NAVIGATOR'S DAY IN THE SILK WAY RALLY

The tenth of July became significant in the modern history of motorsport in Dagestan and Chechnya – on this day, the two republics hosted the rally-raid competition for the first time, reports press attaché of the team Erik Khayrullin.

After three stages in Astrakhan, the contestants of the twelfth international Silk Way Rally headed for the south to Grozny. The fourth stage became one of the top three longest tracks in the 2022 edition: a total of 588 kilometers and 344 kilometers of the special stage.

The route Astrakhan – Grozny was fraught with many unknowns. None of the drivers and navigators could answer what awaited them on a long journey through several regions of Russia. Even experienced athletes shrugged their shoulders: the race would show everything. And in fact, the unexplored off-road tracks through the most beautiful places in the North Caucasus turned out too harsh.

The beginning of the special stage did not differ fr om other Astrakhan routes, which abounded in a large number of holes. Smoothly, the roads began to turn into high-speed sections, where the crews could accelerate to the limit, and already in the second half of the stage, the route surface changed fr om hard to soft. The final 40 kilometers resembled rally races with numerous bumps.

During the special stage, the rally caravan did not enter the mountainous areas, only observing the high hills fr om the side. But the crews had to cross shallow fords, test trucks in viscous mud, increasing the engine speed to the lim it values. The heat also affected – in the cabin the air warmed up to 50 degrees. Sometimes the air conditioner didn't help either.

Andrey Karginov, the leader of the truck standings, marked himself at three checkpoints when his truck stopped on the track. Only after other contestants had finished, it became clear: the breakdown was extremely serious. The oil trail from the KAMAZ truck stretched for several tens of meters, and the crews passing by thought that technical problems had affected the engine. There was no information received from the KAMAZ-master crew from the special stage during the day, however, closer to 20:00 Moscow time, the truck started to move towards the finish line, and at 21:25 drove to the bivouac.

Andrey Karginov tells about what happened on the track: “It all started with the fact that the right front wheel was blown away, we had to change it. Then we felt that, most likely, the gearbox had failed. The traction was gone, the truck was moving very hard. But it was driving, and we decided to continue moving. And, apparently, going on the rear wheel drive, we broke another axle shaft, and the truck practically stopped driving. It all ended with the fact that the front driveshaft shattered, which pierced the engine oil pan. We eliminated the cause of the leak, but there was no cardan with us. We began to repair it: we wrapped it with adhesive tape, glued it with glue. Then we started to move, then “treated” the truck, and so on. Sergey Kuprianov's crew was following us, he stopped and asked how to help. We took a rag, a funnel, and some other little things from him. We finished the stage in the dark. Driving with headlights is quite unusual. When you come to a springboard or an obstacle, you don't see what's behind it, and you have to slow down. We also took care of the truck to get to the bivouac. We hope to start tomorrow.”

Sergey Kuprianov's crew also had to carry out repair works under the blazing sun. Around the 270th kilometer the hub of the front left wheel began to warm up on their truck. It took three and a half hours to fix it. But the main thing is that KAMAZ No 305 finished on its own and reached the bivouac.

Sergey Kuprianov, driver of crew No 305: “Today was a very interesting special stage. We were in Grozny, in Chechnya, for the first time. The tracks here are just excellent – fast and winding, and we enjoyed it. And then the hub began to warm up, and everything ended with a long repair. We did our best and got to the finish line."

Due to the fact that Andrey Karginov and Sergey Kuprianov did not meet the allowed timing, the crews received many hours of fines. Two other KAMAZ-master crews successfully coped with their tasks. Both Dmitry Sotnikov and Eduard Nikolaev became participants in a beautiful struggle with cars driven by Vladimir Vasilyev and Denis Krotov, respectively. The spectators who gathered in different villages also watched the battle of the racers on the track. Sotnikov was leading for almost 260 kilometers until Vasilyev overtook him, risking by overtaking at high speed in heavy dust. As a result, the KAMAZ-master driver ended up at the finish line a minute after the representative of the T1 classification. This allowed the current winner of the Silk Way Rally to rise to the first line in the truck classification.

Immediately after the mark at the finish line, Dmitry Sotnikov could feel all the hospitality of the Chechen people. They treated the rider to a national dish and wished him success in the next stages. Also, the gathered fans warmly welcomed other rally participants, and on the makeshift stage they danced lezginka and sang beautiful songs.

Dmitry Sotnikov, driver of crew No 300: “A new region, we didn’t know wh ere we were going, we only knew that it would be very hot. We were not deceived, the track was very challenging, there was practically no time for a break. There were literally two straight roads on the route. We did not relax for a second, the concentration was at the maximum. There was everything: bushes on sides of the road, because of which we feared for the wholeness of wheels, sandy winding paths, small dunes. We can say that it was a special stage for patience. We started first, somewhere over 80 kilometers we let Vladimir Vasilyev ahead, but we tried to go first, as accurately as possible got into the forks. There were a lot of difficult places for navigation: Ruslan Akhmadeev shouted out places, sometimes I just didn’t keep up with him, but we got on the right roads in time, although it seemed that these were not roads, but just traces. I was even surprised that we did it."

Ruslan Akhmadeev, co-driver of crew No 300: “We started first, the responsibility on the navigator was high. There were no traces, we had to follow the road book, the turns, the courses. It was necessary to constantly lead the pilot. There was a high temperature, I thought that there would be less off-road, but there was a lot of it. It got bumpy every now and then."

Sunday's race was held under the motto "listen carefully to the navigator." Eduard Nikolaev's crew made an unfortunate mistake, not understanding the course. Moving off-road, the driver steered the truck towards the road. However, because of the cut, the right course was left behind, and the subsequent search for the correct direction was worth at least 15 minutes lost. The crew had to worry about the high fuel consumption at the final part of the special stage, wh ere the contestants got into fesh fesh.

Eduard Nikolaev, driver of crew No 302: “In one place we almost sat down, but the truck coped with it. We found the way, got on the right course and went to the finish line without any mistakes. We saw Andrey Karginov coming towards us, I even doubted a little, but the navigator said that we were clearly going according to the legend, so we drove on. The last part of the route was winding, more for endurance. The only thing today was straight roads on the gravel, we kept the maximum speed for a long time. There also were very long stretches with speed limits when driving through built-up areas. You can see how happy the numerous locals are. It's impressive and invigorating."

Evgeny Yakovlev, co-pilot of crew No 302: “There was one difficult place, but when we figured it out, it turned out that we had made a simple mistake. Many were searching for the correct direction, but we have lost a lot of time"

On Monday, the Silk Way Rally contestants will have to drive a 218-kilometer circular special stage in Grozny.

Truck Category. Results of the 4th Stage

Truck Category. General Classification after the 4th Stage