The Israelian team Aviv Kadshai / Izhar Armony are competing with an reliable "Desert Warrior", a kind of Bowler, constructed by "Rallyraid UK" in the United Kingdom. The car looks like a Bowler and sounds like a Bowler. No wonder, the constructors were formerly working at Bowler but they wanted to create own ideas - and so the "Desert Warrior" was born. Aviv and Izhar are the first time competing in Greece, so they needed some days to find their way. Especially the navigation on the European ground is new for them. But if they have a good day they are demonstrating, that not only the car is good - also the crew inside. Yesterday they finished the stage as second with 00:49:23 pointed minutes, only 2:25 mins behind the experienced locals Dimitriadis / Kalfas (00:46:5  in their Mitsubishi Pajero - and only 4:47 minutes in front of their compatriots Heyman / Segal in the well-known Segal Proto (00:54:20). With a gap of 05:05:15 hours and 6th place overall, Aviv and Izhar obviously have no chance for the Podium anymore - but they learned and maybe in the future the European- and especially Balkan-based rallies will have a new and then experienced competing team... Surprising were also the Italians Moro / Comi in their "old-school" Range Rover V8. After technical problems they were not able to start in the first stage on Tuesday - and some people prompt began to bet that the Range will never see one single finish line. But Friday the both Italians showed that you have to count with the "old lady": 4th place in the daily rankings with 01:23:41 hours - this was even better than the overall leaders Pelichet / Decré (who had a crash yesterday, we reported) or their experienced "Sahara Dream" team-mates Roberto Musi and Eleonora Del Pra (Land Rover Defender, 10th with 01:59:46 hours). Also a good example that everybody has a chance on this rally... After the crashes of the three Toyotas (see special report) the "cards were nearly new mixed". The French Overdrive-crew is still leading overall with 03:36:08 hours - but their rivals become closer again, really closer. The famous Greeks Dimitriadis / Kalfas pushed their Mitsubishi again and with the help of a penalty for Heyman / Segal they catched some more minutes, are now second overall with 03:38:11 hours - which means that they are only 2:03 minutes (!) behind the Overdrive. Also Heyman / Segal are still fighting for the first podium-step, their account has actually 03:46:07 hours, 10:01 minutes more than the leader and 7:56 mins to the Mitsubishi-crew. Behind the trio the times are more comfortable - or to say it in easier words, only technical problems, retirements etc eventually could change some positions. The Israelian Mitsubishi Pajero V70 T2 of Shpira / Moldawsky is 4th with 06:05:41 hours in front of the Italians Petruzzelli / Lombardi (Mitsubishi Proto, 06:40:54), Aviv / Izhar (08:39:23), Musi / Dal Pra (10:00:06) and Moro / Comi (11:52:5 . The Bulgarian Toyota-Chevrolet crew of Cholakov / Granchev will definetely miss the podium after the crash with Pelichet / Decré, they are now 9th with 14:42:03 hours... but better than the Greek Toyota Land Cruiser of Koutsoubos / Vasileiadou: After they rolled the car Friday they had to retire from the race. In the SSV, Austrian Heinz Kinigadner proofed again what would happen if nobody wouldn´t kick him out in the first stage. With his Polaris RZR900 he took the stagewin with 05:15:46 (real) hours, fully 41:05 minutes in front of Dusan Randysek (Arctic cat) from the Czech Republic and 41:32 mins before the daily´s third Cvetelin Canev from Bulgaria (Polaris RZR900). Fourth became the Czech Pavel Vyoral (+01:13:23), fifth Heinz Kinigadner´s son Hannes with a gap of 02:07:09 hours. Former Dakar-winner in the quads, Josef Machacek, was forced to retire finally with his new Hornet-buggy due to bigger technical problems. Overall leader is still Cvetelin Canev with 20:20:24 hours, but he has to be careful because his follower Dusan Randysek is only 03:29 minutes behind him. Third is actually Randysek´s team-mate Pavel Vyoral with 22:16:11 hours (+01:55:47). In the overall rankings "Kini"-senior made it from the last position on the first day up to the fifth place - but with a gap of 20:00:39 hours to the leader there must be a lot of luck to see a podium-place. Also a lot of luck - but not so much - would be good for "Kini"-junior: After four days of racing (and he had to make a break because of some pain), SSV-newbee Hannes Kinigadner is on the fourth position in front of his dad, 04:38:06 hours behind the leader. A very special result if we remind that Hannes is paraplegic. His Polaris is especially prepared and he is driving only with his hands, bytheway, the first time in a rally ever. This forces real respect! |
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