Kazakhstan crew 10th at Dakar's 4th stage

The car crew of Aidyn Rakhimbayev and Vladimir Demyanenko on Proto Overdrive #342 finished the forth stage of Dakar 2014 in the 10th place this brought them to the 14th place in the general ranking of the race, Tengrinews reports. Commenting the forth stage Rakhimbayev said: "The rocky track deranged a dozen of cars within the first 100 km of the special section. We had to cross rivers of meltwater and even drive 10-15 km along them. The car resembled a watercraft. We tagged it a submarine for a joke. We had to shut the sunroof (and there is no conditioner in the car). And the engine was so hot that the water was turning into hot steam that filtered its way into the cabin making it a sauna. "Today was the day when the trucks caught up with the cars and the two classes started mixing for the first time in this race. Bike and quads always start the race first, then cars and trucks start last of all. As the race progresses the fastest trucks catch up with cars and cars catch us with quads and bikes. So when Dakar is about half way through it becomes a hodge-podge. "Today we've managed to breakthrough after starting 21st... We finished 10th! We did not believe our ears when we heard the results announced... We had to work very hard. And we came to realize how hard it is to drive among the leaders... The leaders don't compete, they put up a bloody fight for places and for seconds. The speeds are crazy, so as the pilots. My head is still ringing like a gong from hitting the car frame so many times, as if I've just been to a boxing ring..." The crew was so successful at the fourth stage largely thanks to Rakhimbekov's ample hunting experience. His hunting skills came useful in helping them to follow the leaders tracks. "It is great that we are in the Top 20, but let's not take a long shot. The achievement of the day is that we overtook a Mini, not the leading one, but still a good one and by a landslide. But the day was hot and the navigation was tough. We were lucky to have someone drive the route ahead of use and leave some tracks for us to follow, but sometimes we lost the track because the route went along rocky riverbeds. It is fortunate that Aidyn is a hunter, he managed follow the traces. We had a great team work," Vladimir Demyanenko, the navigator, said after the fourth stage. Another crew of Denis Berezovsky and Ignat Falkov (#413) completed the fourth stage in the 50th place and covered the fifth one in the 41st place and moved up to the 40th line in the overall. The truck crew representing Kazakhstan - famous Kazakhstan pilot Arthur Ardavichus, navigator Alexey Nikizhev and mechanic Radim Kaplanek on Tatra truck #542 - finished the fourth stage in the 40th place, gaining the 32th place in the general ranking of the Dakar rally after four stages.