think everything over and get your breath to perform well on the second part. The first part of the route looked like Astrakhan - sand tracks with hills, holes. The second part of the special raised us to the mountains with fast curvy roads. A lot of stones were on each side. It was important to avoid them. Then there were roads across grape fields. Quads detained a bit there, and last cars raised much dust. But we did it. Performed well."

Evgeny Yakovlev, co-pilot of crew No505, "Words of the team management help to face with psychological pressing. Vladimir Chagin finds correct words and always helps to set our mind on a stage. The whole tomorrow’s stage is ahead, and you mustn’t relax till the last kilometer."

Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew No 513, "Frankly speaking, may be due to recent years, as the whole current Dakar, so today’s stage, especially its first part, were underestimated. It wasn’t easier than stages last days. There were rough sand hills at the start of the first section. It was hot, both literally and figuratively, we drank much water. We cut our wheel, thought that we would keep it till the neutralization zone, but we had to stop and change it. Fortunately, Airat Mardeev was going behind. We could do it in 6 min together. So, the day was quite difficult. It seemed that everything had been settled, but the fight was still hard. Today attacks were from the Argentinean Villagra, and he is familiar with local places."

Today, on Saturday, 14 January, the Dakar-2017 racers will have the final stage. According to the old rally-marathon tradition, it will be not tool long and heavy. The participants will have to quickly travel 64 kilometers and pass a 786-km liaison to the podium in Buenos Aires. There are no navigation challenges in store for them. Nikolaev's advantage is so huge that the main thing now is just to get to the finish without hurry."

DAKAR-2017. TRUCK CATEGORY. RESULTS OF THE 11TH STAGE. 

DAKAR-2017. TRUCK CATEGORY. GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER THE 11TH STAGE