May 22, Volgogradregion
It was raining hard for the whole night before the third day of Archeda Baja. Thanks to it, ploughed the day before sands became firm, at least bringing some relief for engines. The route consisted of two yesterday’s 80-kilometer circles, but in the opposite direction. KAMAZ crews passed today’s special in a reliable way, somewhere even allowing themselves a rational risk. For instance, Bogdanov’s crew was very spectacular, fighting today “bumper-to-bumper” with the MAZ crew of Sergey Vyazovich.
It was winding, narrow, bumpy… Viscous sand of the ploughed tread literally “imbibed” the tires. Despite the fact that the sand was wet, in small dunes the crews reduced the pressure in tires of the trucks to one and a half atmospheres.
The fastest time on the first circle was shown by Andrey Karginov, Airat Mardeev was only a little behind him. On the second circle the lag of Airat Mardeev increased – the engine was not tractable enough.
On Sergei Kuprianov’s truck a pipe of the air system was torn off, however it didn’t prevent him from showing an excellent medium speed on the stage of about 70 kmh.
Finally, the crew of Airat Mardeev won the Archeda Baja, the second place was taken by Andrey Karginov, Sergey Vyazovich got the “bronze”, the fourth place was received by the young driver Bogdan Karimov. The crew of Sergei Kuprianov confidently brought his truck to the fifth position in the competition.
QUOTES
Airat Mardeev:
-The race was interesting, a lot of off-road, sands. The only thing iss that we would like to have the loop track changed to something else, the organizers to make the race more various in the future. Today we were busy with the engine – because of the temperature we had to slow down, but all in all everything was ok. That is why we came here – to test the truck. I see growth of my co-driver Albert Arslanov, he becomes more experienced, and there almost were no mistakes on Archeda Baja.
Bogdan Karimov:
- On the final special we went in a faster pace – closer to experienced drivers. I have already got used to the truck, got acquainted with local terrain of the route and today the day turned out better than yesterday. This format for training is optimal. We passed the circle in 80 kilometers, entered the 30-minute service point and discussed all questions with the management, drivers. Thisallowstomakeanalysesmuchfaster.
Sergei Kuprianov:
- Today we are very satisfied with our work in the two racing days. There were no problems with navigation, we followed the track precisely, although the navigation was difficult. Every next circle on the new truck we passed in a more confident way, raising the pace. The main aim was to “blur” together with we truck and we did it.
Eduard Nikolaev:
-I am very satisfied with the team’s trip to Volgograd. Thanks to organizers of the race for such a competition. You can see that sportsmen miss races. Today is not easy for everyone, but all find an opportunity to come. The youth have shown themselves very good. The tests passed well, we saw our truck in comparison with the rival – MAZ. We understand that because of having missed the Dakar the guys did not have the runout, but they rolled in fast. We spend a lot of time with our trucks, we managed to do everything from the planned items. We will continue testing already at home, prepare to the Silk Way Rally.
