Italian Baja 2014. Day 2 results.
Sunday, 16 March 2014 01:03
Day 2 at Italian Baja 2014 is done. Cars passed through 5 selective stages, three of them 44 km long and two 19 km long. The struggle was for seconds!
Crew #206 Gadasin/Kuzmich spent the day in a very good pace and gradually regained time from their rivals. At the third SS of the day they became leaders in overall classification.
For the moment the standings look as follows:
Among the events of the day was a roll-over of the Saudi Yazeed AlRajhi, the winner of “Russia – Northern Forest” baja. This happened after the finish line and before the “stop” sign of SS2 in quite a sharp curve. It took about 4 and a half minutes to put the car back on the wheels. But this time was enough for the next crew (#202 Vasilyev/Zhiltsov) to finish the SS and to give the time card to the marshals. So the start order for the next SS was corrected according to the order of time cards’ check-in.
The SS6 start for cars was delayed due to the accident with a biker who had a heavy crash, so rescue team had to evacuate him to the hospital. The SS was cancelled for motos. And Boris Gadasin’s crew had an almost funny incident at this stage: they lost their hood! Later the hood was found with the help of very friendly and positive media crews who also helped us to bring the hood to the service area. Greatest thanks to you, guys!
Now the crew is sharing their impressions of the day.
Boris Gadasin: There was a part of the track with not even a river but a huge puddle. We were driving really fast. Unfortunately the bracket which holds front left fender broke down. The result was that the fender itself was broken and then the hood flew away. The next 5 kilometers we had lots of new impressions. New is the long forgotten old! Remember the “Northern Forest”… A little bit different, but… The broken fender raised up and obscured us the view to the left. That meant I did not see the way in left turns. Thanks God that was not the first pass of this track so I remembered the way approximately. And fortunately later the fender broke up finally and stopped bothering me. So we did not lose much time there.
Alexey Kuzmich: Top-five overall are really fighting nose to nose! Fighting for seconds! The unpleasant news - SS6 was delayed by an hour. One of the riders had a hard fall. There was ambulance and rescue team on the track... Reckless motobikers... Before SS5 we were pleased to meet the spectators who came to start with a piece of fender from Boris’ race car from year 2007! They were so happy to meet us, made pictures, asked for an autograph on the piece of the fender they brought...
Tomorrow the participants will face four selective stages, the same as today but the opposite direction, two of 44 km and two of 19 km long. Start for the first crew is at 8:20 a.m., and at 3:30 p.m. the finish Podium and Prize Giving ceremony will take place.
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