Silk Way Rally Day 8: Vasilyev Retired, Pavlenko Failed

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In two standings the drivers, who were considered favorites, failed and left the fight for victory.

The eighth stage of the International Silk Way #rally became the longest one during the entire #event: taking the liaisons into account, the crews had to overcome 772 kilometers. The competitive distance was 314 kilometers and included the treacherous Archeda-Don Sands. Several crews, including the favorites of the #rally, did not pass the stage test.

There is one day before the finish line of the largest rally-raid in Eurasia, decisive kilometers are ahead, but for now Evgenia Uvarkina, the mayor of Lipetsk, visited the bivouac to greet the competitors.

Vasilyev Lost Chance for Victory

Throughout the #rally #vladimirvasilyev dominated the Car category — his crew in the BMW X5 won six out of seven stages and led the overall standings by a hundred minutes. At SS8 Vasilyev took a high pace again and was ahead of his rivals, but having lost control in one of the puddles he went off the track, rolled over and made several revolutions. The car was damaged, and although the drivers were not injured, the chances for victory instantly evaporated.

Andrey Rudskoy from the NG-Energo team took the first place with the retirement of Vasilyev, however, his crew almost left the #rally ahead of schedule. At the end of the selective section in his G-Force Bars problems with the generator began, Rudskoy and his co-driver Dmitry Karpov miraculously made it to the finish line. At the bivouac the crew immediately handed over the car to the mechanics in order to restore it for the start of the final selective section.

Rudskoy now leads the Car standing by more than two hours. Alexander Rusanov is the runner-up, and his GAZ Raid Sport teammate Alexey Ignatov rose to the third line. Bogdan Vavrenyuk in GAZ-67 is fourth among T1 category cars.

Anton Melnikov driving the Toyota LC 200 of the Podmoskovye Team became the fastest again among production cars of the T2 standings. Three drivers of the Federation of automobile sport of Turkmenistan follow him: Merdan Toylyyev comes second, three hours behind the leader, Maxatmyrat Danatarov is third, and Shamyrat Gurbanov is fourth. Leonid Petrov rounds out the top-5 of the T2 standings.

Karyakin One Step Closer to Victory

In the SSV standings a fight between the very experienced Sergey Karyakin and the Silk Way #rally debutant Roman Rusinov, who became famous in endurance #racing and is the 24 Hours of Le Mans star driver, flared up at the last stages of the #event. Rusinov gradually won back from the leading Karyakin, but 20 kilometers before the finish of the selective section he punctured the wheel and lost more than seven minutes to the driver from Ekaterinburg.

Dmitry Mordkovich became the best at the stage again, but he lost a lot of time at the beginning of the #rally and does not participate in the fight for the White Tiger. Karyakin is the runner-up, ahead of Anastasia Nifontova, as well as the brothers Alexey and Dmitry Cherkesovs. Rusinov took the sixth position in the stage classification.

Before the final stage of the #rally Karyakin is ahead of Rusinov in the overall standings by almost 15 minutes, while Aleksey Cherkesov, who is third, is slightly more than ten minutes behind the G-Drive #racing crew. Mordkovich is still fourth, 50 minutes behind the leader, followed by Evgeny Frezorger and Dmitry Cherkesov.

Transmission Let Karginov Down

Initially at the eighth stage of the #rally the Blue Armada crew of Andrey Karginov led in the battle between the KAMAZ-Master and the MAZ-SPORTauto in the Truck standings. By the 238th kilometer Karginov won more than three minutes from Sergey Vyazovich heading the general classification.

However, there was a ford on the route of the stage, where the gearbox in Karginov's truck went into emergency mode. The crew had to get to the end of the stage in only fourth gear, at a speed of no more than 120 km/h. At the finish line Karginov was still ahead of Vyazovich, but he was able to win back only 48 seconds.

In the overall standings the MAZ-SPORTauto leader is now ahead of Karginov by ten minutes, and ahead of Eduard Nikolaev by 16.5. The reigning winner of the Silk Way #rally Dmitry Sotnikov, who won the eighth stage, is in the fourth position followed by the Russian-Chinese One Belt One Road crew led by Hou Hongning and Sergey Kupriyanov, driving a gas-diesel-fuelled KAMAZ.

