HOT STAGE AT THE SILK WAY RALLY 2022

The annual Silk Way Rally is gathering pace. After the prologue, the first really serious special stage awaited the riders on Friday – 227 killing kilometers across the Astrakhan steppe, reports press attaché of the KAMAZ-master team Erik Khayrullin.

Some contestants resorted to a tactical trick yesterday: a low pace in the prologue allowed them to start behind the leaders today. Such a choice is justified by the fact that the crews opening the second special stage had to pave the way leaving traces for competitors. Serious help in the fight for the result.

The second stage in Astrakhan was a loop route, starting 30 kilometers fr om the rally bivouac. As promised by the organizers, the racers were able to test themselves on small dunes, but only in the second half of the special stage. And as a starter, a grassy road with many confusing directions was waiting for everyone, and here the weighty word in the crew remained with the navigator. And this segment turned out to be very challenging – pits of the second and third categories were encountered so often that they simply were not registered in the road book. Accelerating to high speeds on such terrain meant one thing: the risk of damaging the sports vehicle and wiping out the chances for a prize podium increased.

Eduard Nikolaev was the first in the truck category to start. The crew of the KAMAZ-master team "cut through" the road relying only on their experience. And even dozens of victorious races in their career could not guarantee an error-free passage of this distance: at one of the sections, the brand-new truck of the K5 family turned the wrong way adding about eight extra kilometers to the route. The crew also had to worry in the final part of the racing day – on the hill section, the KAMAZ was thrown up on the first hill, and it buried its nose in the second one. It went without damage and a stop.

Eduard Nikolaev, driver of crew No 302: “The special stage was excellent, an interesting track which can be called neutral. There were fast sections, there was strong off-road, where it was physically difficult – you can see how wet we are, today we had to work hard. But the main thing was navigation. Unfortunately, we lost time somewhere in the middle of the distance. After leaving the sands, we took a slightly wrong course and drove about four kilometersin the wrong direction, and we had to return running the same distance. However, this is the first serious day, only those who do nothing do not make mistakes. As we always say, a lot depends on the navigator. Today is an example of this. Evgenii Iakovlev is a little upset, but Bogdan Karimov and I supported him. Everything will be fine, everything is still ahead.”

Technical problems at the race is a usual thing. In rally-raids where vehicles work at their limit it is almost impossible to drive without breakdowns. On Friday, Dmitry Sotnikov's crew faced some difficulties. After half of the 227-kilometer distance, the racers felt a strong vibration and had to stop to inspect the truck. Initially, they thought about the automatic transmission, but it turned out differently: the rear cardan came off. The current winner of the Silk Way Rally had to reach the finish line in the gentle mode for the truck.

Dmitry Sotnikov, driver of crew No 300: “Everything went according to plan, but on the penultimate sand area we felt a strong vibration – the sand got either into the wheels or into the engine. We stopped, bent the throttle – realized that everything was working well, but the truck did not move: suspicion fell on the transmission. We went out and saw that the rear cardan was torn off. We thought that one of our guys would help us, but in the end, we drove ourselves, collected all the points and finished. The track relief was poorly seen because of the greenery, it was difficult to try to cut it – the speed fell immediately. I had to be careful, take care of the truck. Sometimes it was even annoying that the navigator was silent and did not tell about holes, but the whole road consisted of them (laughs). The organizers did not point them, they did not confuse the navigators.”

An interesting moment: another KAMAZ-master crew led by Andrey Karginov got lost in the same place as Eduard Nikolaev. The racers were embarrassed by the trail going to the right and the ATV that went in the wrong direction. Eight extra kilometers cost six or seven minutes and the opportunity to become the winner of the second special stage.

The best time on Friday was shown by the Belarusian pilot Siarhei Viazovich on his MAZ. The second was Andrey Karginov with a six-minute delay. Eduard Nikolaev closed the top three. Sergey Kuprianov, the driver of the KAMAZ gas-and-diesel truck, could count on higher positions, but technical problems interfered with the crew's result. Another MAZ driven by Aliaksei Vishneuski first brought the GPS device to work, then corrected the error in navigation, and finally broke the rear spring, which affected the speed of the truck. The crews of GAZ Raid Sport which closed the standings also had to do a repair on the road.

On Saturday, the rally caravan is waiting for the third stage of the Silk Way Rally. The 385-kilometer loop includes a 321-kilometer special stage crossing the famous Astrakhan dune "Big Brother". On the same day, the results of the stage of the Russian Rally-Raid Baja Championship "Gold of Kagan" will be summed up.

Truck Category. Results of the 2nd stage

Truck Category. General Classification after the 2nd Stage