SOTNIKOV IS THE FASTEST AGAIN

On Tuesday, the SWR caravan left the friendly capital of the Chechen Republic for Kalmykia, reports press attaché of the KAMAZ-master team Erik Khayrulliun.

The longest special of the twelfth edition of the 2022 Silk Way Rally stretched for 485 kilometers, another 50 kilometers fell on liaisons before the start and after the finish. On the previous days, the pilots often railed against bumpy tracks and lack of speedy straight roads. And on Tuesday, the racing program offered full-fledged high-speed tracks giving an opportunity to accelerate vehicles to the maximum speedometer indication. In addition, the sixth stage of the Silk Way Rally was marathon when the crews are to repair the vehicles on their own, without any help fr om their technical support teams.

At this rate, the racers faced a dilemma: to show the best performance and not to damage the vehicles on the road.

On the previous evening, Grozny’s sky clouded over, and the whole bivouac waited for the first rain since the start of the race, but the weather remained the same, and the racing camp continued languishing in sweltering heat. Meanwhile, meteorologists of Kalmykia reported, on July 12, the republic expects heavy rains with thunderstorms, hail showers and squally winds up to 25 m/s. The 2018 rally when one of the stages was cut because of a flooded track came back to memory at once. The forecast failed to be true for some time, until the crews reached the finishing line under an intense rainfall that turned the last kilometers of the road into a mud bath. This time, everything went fine for the organizers of the race.

Steppes, semi-deserts, sands and bushes, not to forget about barсhans – all this was on a menu of the sixth racing day of the Silk Way. An interesting fact is that Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew drove along the route from Grozny to Elista at a speed of 92.8 kph, which is by 0.4 kph faster than that of the leading off-road car driven by Vladimir Vasilyev.

To choose a right tactical approach at the marathon stage often produces results. Having started 15 minutes before Dmitry Sotnikov, Andrey Karginov lost even theoretical chances to podium, so today he has fulfilled the functions of an emergency assistant. Truck No. 303 waited for the second vehicle, and then two KAMAZ-master crews ran together. Only being close to the finish, Dmitry Sotnikov had to stop for wheel replacement. Five minutes lost failed to affect the final timing: the reigning winner of the Silk Way Rally won another stage of this year’s race.

Dmitry Sotnikov, Pilot of Crew 300: “We drove very well on the second part of the track, the pace was good. We were trying, racing, but it was very dusty, we had this dust even in our mouths. Everything went well, but 15 kilometers before the finish we had to change the rear wheel. It was very hot, but then there were straight roads, and the speed went higher and higher, reaching 140 kph.”

Eduard Nikolaev’s crew was confident on almost 500 kilometers of the road and only once had to search for the right direction. It took the co-driver only three minutes to lead the driver to the road. This pause aggravated the fight among the leading trucks. After 1,700 speedy kilometers, Nikolaev is only 7 seconds ahead of Sotnikov!

Eduard Nikolaev, Pilot of Crew 302: “It was very important to be focused on the road because we were driving at the maximum speed in Kalmykia. You should be very attentive when cutting off as you get into ditches and holes all of a sudden. If you drive along the road, you won’t perform well, you should think how to drive wh ere other racers can’t. But it is always risky. The earth was hard, and it was unusual. In Astrakhan and Grozny, we were shaking on off-road, but the earth was soft, but here we felt hard hits, body burden. There was an interesting section on a levee, about 15 kilometers long. It was very narrow for trucks, and a slight hand movement could result in driving into a river. You should drive neither slowly, nor fast. We tried not to lose the truck all the time. We lost some time because of wrong navigation. We drove a little bit out of the way, and it cost us three minutes. We are grateful to our organizers. This was a perfect marathon, just the thing.”

Andrey Karginov, Pilot of Crew 303: “Today’s special was the longest one, and a day without mechanics is ahead. So, we had to choose the highest pace and drive with some time to spare. All works we’ll bring to the bivouac will be carried out with our own hands, we can count only on those spare parts we took with us. I think everybody will run faster yesterday. We had no technical problems. We were all washed-up on the road, dreamt about the finish. It was extremely difficult to be behind the steering wheel for such a long period of time driving at a high speed.”

At the end of the sixth stage, the KAMAZ-master crews had no technical problems, which means only one thing: the races will be busy only with maintenance in the bivouac.

Competitions in the category “Following Peter the Great” Grand Tour are still being held. The participants travel in regions welcoming the SWR and solve various tasks set by the organizers scoring points. The Chinese-Russian and Mongolian-Russian crews represented by Hou Hongning, Shen Xin, Robert Amatych, and Amgalan Avkhia, Battushig Achitsaikhan, Djmitry Nikitin, respectively, perform on modern KAMAZ racing trucks. It is roo early to sum up the results, like in other categories of the rally. Everything will be clear on the finish line in Moscow.

Truck Category. Results of the 6th Stage

Truck Category. General Classification after the 6th Stage