Pavlenko Also in Troubles

At the eighth stage the G-Moto Challenge leader changed — #olegpavlenko, who had been leading the overall standings for almost the entire #rally, ran into technical problems and had to repair the motorcycle on his own with materials on hand right on the track. Pavlenko eventually finished the selective section and reached the bivouac, but lost over six hours and fell back to the second place in the G-Moto Challenge.

The new leader is Dmitry Kalinin on the Can-Am Outlander quad of the Metallosetka Team. Pavlenko is now second in the G-Moto Challenge, but is a little bit over three hours behind Kalinin. Matvey Rudin in a Voge 300 #rally motorcycle rounds out the top three.

Ilya Shcheglov, the winner of the first-ever Silk Way Snow Journey Snowmobile Rally-Raid, secured another victory in the #moto standings. The lead of the Doc_32 Team rider reached two and a half hours, however, Vyacheslav Pashchenko and Nail Khubbatullin are separated by only six seconds in the fight for the second place.

Anatoly Kuznetsov from the Lion #racing Team confidently holds the first position in the Quad standings, Danil Loginov, who is second, is more than two and a half hours behind the rider from Udmurtia, and Azat Shaimukhametov rounds out the top three.

Grand Tour in Frolovo

For the Small Towns of #russia Grand Tour competitors, the day began early in the morning, when the crews went to the town of Frolovo, where they visited the monuments to the oilmen and the steelmaker, checked at the globe, on which only two cities are located — Moscow and Archeda, and also found a pumpjack with a commemorative plate in honor of the extraction of the two hundred millionth ton of oil.

Then the crews went to the ford at the selective section and, together with numerous spectators, watched the #rally competitors. At the end of the day, it was necessary to go through another quest and find a sculpture of a janitor in the town of Gryazi, not far from which there is a record-breaking steam locomotive Er-773-50, which was produced in the amount of eleven thousand copies from 1912 to 1957. The competitors passed all the tests, and now they have a day of Ceremonial Finish ahead of them.

Quotes

Andrey Rudskoy (NG-Energo), "We drove at a fairly good pace, overtook several crews, but later we ran out of water and had to clean the windshield from bottles. And somewhere 60-70 kilometers before the finish line we lost charging. We have a gasoline car, and for us it's absolutely crucial — the engine cannot work without power supply. We decided to drive to the end using batteries, turned off all electrical devices, and at the finish line the instruments showed only 7.5 volts. We will go to the final special stage carefully."

Vladimir Vasilyev (VRT), "In short, we just drove, slipped and fell. We drove to a place where there was water on the road and arable land behind it. We were thrown out of the water onto this arable land, the car caught on the wheels and began to roll over. There were about 3-5 turns – all through the side and one through the front. The crew is okay, our car is strong, and I think that the cage was not damaged, only the plastic went off, but it makes no sense to continue the #rally, and I decided to retire."

Alexander Rusanov (GAZ Raid Sport), "It was a very busy and exhausting track in terms of diversity. In the sands the car was driving very hard, it overheated, there were bumps and speedy sections, the pits were large. It was necessary to keep the concentration, but it came to an and after 200-220 kilometers. Then we decided to slow down and finished carefully. In fact, it was a very good selective section, it reveals the weaknesses of both cars and #people. That's how it should be."

Sergey Karyakin (Snag Racing), "We've passed the selective section, and everything is fine. It was cool to drive across the sands. At the final part we ran out of washer liquid and drove off the top of our heads, because the selective section is familiar. Tomorrow we will calmly drive to the finish line – this is our task."

Roman Rusinov (G-Drive Racing), "It was a difficult special stage, in addition our mechanics didn't make the right washer fluid, and we ran out of water, so we drove the last 60 kilometers without seeing anything and in the dust of KAMAZ and Karyakin. As a result we punctured the wheel and drove 20 kilometers to the finish line on a flat tire. But we arrived, everything is fine. Until the moment the wheel was punctured, the car steered very well, but there was no point in changing it."

