Rally “Silk Way-2022”: Getting Stuck Up To The Nostrils
- July 21, 2022
- 0
The seventh day of the Silk Road 2022 Marathon is a week of high tension, high speeds and exhausting heat. The fatigue is piling up – in the
The seventh day of the Silk Road 2022 Marathon is a week of high tension, high speeds and exhausting heat. The fatigue is piling up – in the crews as well as in the cars. The equipment is being repaired, although spare parts for some items are already running out. Athletes recover in short sleep – they get up until five in the morning every day. They save internal reserves (there are no weaklings in rally raids) and horse doses of adrenaline (something, and adrenaline on the “ShP” slurps with a full spoon).
Clouds moved above Elista, periodically irritating the parched earth with droplets of heavenly moisture. But weather forecasters feared thunderstorms and heavy rains, and the downpour here is terrible. Roads are washed away, they become impassable even for prepared cars. A few years ago there was already a similar situation – trucks got stuck up to the nostrils! And if the crews of cars and buggies are likely to get out of the mud, then it will be very bad for quadrics and bikes on a blurry and broken track. Looking at the alarming forecast, motorcyclists and cyclists have made a collective decision: to skip the stage, which is in fact foreseen by the race rules. At the same time, all participants will be given a penalty of 100 hours, which does not change their position in the standings. The car classification started without changes.
Circular route in Kalmykia – 310 km of the high-speed section (with liaisons – 350 km). It seems there aren’t that many by rally raid standards, but no one thinks about relaxing. The riders go to the start as collected as possible. Everyone knows that anything can happen at any rally, even a local one. And the Silk Road is one of the hardest marathons in the world, neglect does not forgive. The intrigue is present here until the very last meters.
There were some surprises: in the middle of the route, the leader Vladimir Vasilyev got on a BMW X5. The machine is immobilized – a malfunction of the gearbox input shaft. There is no way to fix it yourself. Vasiliev was taken in tow by Andrey Karginov. We drove happily on: first the “tie” broke and then the eye of the cable attachment on the BMW X5 broke off. We got to the finish, but Vasiliev lost time and also got an hour fine for passing the time check point in tow. The best time was shown by the crew of Denis Krotov/Konstantin Zhiltsov, who led the off-road category. After the unrest, Vasiliev is 22 minutes behind Krotov. In third place, the crew of Alexander Rusanov and Evgeny Pavlov on the sport “Gazelle NEXT”:
“Every year our Gazelle NEXT sports cars become faster and more reliable,” GAZ Raid Sport team co-driver Evgeny Pavlov shared his impressions. – Previously, the main problems arose due to the fact that you collapse and get up, you lose time. So now we are driving well, make no mistake, there are no problems with navigation. Of course we are inferior in speed to more powerful prepared prototypes, but I won’t say it’s much. The assigned tasks are performed. Now it is important to close with a good result. This is a marathon, the important thing is to just go. It is very beautiful here, the orientation is pleasant – flat, there are a million roads, although there are still treacherous potholes. But most of the time you go on the roads. Sometimes there is a temptation to cheat, but we still follow the legend: it is very clear and understandable, it is impossible to get lost if you know how to read it …
Adventures with the MAZ-SPORTavto team continue. Sergei Vyazovich’s wheel exploded again. The reasons for the ongoing unrest are not clear. Most likely the team got a faulty batch of tires. If you slow down, the wheels will hold it. But if you ride for “all the money”, and Sergei Vyazovich always actively fights for victory, the wheels explode. In short, the Belarusians are out of luck.
“Our disc split in two and the band flew ahead of us,” Alexey Vishnevsky shared his impressions. — The right rear wheel just rolled away, I had to stop. It has long since changed. The bridge was on the ground, it was necessary to lift it on two jacks. Then we found the wheel, found a piece of the disc, collected it all, loaded it up and drove to the finish. Not an easy technique. Dirt is stuck, mud flaps come loose, everything comes loose. Not an easy route this year, but we hope to finish and get there. So far, only the prologue has developed successfully for me and during each day there were some nuances. But I believe the black streak will end. According to the results of the race, we will strengthen the car. Yesterday the superstructure broke, we had to stop to fix it. Many thanks to the guys from KAMAZ MASTER, who welded us: we welded the superstructure and today we could go …
The Minskers were unable to overtake the KamAZ trucks.
“Somehow our day did not turn out,” said Sergey Kupriyanov, pilot of the KAMAZ MASTER team. – And I have an uneven pace and kind of inconsistency in the crew’s actions, but we’re at the finish line and this is the main thing. So in general everything is fine – we have arrived …
Trucks “Sadko NEXT” finished in full force.
“The second day of the marathon stage is the endgame of a chess game,” said Mikhail Shklyaev of the GAZ Raid Sport teams. – It is necessary to correctly stretch all the forces – both the crew and the car. The spare parts limit is limited, you cannot stock up. All our three Sadko NEXT trucks are at the finish line. We arrived ourselves, the reliability of our equipment is the highest …
Tomorrow the rally will take place along the Elista-Volgograd route. The total length is 647 km, of which 444 km are high-speed routes.
