Kamil Wiśniewski’s marathon adventures
Kamil Wiśniewski finished the two-day marathon through Bolivian wilderness with the 17th time in the Dakar general standings. So far, he is the second in the 4-wheel drive class, right behind an Argentinian, Daniel Mazzucco. “I feel as good as always. My quad is a bit worse though, but now my mechanics will take over and try to revive it”, said the quad rider.
It was the longest stage of this year’s edition of the Dakar Rally. 253 vehicles were left out of total 335, and they competed for 498 km. The route took them down fast gravel roads, across grassy dunes, and through muddy wetlands.
Kamil Wiśniewski enountered a lot of problems during the first day of the marathon stage but he managed to solve them at the bivouac in Uyuni. He was able to get back on the (off) road on Sunday as good as new.
“I’m glad to have made it this far since there were a lot of things going on, especially on the first day of the marathon stage. My roadbook frame got broken and I had to stop a few times to fix it. Next, my quad switched to the service mode and kept signaling engine problems. I had like 30% of power left, so when I dove into water, I had a hard time getting out. I was putting sticks and stones under the wheels to finally be able to move forward,” reported the racer.
“It wasn’t quite over yet, though,” he added “While riding through tall grass and dry twigs, something got stuck inside my ventilator which messed up my engine cooling system. I had a lot of repairing to be done at the bivouac, so I just focused on getting there during the second day. The danger of breaking my roadbook off was real, and it would mean at least one-hour loss on fixing. So I decided to proceed with care and I managed to realize my plan,” concluded Wiśniewski.
The SS winner in the class of quads was a French rider, Simon Vitse, followed my Marcelo Medeiros from Brazil, and the current leader, Ignacio Casale. The Chilean leads the ranking, winning by 1h 45min with Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli from Argentina, who is second.
The Monday stage was cancelled due to safety issues; the risk of floods and storms was too high in that area. The entire Dakar convoy will move down the transfer roads from Tupiza, across the border, and into Argentinian town of Salta. “We will lose one day, but this raid has some excellent dynamics, so we can afford not taking that risk”, explained Marc Coma.
Stage 8 results
1. Simon Vitse (FRA) 5:52.32
2. Marcelo Medeiros (BRA) +3.27
3. Ignacio Casale (CHL) +5.20
…
16. Kamil Wiśniewski (POL) +1:03.03
General Standings
1. Ignacio Casale (CHL) 33:53.03
2. Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli (ARG) +1:45.20
3. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG) +1:49.19
…
17. Kamil Wiśniewski (POL) +8:44.47