Anastasia Nifontova (G-Drive Racing), "Today has been a busy day. These 314 kilometers kept me on the edge all the way. At the beginning there was sand, and we decided to experiment — to drive Archeda using big wheels. These tires are more grippy, it was hard for the vehicle, but the test drive is passed. Then it was easier. Therefore, we drove the sands sadly, at a speed of 50 kph, and after refueling we drove into the fields and it was more fun. There was some kind of crazy navigation at the final part – I don't know how Ekaterina Zhadanova figured it out. In one place we got lost a little bit, but then we found the way and finished."

Tatyana Sycheva (Xesha Motor Sport), "The stage went well. Yesterday, our gear unit broke down at the 60th kilometer of the second selective section, so we had to return to the bivouac in a technical vehicle. Today we've driven slow in the sands, but in general everything is fine. It's great there are many spectators on the track. Apparently, #people know about the #rally and are interested — it's very supportive."

Sergey Vyazovich (MAZ-SPORTauto), "The selective section was complicated by the fact that wet black soil began, and it became slippery at the second part after the neutralization zone. It was not the best place for the guys to catch up with us – we understood it, so we drove very carefully. At one "30 Zone" we caught up with Eduard Nikolaev, but his pace was not very high, there were some problems. It was convenient for us to follow him, but 30 kilometers before the finish line we overtook him and arrived safely. Tomorrow we will try to pass the selective section in the same reliable way."

Andrey Karginov (KAMAZ-Master), "After overcoming the ford the gearbox switched to emergency mode. I don't know what it's connected with. We remained in fourth gear, the speed above 120 kph in this mode is impossible. We crossed this ford with effort, but the truck coped and left it. And we finished at such a moderate pace. We understood that we were losing, but nevertheless the truck reached the bivouac. The mechanics will fix it, and by morning it will be as good as new. There is another day ahead — it will be a live day, so we fight to the end."

Dmitry Sotnikov (KAMAZ-Master), "I remember the selective section from last year, it is very interesting. I liked the first part. We drove to the Archeda Sands, it was bumpy, the truck worked well – I just liked to drive. Today we tried to go together with Andrey Karginov to make it more reliable. At the neutralization zone we seemed to have met, everything went according to plan, and in the end he disappeared. But there was a winding overgrown road in places – it was hard for the first crew. We tried to hit the road clearly and carefully passed a deep ford. There was a slippery part, but quite safe – in the fields, we drove through it also carefully."

Eduard Nikolaev (KAMAZ-Master), "The beginning of the day was very slippery. You see there are no puddles, but it's very slippery. We didn't manage to win back from Vyazovich, he was the first at the finish line. I was too cautious – it was very slippery; it was hard to drive first. But you leave some good steps after your truck, so it's easier for the second and third to drive."

Yuri Nayman (Ural Motorsport), "At first, we were driving great, we liked everything. We drove into the sands — we definitely liked it, it's a new surface for us, but we went quite well there. It was a very soft and smooth driving in the dunettes. Although, the truck began to overheat. Then the handbrake got jammed, the tube burned out. We had to stop, but we knew what to do and quickly fixed everything — we did it no longer than 10 minutes — and drove on. During that time we were overtaken by GAZ and a couple of jeeps, after which we had to overtake them. We were afraid of the ford, we thought it was deep. Everyone threatened us with last year when MAZ drowned there. We drove up to the ford and quietly crossed it in the center, there was nothing terrible, it was not very deep."

Anatoly Kuznetsov, "It was a fast, good stage, but wet and dirty. At first it was sandy and hot, but now everything is so fresh — it has become wonderful. It wasn't hard, we got used to the #rally. We get up early every day like we go to work. The surface and navigation was very interesting. We have one overspeeding, but it's ok. Today I've started third, and finished first — in the sands I have overtaken motorcyclists Ilya Shcheglov and #olegpavlenko."

Ilya Shcheglov (Doc_32), "It's terrible! In my whole life I have never fallen off a motorcycle so many times! I must have fallen more than 20 times. Photographers are just happy! I rode to the dunes, jumped and made a front somersault along with the motorcycle. It's really very-very hard. I don't even know what to compare it to. Somehow, we survived in the sands — and the mud began. It's very slippery here, and I fall there too, during the ascent. With great difficulty I lifted the motorcycle and pulled it out of there. I can say that I visited the "mud baths". At the end of the selective section it rained, and everything turned into a "skating rink". But I'm very happy that I finished. Thanks to the sands, it was the most difficult stage for a motorcyclists."