Dmitry Sotnikov won the third stage of the Silk Way rally-marathon

The Silk Way rally-marathon is not just the toughest multi-day race, which leaves athletes practically exhausted and emotionally drained, it is also an opportunity to discover new places on the world map. The organizers of the competition have built a route of more than 5000 kilometers with the crossing of various landscape relief zones. In one day the caravan of the rally is able to overcome several regions of the country at once.

Back in 2021, when the route of the Silk Way rally passed through the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic, the drivers noted the incredible beauty of the views and diversity of nature. And now, 3 years later, one of the most extreme races on the planet Earth has returned to the Siberian Federal District.

In spite of that, the crews took the start to the third stage from Barnaul, where the Silk Way rally-marathon took place for the first time, the special stage of 133 km was familiar to the participants of the 3d year race.  If the details of the route could have been forgotten since the time, briefly the memories about the road surfacing and path profile had revealed.    

The start of the Sunday special stage repeated the results of the previous day. And no matter how hard the pilot of MAZ-SPORTavto team Sergey Vyazovich tried to cheat on the second stage, deliberately losing time with the desire not to start ahead of the competitors, it was him who had to open the sports day.

The race was going well enough for the leader of the general truck standings, until the road was blocked by a tree that fell on the road. At the 70th kilometer, the crew from Minsk had to stop in the forest and leave the cabin to clear the way from the sudden obstacle. Five minutes later, the company of the Belarusians was joined by the crew of Eduard Nikolaev, which lost only 14 seconds in the general classification (10 seconds of which were yesterday's penalization for speeding). The only option for KAMAZ was to keep moving, trying to squeeze through the narrow space between massive tree trunks and the MAZ standing on the road, but Nikolaev gave his old rival, who had cleared the road by that time, the opportunity to get into the truck and drive ahead. A gentleman's decision.

A column of dust from under the wheels and a murderous off-road with many potholes and bumps are a good reason not to risk getting into trouble during a dangerous overtaking. In the limited zone of visibility Nikolaev began to lag behind. Further the events of the race began to develop more dramatically. In the next forest area the crews had to take the control point by turning right, but the drivers were confused by the tape stretched between the trees - there was no road. The ill-considered actions of unknown persons almost led to a tragedy, so a few kilometers later, two 10-ton trucks were separated by centimeters from a head-on collision.

Video : https://vk.com/rallykm?w=wall-46176606_45053

Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew # 302: "My navigator dictates to turn right at the dual carriageway, so I braked, and there was a ribbon stretched there. Let's go further, the route does not coincide. In another 2 kilometers Vyazovich flies into our head - by a miracle we passed! We thought we were going to crash. Where there was a ribbon, there was a dot. I don't know who blocked the route here and why. And all participants began to return to the front of the canal, because there was no other way. We quickly oriented ourselves, drove into the forest and there we found a small narrow path, hooked the point and barely turned around, going to the finish line. We will sort out what happened and whose fault it was. The situation was very dangerous.

Sergey Vyazovich, pilot of the crew #301: "On the finishing off-road there was a departure to the right, and there was a second situation, which was even more serious than the first one is a lying tree. Here somehow the right entrance to the forest was blocked by a ribbon. There is a control point there after 200 meters. In the end we entered the forest at the next turn, drove 300-500 meters and the point remains behind. We thought, if Nikolaev goes wrong too, the trucks will meet head-on. And so it happened. We turned around, moving slowly, and the KAMAZ flew out to meet us at full speed, because Eduard attacked. We managed to miss each other, although I was already expecting a head-on collision.

Then we went back to the first turn, tore off the ribbon and drove right. Nikolaev was ahead, and now we started to lose time in the dust. However, after such adventures, we are very happy that we stayed alive".

After the end of the third stage, KAMAZ-master and MAZ-SPORTavto applied to the Board of Sports Commissioners to compensate for the time lost through no fault of their own. After a tense and stressful 133 kilometers, the crew of five-time Dakar winner Nikolaev showed the fifth result with 6 minutes behind Dmitry Sotnikov, Vyazovich finished with the eighth time, losing almost 10 minutes.

A few hours after the teams appealed, the judges made a decision: to return Vyazovich's crew 7 minutes 38 seconds for the tree and ribbon episodes, Nikolaev's crew was compensated 1 minute 4 seconds for the forced stop in the woods in the tree episode, there is no information about the return of time for the ribbon episode at the time of release. Thus the situation in the ranking table looks as follows: Vyazovich moved to the third position, Nikolaev, taking into account the penalization of Alexei Vishnevsky, became the fourth.

Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew #303: "We were familiar with this special stage. The first 30 kilometers were rally, the road was wide, you could drive very fast, and almost all the turns were at a speed of about 100 km/h. The track was bumpy, not slippery, and the ending was killer: a dried up deep rut where water used to be. It was unpleasant; the truck was more often in the air than on the ground because of the bumpy road".

Bogdan Karimov's crew had to get out of the dense flow from the first kilometers of the race. A higher pace after a short time allowed the pilot to catch up with the buggy that started in front of him, but the overtaking didn't take place. The reason was the failed signal on "Sentinel" (a signal with the requirement to let the participant who caught up behind) and strong dust. The next "window" had to wait for a long time - already on the mud section KAMAZ was ahead and further only increased the pace. Karimov's constant attacks were successful at the finish and the second result with a minute and a half behind Sotnikov.

Bogdan Karimov, pilot of crew #306: "We started eleventh, almost immediately we ran into another crew - thick dust prevented us from overtaking it. In one place we almost got close, but the signal on "Sentinel" did not pass - we did not risk to overtake. Further there was a muddy section. It was a working stage, a strong off-road. A lot of things depended on suspension tuning, we are fine with it".

Another KAMAZ-master crew under the control of experienced Andrey Karginov became the sixth, losing less than a minute to Alexey Vishnevsky on MAZ. Sergey Vyazovich retained the lead in the general classification.

Andrey Karginov, pilot of the crew #305: "The special stage can be divided into two parts. The first one is a high-speed road in wide grades, you drive at maximum speed. However, it is very dangerous with closed corners. In the second part - constant chiseling in the woods, pits with signs two and three. It was impossible to find a trajectory in such conditions. We have already driven on this track, I remember how we dug huge tracks in the rain, and now they have dried up - roughly speaking, it turned out to be a ride on dried concrete. It was very hard today."

The fourth stage on the Gorno-Altaisk - Kosh-Agach route will take place on Monday. The total length will be 614 kilometers, of which 165 kilometers will be high-speed special stages.

Truck standings. The results of the 3d stage

Truck standings. General classification of the 3d stage

Photo D.Galchun, A.Elikov