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The team is still in a
good position after the 7th stage of the
race... Ophthalmology examinations continue
along the route!
The Opto Rally Team
finished the seventh stage (yesterday - June 24)
between the municipalities of Balsas (MA) and
Floriano (PI) in 23rd
place.
In spite of this being a quieter stage, a lot of
teams ended up dropping out. After the longest
special (timed section) in the race, yesterday,
the 7th stage was considered to be very
technical. There were farm areas with gravel and
stones on the road and an area with high-voltage
towers. Soon after driving through this part,
the drivers must have felt that they were
crossing a savannah, as they were in such a
beautiful, arid region.
The big news of the day was the cancellation of
the Marathon Stage by the CBA (Brazilian
Automobile Confederation), and the CBM
(Brazilian Motorcycle Confederation), for the
car, truck and motorcycle categories. According
to Ricardo Costa, CBA director, the final
section of the race was too long for there to be
sufficient control to prevent drivers from
stopping to repair their equipment, since they
had already covered 271 kilometers as far as
Floriano (PI). As the Marathon Stage had been
canceled, the teams had a seventh special
section.
FIA (International Automobile Association) did
not confirm the cancellation of the Marathon
Stage, which would have canceled the rule for
all competitors that are racing in the Sertões
rally as one of the stages in the World
Championship.
The cancellation of the Marathon Stage for cars
was because of the results of the 6th stage:
"we realized that many of them had
suffered a lot of damage by the time they
arrived and felt that there would not be enough
time to repair their equipment. This is why we
chose to cancel the Marathon Stage, thus
enabling everyone to have the chance of reaching
Natal and the end of the Rally", said
Moraes, one of the event organizers.
There were also plenty of accidents during the
day. However none of them were serious enough to
injure the drivers. There were around five
accidents involving cars, motorcycles and two
quads, and only one of them needed the
helicopter rescue team; however none of the
drivers were seriously hurt.
As there has been a lot of rain in the North,
there is a lot of greenery, a lot of water in
some places and some marshland to cross. It is a
very beautiful region, which gave the drivers a
lot of difficulty. Indeed, around 15 of them got
stuck in the mud in two of the sections and got
left behind. The Opto
Rally Team avoided this fate, and
according to Jarbas Castro, the improvement was
due to the driver / navigator interaction:
"We have never driven the Sertões Rally
together before. After a few days of this
challenge, we have found that our interactions
are improving stage-by-stage, such that we
attribute the significant improvement in our
position to this". Jarbas added that
from today onwards (8th stage) they would change
the tires, since they feel they have been using
the wrong ones. This could certainly have an
influence on their next results.
Up to now, at least 20 teams have already
abandoned the race...
Yesterday, the ophthalmology examinations were
carried out in the Municipality of Nova Iorque
(MA). The ophthalmologists Dr. Vagner Orlando
Filho and Dr. Luciano Moreira Pinto performed 93 examinations
and prescribed 75 pairs
of glasses.
Today the examinations were carried out at the
Umbelino Alves da Silva Municipal School in
Cratéus (CE).
The
Opto Rally Team
is sponsored by the companies Mediphacos,
Ophthalmos,
Opto Global
and Tecnol,
which are also supporting the Social Action in
Ophthalmology.
See you tomorrow!
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