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Pharaons Rally 2006 Special-Newssection
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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the Total Pharaons
Rally 2006. To see all news please use the link under the
article or navigate with the left main-navigation.
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Pharaons 2006: First leg of the Pharaons Rally for Russia and France
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Full course to south on the first stage of the 9th Pharaons International Cross Country Rally in Egypt. Almost 400 km, 340 of which were in time trial between Cairo and the oasis of Baharija. The race started at sunrise under the kindly stare of the Sphinx, next to the great pyramids of Giza, but quickly brought its batch of surprises - and misfortunes.
From the bikes side, even if the Spanish pilot Jordi Viladoms (KTM) won the stage with a single second difference in front of his team leader Marc Coma, Victor Rivera (Rieju 450) taking the third place of this Spanish podium, some others like David Casteu had to face their first problems. In the car category, the Russian buggy from Shmakov (Buggy Zil), leader of the FIA Cross Country World Cup, managed the fastest time and then took the head of the cars ranking, Jose Louis Monterde with his BMW X5 suffered technical problems.
102 teams (73 bikes, 22 cars and 7 trucks) took the start this morning of the 9th International Pharaons Cross Country Rally, whose start line was established on the famous Giza plateau. First biker to take off, the French pilot David Casteu (KTM) opened the track in front of Marc Coma (KTM) and Jordi Villadoms (KTM). The two Catalans closed the gap shortly after the CP2 (km 100), leaving Casteu behind them. As he was reaching the arrival camp, Casteu experienced carburetion problems, forcing him to disassemble the complete system on the track and to wait for the help of Laurent Lazard and the Chilen Jaime Prohens before to continue his road to the bivouac.
Unfortunately, the misadventure of the pilot from Nice did not end there, since he fell down few kilometres before the finish line. Almost 1h20 were conceded by the present leader of the World Championship, who arrived 19th, very far behind Villadoms, who signs here his first victory on African soil. The young Spanish pilot Victor Rivera (Rieju 450), who took benefit from the technical problems (exhaust system) of Fransisco Lopez (Honda 450), is completing this podium 100% Spanish. With this good result, Rivera is taking the head of the 450cc category with his prepared bike from the famous "craftsman" Fernando Pradès.
A lot of unexpected developments in the cars category as well, where a tough competition was foreseen between the Russian Buggy Zil from Sergey Shmakov and the BMW X5 from the Spaniard Monterde. The Russian Buggy, which started shortly ahead of its main opponent, did not manage to get out of his sight. However, some transmission problems on the X5 forced its driver to lose the contact few kilometres only before the CP 4 (km 232). Spending more than fifteen minutes at the assistance point, the Spanish driver and its Belgium co-pilot, Jean-Marie Lurquin, had to repeat the same operation in the second half of the stage before to arrive 4th of the stage won by Shmakov.
Second came Yvan Muller with his Dessoude Nissan Pickup, very enthusiastic from his first stage in an African off-road rally. With a careful way of driving (at least over the first kilometres), the king of the ice and present official driver for Seat in WTCC, masterized his car to stay ahead of the BMW X5 of the Bresilian Paulo Nobre.
In the T2 category, the Totani s brothers (Mitsubishi Pajero) achieved the victory in the first racing day before the Mercedes ML from Jean-Pascal Besson and the Nissan Pathfinder from Laurent Rosso. As far as Christian Laveille (Nissan Pathfinder) is concerned, the rally started with some electronic problems with a defaulting ignition sensor. Despite this imperfections, which cost him a precious time, the present leader can stay confident as for its objective: only a podium would guarantee him the desired world title.
As expected, Giacomo Vismara (Iveco) won the stage in the truck category, by managing the fastest time, giving him the excellent 11th position of the general ranking.
2006/09/17 | 15:37 CET | Editor: Pharaons Live Team/Eduardo Bauer
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