NIKOLAEV'S FAILURE BRINGS VILLAGRA TO FIRST PLACE

KAMAZ-master's Press Attaché Eric Khayrullin is reporting from Chilecito (Argentina),

"The small provincial city of Chilecito saw its best years at the end of the 19th century when miners were thriving there. Near the city, there is a cablecarril Chilecito – La Mejicana 35 km long used for gold mining in the Sierras de Famatina. Now, only mine cars piled up in a heap on the skirts of the city commemorate bygone battles for pelf.

The 2018 Dakar racers arrived there on the 17th of January in order to fight their own battle for gold which sometimes gets hardcore. The hot weather made the sands of the local Fiambala desert loose, turning the 280km special into one of the most difficult tracks of the jubilee Dakar. The organizers repeated the practice of 2016 when the results of the previous special stage determined the start list with a mixed start of 25 fastest racers from the categories BIKE (10 bikes), CAR (10 cars) and TRUCK (5 trucks). The top five trucks that were the first to start are two trucks of IVECO (Villagra, Genugten), two trucks of KAMAZ-master (Nikolaev, Mardeev) and one truck of MAZ (Viazovich).

Dry riverbeds, dunes, off-road, lots of fine fesh-fesh sand, piles of dry branches and stones dangerous for tires: the weather conditions in Chilecito and the route prepared by the organizers are amazingly challenging from one year to the next.

Eduard Nikolaev's truck was seriously damaged at the 83th km (there had been a wheel puncture earlier at that). Terrible luck: an enormous boulder hits mounting brackets of a transfer case and bends a crankshaft in a rock wash marked by the organizers as a trial. Ayrat Mardeev's crew stopped to help the crew in the first (wheel) and second (crankshaft) cases. The crankshaft was removed from the truck and mounted in Nikolaev's truck. The finish shows that Federico Villagra (IVECO) tops the general classification after 11 stages.

It should be noted that the Argentinian's 10 minute penalty upon Peterhansel's complaint (Crew 300, for misconduct by overtaking) hasn't been taken into account in this table yet. The thing is that, according to the commissioners' decision, this is a delayed penalty, and it will be imposed on Villagra only in case of the next similar violation. By the evening of January 17, the Argentinian had been penalized by 15 minutes for suspension stroke limitation straps torn to pieces. It should be reminded that the suspension stroke of the racing truck is limited to 300 mm, this indicator is controlled by special straps attached to each wheel and sealed by technical commissioners. With account of this penalty, the Argentinian is ahead of Eduard Nikolaev after 11 stages of the race by 1 minute 7 seconds.

Another representative of IVECO Ton van Genugten lost two hours on the track due to a power steering failure.

Today Dmitry Sotnikov's crew has been steadily fast. Third position at the stage. Despite the time loss at the beginning of the stage due to replacement of a wheel and an air-oil intensifier and a loss of about 50 minutes, he later managed to cut a gap from the leader to 28 minutes. The stage was, however, won by Siarhei Viazovich (MAZ) having reached 3rd place in the general classification and increased the gap from struggling for the same place Ayrat Mardeev's crew.

All day, the race organizers were monitoring Anton Shibalov's crew taking waypoints one by one. But there was no time scored by Crew 515 in the final table and in the general classification as of the end of the day. The reason became known only late in the evening. The judges took a decision to withdraw Anton shibalov's crew from the race. It is to be recalled that after the fire during yesterday's special, Shibalov's crew managed to control the fire on their own and start the second special of yesterday. Then the crew took a decision to finish without taking control waypoints, having realized that the fire had affected the truck. In such cases, the judges usually impose a time penalty. Therefore the withdrawal of the crew, which doesn't claim to win the podium, from the race is, according to experts, an unduly severe and ambiguous decision which will definitely weaken the Russian team. Emergency functions are assigned to Dmitry Sotnikov's crew, by decision of the team head. There are three Russian crews left in the race. They will have three days to try to improve the situation.

Evgeny Yakovlev, Co-Driver of Eduard Nikolaev's Crew 500, "There were sand roads, winding and rich in dry twigs and trees, at the beginning and at the end of the special stage. I've never seen this before. The whole field of dead trees. It was right there wh ere we punched a wheel. And, then, at the 83th kilometer in a rocky trial, while crossing a riverbed, we touched a stone with a gearbox. About thirty millimeters would have saved us. It stuck in the ground and hooked the gearbox. The truck weighs much, and the gearbox moved about 50 millimeters backwards. The cardan of the suspension was stretched. It started vibrating. Luckily, we were followed by Ayrat Mardeev. We used his truck as a donor. We are grateful to them, they helped us out. Six kilometers before the finish, unfortunately, we again hit dead branches and got a flat tire. Air inflating didn't work. We had to replace the wheel. We lost about 7 minutes for this."

Today, on January 18, the Dakar will have the 12th stage Chilecito – San Juan. The trucks will run 791 km, including 522 km of special. It'll be a very difficult and long stage during which our racers will try to win back time. The organizers warn, "The only way that car and truck crews will be able to get through this long day without getting stuck in the rios will be by carefully keeping to the road book."

Dakar-2018. Truck Category. Results of Stage 11

Dakar-2018. Truck Category.  General Classification after Stage 11