G-Force Motorsport

Dakar 2013. Day 11. The special was stopped!

Wednesday, 16 January 2013 21:20

 

21:00 (Moscow time) The 11th stage of Dakar 2013 is stopped due to the weather conditions although some competitors had already started. The special was stopped after Boris Gadasin had passed CP1 at 53 km of the route. According to the reports from the route, it’s heavily raining in the mountains, the rivers are flooded.

Online reports (official)>>>

22:10 Boris Gadasin (driver #348): We had already passed through the rather complicated sands, the route was interesting, there were some fords. But after heavy rains these fords are hard to wade. Primarily, the organizers stopped us at 53 km and warned that the next part of the route was dreadful. But we answered we were not afraid and went on. We managed to drive normally everywhere. But later they stopped us once more and said the special had been halted. I regret we had no possibility to drive through it all. It’s a pity… When you start in first ten you can drive without dust and at a good interval, nobody obstructs each other. You can just enjoy driving.

22:30 Alexey Kuzmich (co-driver #348): Everything was so good at the beginning! We were going through the liaison and already knew that the special was shortened for 30 kms. There was a sand storm when we started. Thanks god, we had nowhere lost our way. It is a very interesting special varied in different parts: here are either rocks, or river beds, or fords, or just anything you can imagine! Nice dunes, too. They are more solid after rains but not so dangerous. First we overcame one river that had been expected to be dried out but happened to have some water. Then the next  river with more water. Before another river they stopped us (at CP) and were repeating in Spanish: ‘imposible, imposible!’ We thought: “Are we not trophy riders?’ So we replied: ‘posible, no problem!’ And it turned out to be true, we passed the river easily. And drove on for 60 or 70 kilometers. Then at some other point a helicopter stopped us. They told us that the special was over, the stage halted, and forwarded us to a bypass road. No we are at the bivouac.


00:00 
The Stewards of the Meeting decision is that the cars/trucks results for stage 11 will be considered as those at CP1. For all the crews not having passed the CP1 by the time the special was halted, the time will be assigned as 01:13:25 (the time #318 Christian Lavieille had).

Will the special be accounted for the bikes/quads? Yes, sure, because most of them had already finished before the rivers got flooded. 

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