9th stage : 2008 Transsyberia Rally Updated!

Stage 10 Mankhan - Darvi in action

July 21th, 2008, Mankhan - Darvi, 316 km.

Team France wins its first special stage and extends its lead in the overall standings

10th stage of 14
Liaison 1: 82 km
Special stage: 233 km
Liaison 2: 1 km

The Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson has already been underway for twelve days and once again the difficult conditions took their toll on some of the participants yesterday. For that reason, the teams Middle East, Porsche CN and Lybia-Rally-Raid were absent from today’s 10th leg from Mankhan to Darvi. The remaining 25 teams had an even stretch ahead of them with river crossings on the plain of the county Hovd. The 220 km long special stage led through the valley of the 3933 meter high Baatar Khairkhan Mountain range.



Torrential rains confronted many teams with significant difficulties. After midsummery temperatures at the start, torrential rains developed in the afternoon, which transformed the sandy paths of Mongolia into a muddy mess. Many of the crews had huge problems finding the checkpoints and didn’t reach Camp Darvi until the evening.

The Top 3 in the overall standings, Team France, Team Portugal and Team Germany 1, were the first to start the special stage in the morning. Armin Schwarz, pilot of Team Germany 1, was confident after he arrived at the destination. “It went well for us. We had no problems navigating.“ Only two punctures had cost them time. “When we put the car-jack in place during the second tire change, we realized that something was wrong with the car. In the last section we kept on touching down.“ They crossed the finish line on the wheel rim, with a torn up right front tire. “Our mechanics will fix the car now and then we’ll be off again tomorrow.“, stated Armin Schwarz matter-of-factly. The appraisal turned out though, that Team Germany 1 had missed some of the checkpoints on the stretch and therefore received a time penalty of 60 minutes. That means 11th place in the overall standings.

The leaders in the overall standings, the Frenchmen Christian Lavieille and Francois Borsotto came in shortly after Schwarz and captured their first victory in a special stage. Their Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia was in good condition, as it had been throughout the past days. Lavieille is aware that the competition is watching him closely now. “We haven’t however prepared a specific tactic for tomorrow’s trial“, the Frenchman said at the camp in the evening.

Team Portugal with Pedro Gameiro and Pedro Figueiredo landed in second place with a lag of 4:15 minutes. “The weather conditions, especially the rain during the last 15 kilometers, made the stretch a lot more difficult than we thought. Loads of puddles and bumps. But we did come in second and are second overall too. We want to make up some time during the stage tomorrow“, Pedro Gameiro said confidently.

The young Team USA is gathering more and more momentum and came in third today. Together with his navigator Colin Godby, Ryan Millen, son of last year’s winner Rod Millen, mastered the demanding stretch brilliantly and crossed the finish line with a lag of 9:03 minutes.

The first team to arrive at the destination, almost an hour ahead of Schwarz/Schulz, was Colombian Arrow. “From a certain moment on, we couldn’t see anything anymore with all the rain and the steam. The clouds were hanging low over the valley and I thought, if something happens to us now, no helicopter will be able to land. I made the decision to abort the special stage and drive along the main road to the camp for safety reasons“, explained Christian Pfeil-Schneider his quick arrival. He calmly accepted the time penalties which awaited him and his co-driver Tommy Steuer.

For the first time in the Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson, a crew pressed the emergency button. The Suzuki/Maxi Team, with rally newcomers Melina Frey and Alexandra Hahn, sounded the alarm when they watched a vehicle roll over several times. Deep grooves filled with rainwater proved the undoing of the Swiss Team Desert Fox during a passing maneuver. The driver lost control of his Mitsubishi Pajero. Pilot Aurele Bachmann as well as co-pilot Damien Blanke were not hurt, but the vehicle was totaled.

Tomorrow, the 11th stage of this year’s Transsyberia Rally powered by Sony Ericsson is taking place. It’ll run over 200 km in eastward direction to Altay in the district with the same name. How many of today’s 25 teams will continue, will not be determined until Tuesday morning, since repairs on several cars have to be made overnight.

Click to Overall Result

Image gallery : July 20th, 2008 * Ölgy - Mankhan






All images are copyright © Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson

[Source : Official 2008 Transsyberia Rally]