DAKAR-2018, DAY THREE: VILLAGRA IS ATTACKING

KAMAZ-master's Press Attaché Eric Khayrullin is reporting from San Juan de Marcona (Peru),

"On the way to a bivouac in San Juan de Marcona, the participants of the 2018 Dakar Rally passed a mysterious place – the famous Nazca Plateau – we all had learned about from Yuri Senkevich's TV programs. Scientists have long been breaking their heads over the origin of several dozens of mysterious huge drawings and lines drawn right on the ground. Assistance crews that have left Pisco early in the morning stopped on the roadside and with interest observed a strange figure with open palms raised in the air which is seen from a viewing point on the Pan-American Highway. The geoglyph with the talking name "Hands" was unwittingly associated with the gifted hands of the KAMAZ-master mechanics who had made a miracle on the eve of the start. Ayrat Mardeev's truck which had rolled over in the sands yesterday has quickly been repaired by the morning. Another trouble appeared during the night trip to a refueling station – the back axle gear case started making unusual sounds. Experts know what it takes to replace a gear case in the truck, and if you have to do it in the middle of nowhere and under time pressure before the start, it becomes clear why motor sport fans respect night mechanics as much as star pilots.

However, the pilots themselves realize how hard their assistance crews work and try not to bring technical problems to the bivouac. But racing is racing. And it's unpredictable. The race is very difficult which is proved by the fact that only 30 racing trucks of 42 ones that had started in Lima ran to the starting line of the 296km special from Pisco to San Juan de Marcona. And two trucks at once – driven by Dutch Ton van Genugten and Belarusian Siarhei Viazovich – overturned in the dunes. The race hasn't long seen such a number of accidents reached for only two completed stages. Apparently, Dakar Sporting Director, motorcyclist Marc Coma should henceforth lay the route taking into account the specific character of all vehicles participating in the race and exclude rolls extreme for trucks.

The third stage was also unlucky for Martin van den Brink. The fast Dutchman in a Renault couldn't find a navigation point for a long time, he even met with Ayrat Mardeev's crew coming from the opposite direction, and this all resulted in extra 46 minutes on the finish line. Another failure of the day is Ales Loprais's one. The Czech lost an hour and a half in the middle of the stage – in fact, it's a death sentence for those struggling for victory. This time Ales didn't even wait for his birthday on January 10 on which he usually faces troubles... At the time of writing there was no information about Czech Martin Kolomy's crew which hadn't reached the finish.

Unfortunately, our Dmitry Sotnikov's crew faced problems too. At first, he made an attempt to cut off in the dunces and got stuck. A little bit later, his crew had to replace the cooling sleeve of a water radiator. It took his crew and his helpers from Anton Shibalov's crew almost an hour to fix it. Ayrat Mardeev was more lucky than the day before and scored third result of the stage after winner Federico Villagra (03:56:37) and Eduard Nikolaev who finished second losing to Villagra only 35 seconds.

The night before the judges returned Federico Villagra 10 minutes for the first stage explaining that the Argentinian had lost time due to the organizers' malfunctioning GPS device (it registers how crews reach navigation points). As a result, this return helped Villagra approach leader Eduard Nikolaev in the general classification for three days, and now there are only 8 minutes and 58 seconds between the rivals. A tough psychological confrontation between the Russian and the Argentinian has started. Villagra is older than Nikolaev and seems to be more stable emotionally. Eduard is bearing the heavy burden of responsibility in the situation when his teammates lose too much (Sotnikov's 10th, Mardeev's 16th, Shibalov's 17th), but we hope that he and his crew will cope with it.

Vladimir Chagin, Head of KAMAZ-master, "The Dakar is about suddenness and unexpected difficulties. The racers had to pass heavy sands right from the first specials, and this multiplied all these factors. But this is a fair exam. The more we wish to reverse the situation with our three crews in the near future. The next important task is that Eduard Nikolaev's crew should grasp their good result and continue running fast and at the same time without failures."

Anton Shibalov, Pilot of Crew 515, "Yesterday we were lucky, because we travelled behind Ayrat and were quick to help. The terrain is tricky. A huge sand trap which, as far as I know, became a nights lodging for 17 racers. It wasn't easy to evacuate Ayrat's truck, we rushed with ramps in this heat, and for a moment I felt bad. It was probably a heat stroke. Today Dmitry Sotnikov's crew wasn't lucky. We hauled them out twice, and for the second time we had to replace a fan drive."

Eduard Nikolaev, Pilot of Crew 500, "We lost five minutes at first – we got stuck in the sand for a while, and then we spent one minute for navigation. At first, we searched for the road, but I got distracted a little bit and drove into the sands which were loose just like in Mauritania at high pressure. The pressure was 3.5 atm, and it takes just 3 minutes to decrease it to one atm. We lowered it and ran out. The jeeps and quads which had started before were a problem, but, on the whole, it was a very interesting and challenging stage."

Dmitry Sotnikov, Pilot of Crew 502, "We drove into the dunes. Quite difficult, steep and frequent. We saw a TATRA in front of us failing to pass the dunes. We tried to bypass this place. We fell into a very sharp sand pit, so the truck cab bumped into the sand. This is a probable cause why the fan drive broke, apparently, after we had hit the sand it broke. On the whole, the truck is running well. Occasionally, we face power losses, try to debug the engine control. There's nothing to complain about. Today's situation was definitely not because of the engine."

Dmitriy Svistunov, Mechanic of Ayrat Mardeev's Crew 507, "We started behind a HINO, and we immediately overtook it. There were two specials with a neutralization zone, and we saw no one else during the first part. Neither Loprais (TATRA) nor Macik (LIAZ) who had started ahead of us didn't reach the finish of the second special. Then we were told that Loprais had faced engine problems. He even drove to the bivouac (right in the neutralization zone). Then we saw Genugten (IVECO), it was unclear why he had fallen. There wasn't sand there, the soil was hard, I guess. Then we caught up with Dmitry Sotnikov. We backed him up, sometimes let him run ahead. We helped with a vehicle course in the dunes. Later Sotnikov's crew got lost. 300 meters before the finish we saw Siarhei Viazovich's MAZ falling on its side. The organizers made a point on the sand hill, and there he made a mistake – he didn't see a small steep in the sands. But very quickly he drove up and put Aleksey Vishnevsky's crew on the wheels. After yesterday it seems that things are getting better. Ayrat picked up his pace, very fast and confident. There was no fuss."

Today, on January 9, the Dakar racers are to pass the fourth stage. Notwithstanding the pleasant start on the ocean beach, the racers won't be able to relax during the circular stage near San Juan de Marcona. Another difficult day is waiting for them, and the organizers promise a total of 100 km, with dunes of all sizes! The general length of the stage is 330 kilometers. Who knows whether this day will become crucial or not? Many racers will try to win back or increase a gap just on Tuesday. Good luck to our racers!"

Dakar-2018. Truck Category. Results of Stage 3

Dakar-2018. Truck Category.  General Classification after Stage 3