The crew of Russian Vladimir Chagin, considered the favorite of the famous desert rally "Lisbon-Dakar-2007", unexpectedly dropped out of the fight. At the 292nd kilometer of the fifth stage, a five-time champion took a risk when overtaking, in a cloud of dust he did not notice a pile of stones and knocked over his KAMAZ. Fortunately, this time there was no tragedy, but after the death of the fourth stage of the motorcyclist from South Africa Elmer Simons on the high-speed section, the descent of a Russian truck from the highway is the loudest sensation of Dakar-2007.
At the headquarters of the KAMAZ-Master team, which works in Naberezhnye Chelny and communicates with the crews via satellite phone, Izvestia was informed that the fifth stage, 775 km long, had failed for the race leader almost from the start in Moroccan Ouarzazate. At kilometer 179, a breakdown in the fuel system delayed Chagin’s car for about 20 minutes. The system was able to be repaired, and the pilot tried to eliminate the lag behind the main rivals that went far ahead at the high-speed section. He accelerated the car to 120 km / h, went to overtake someone else's car and did not see a pile of stones about three meters high in the dust cloud. The truck jumped up like on a springboard, rolled over twice in the air and lay on its left side.
The navigator of the overturned KAMAZ and the team leader, Semyon Yakubov, informed the headquarters by telephone that the Dutch pilot Hans Becks provided first aid to the Russians. Despite the excitement of the race and the loss of time, he stopped at a Russian truck and put it on wheels, while a dozen and a half other cars indifferently swept past. A little later, Russian jeepers arrived at the scene of the accident. They managed to unlock the crumpled cab and dragged out Vladimir Chagin and Sergey Savostin, who were unconscious. Semyon Yakubov, fortunately, remained unharmed.
A Russian helicopter evacuated a medical helicopter from the scene of the accident to a bivouac in Tan-Tan. A preliminary examination showed that the pilot received a mild concussion, and his body was covered with abrasions and bruises. Savostin's injury is much more serious - a bruise of the spine of moderate severity. To establish an accurate diagnosis, French doctors decided to evacuate him to Las Palmas.
In the absence of competition from Chagin, the first to finish the fifth stage of the Dakar was Dutchman Hans Stacy in the DAF truck, which became the leader in the overall standings. For 34 minutes before the start of the sixth stage, compatriot Gerard de Rooy lagged behind him at the Ginafe. And in the third position, an hour and a half behind the leader, the backup Russian crew Ilgizar Mardeev broke out. “Of course, it will be very difficult for Mardeev to fight with the giants,” the headquarters said, “but we hope that he will be able to stay in the top three.”
As for the wrecked car, the winner of the “Dakar 2005” Firdous Kabirov is engaged in its evacuation from the desert. In the near future the car will be delivered to Casablanca, from where it will probably be sent to Russia by sea.