Photo avtovzglyad.ru
Photo avtovzglyad.ru
Photo avtovzglyad.ru
Clouds moved above Elista, periodically irritating the parched earth with droplets of heavenly moisture. But weather forecasters feared thunderstorms and heavy rains, and the downpour here is terrible. Roads are washed away, they become impassable even for prepared cars. A few years ago there was already a similar situation – trucks got stuck up to the nostrils! And if the crews of cars and buggies are likely to get out of the mud, then it will be very bad for quadrics and bikes on a blurry and broken track. Looking at the alarming forecast, motorcyclists and cyclists have made a collective decision: to skip the stage, which is in fact foreseen by the race rules. At the same time, all participants will be given a penalty of 100 hours, which does not change their position in the standings. The car classification started without changes.
Circular route in Kalmykia – 310 km of the high-speed section (with liaisons – 350 km). It seems there aren’t that many by rally raid standards, but no one thinks about relaxing. The riders go to the start as collected as possible. Everyone knows that anything can happen at any rally, even a local one. And the Silk Road is one of the hardest marathons in the world, neglect does not forgive. The intrigue is present here until the very last meters.
There were some surprises: in the middle of the route, the leader Vladimir Vasilyev got on a BMW X5. The machine is immobilized – a malfunction of the gearbox input shaft. There is no way to fix it yourself. Vasiliev was taken in tow by Andrey Karginov. We drove happily on: first the “tie” broke and then the eye of the cable attachment on the BMW X5 broke off. We got to the finish, but Vasiliev lost time and also got an hour fine for passing the time check point in tow. The best time was shown by the crew of Denis Krotov/Konstantin Zhiltsov, who led the off-road category. After the unrest, Vasiliev is 22 minutes behind Krotov. In third place, the crew of Alexander Rusanov and Evgeny Pavlov on the sport “Gazelle NEXT”:
“Every year our Gazelle NEXT sports cars become faster and more reliable,” GAZ Raid Sport team co-driver Evgeny Pavlov shared his impressions. – Previously, the main problems arose due to the fact that you collapse and get up, you lose time. So now we are driving well, make no mistake, there are no problems with navigation. Of course we are inferior in speed to more powerful prepared prototypes, but I won’t say it’s much. The assigned tasks are performed. Now it is important to close with a good result. This is a marathon, the important thing is to just go. It is very beautiful here, the orientation is pleasant – flat, there are a million roads, although there are still treacherous potholes. But most of the time you go on the roads. Sometimes there is a temptation to cheat, but we still follow the legend: it is very clear and understandable, it is impossible to get lost if you know how to read it …
Adventures with the MAZ-SPORTavto team continue. Sergei Vyazovich’s wheel exploded again. The reasons for the ongoing unrest are not clear. Most likely the team got a faulty batch of tires. When you slow down, the wheels hold it. But if you ride for “all the money”, and Sergei Vyazovich always actively fights for victory, the wheels explode. In short, the Belarusians are out of luck.
“Our disc split in two and the band flew ahead of us,” Alexey Vishnevsky shared his impressions. — The right rear wheel just rolled away, I had to stop. It has long since changed. The bridge was on the ground, it was necessary to lift it on two jacks. Then we found the wheel, found a piece of the disc, collected it all, loaded it up and drove to the finish. Not an easy technique. Dirt is stuck, mud flaps come loose, everything comes loose. Not an easy route this year, but we hope to finish and get there. So far, only the prologue has developed successfully for me and during each day there were some nuances. But I believe the black streak will end. According to the results of the race, we will strengthen the car. Yesterday the superstructure broke, we had to stop to fix it. Many thanks to the guys from KAMAZ MASTER, who welded us: we welded the superstructure and today we could go …
The Minskers were unable to overtake the KamAZ trucks.
“Somehow our day did not turn out,” said Sergey Kupriyanov, pilot of the KAMAZ MASTER team. – And I have an uneven pace and kind of inconsistency in the crew’s actions, but we’re at the finish line and this is the main thing. So in general everything is fine – we have arrived …
Trucks “Sadko NEXT” finished in full force.
“The second day of the marathon stage is the endgame of a chess game,” said Mikhail Shklyaev of the GAZ Raid Sport teams. – It is necessary to correctly stretch all the forces – both the crew and the car. The spare parts limit is limited, you cannot stock up. All our three Sadko NEXT trucks are at the finish line. We arrived ourselves, the reliability of our equipment is the highest …
Tomorrow the rally will take place along the Elista-Volgograd route. The total length is 647 km, of which 444 km are high-speed routes.
Source: Avto Vzglyad
I’m Sandra Torres, a passionate journalist and content creator. My specialty lies in covering the latest gadgets, trends and tech news for Div Bracket. With over 5 years of experience as a professional writer, I have built up an impressive portfolio of published works that showcase my expertise in this field.
