On July 19, two special stages on the second round of the Russian Rally-Raid Championship, "The Hills of Russia" Baja, took place. The pilot of the KAMAZ-master team Dmitry Sotnikov set the fastest time on both occasions. However, a four-minute penalty for being forced to miss the start of the second special stage dropped the KAMAZ pilot to third place in the overall standings, tightening the competition ahead of the remaining two days of competition.
In the morning, the racing crews faced a wet track from the previous days, and the abundance of mud made the racer’s task even more difficult. Sotnikov completed the distance just four seconds faster than Eduard Nikolaev, taking the lead at the end of the special stage. Meanwhile, Sergey Vyazovich, a traditional rival of the KAMAZ-master, slowed down towards the end and lost a minute. Almaz Akmedov lost seven minutes to the best time, while Dmitry Avdeev suffered overheating brakes and lost almost half an hour.
The treacherous nature of the track was clearly demonstrated by an accident involving one of the URAL Motorsport crews: Anton Kushnikov’s truck overturned. In the slippery road, the Ural team hit a tree, causing the truck to flip onto its side.
The second special stage went well at dry roads, but it did not significantly change situation. Sotnikov gained over a minute and a half on Vyazovich, but Nikolaev lost 3:18 this time due to supotimal engine performance and strange problems with the checkpoints. Akhmedov and Avdeev finished fifth and sxth, respectively.
In the overall standings, as we mentioned above, the penalty dropped Sotnikov to third, but thanks to a strong performance on the special stages. Dmitry has a chance to recover. And now it is a dichotomy! Nikolaev and Vyazovich finished yesterday’s prologue and two Sunday special stages with the same overall time, so they both lead the standings. Almaz Akhmedov is the fifth in the truck class, and Dmitry Avdeev is the ninth.
Eduard Nikolaev, the Head of the team, pilot of crew N303: “Today we started behind Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew, and the first lap was very muddy after heavy rains: with puddles and fords. The surface was very slippery, but we drove well and were in the lead. By the finish. We were a few seconds behind Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew, with Sergey Vyazovich behind. There were navigational issues, because the waypoints were not being picked up: the waypoint was marked on the road, we drove along the road, but the waypoint would not be picked up, and we had to make a loop, wasting time. We are currently trying to figure out with the organizers why this is happening, and it happened on both the first and second laps. At this point we even took a slightly wider radius, but the waypoint still would not be picked up-we had to go back again. From what I learned at the finish, almost all of our crews had this problem. I hope the organizers will give us some feedback so we can at least understand how to proceed tomorrow, because precious seconds are being lost.
After the first special stage, we came to service point. That was quite far I have not seen so much of mud being sticked at the trucks. The rear brakes heated dramatically, because they were just caked by mud. The shock absorbers were also hot and did not work as they should. Everything was coated in black soil and grass like a fur coat! By the second special stage, the sun had come out and it was starting to dry out, and we were getting faster, but we had engine problems: the engine would not go. We were currently investigating what happened. The truck was accelerating very slowly, so we had to take risks and slow down because I knew we were losing time. Dmitry Sojtnikov caught up with us at the finish line; we let him pass and had already covered 25 kilometers together, plus two more Urals were driving with us.
I'm pleased with Dima Avdeev's crew. The guys drove smoothly, even if there were a few hiccups. Almaz Akhmedov also had engine overheating issues and had to back off—we'll sort this out. Dmitry Sotnikov's crew—it was clear they were going very fast, shaving time off our rival, Sergey Vyazovich. We still have two full work days ahead.
Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew N 301: "We started behind Vitaly Murylev, and Eduard Nikolaev behind us, with a three-minute gap. Six trucks started ahead of us, and the track was quite heavily rolled out; it was very slippery in places, so we had to find a balance between the slippery and dry surfaces. It was dangerous in places, the speed was high, and the truck constantly spinning on the straight. On the first lap, we pulled up to Murylev quite quickly and drove very close to him for a long time. I think he saw us in his mirror in the restriction zone. We honked our Sentinel, but it was probably not working, and then Vitaly tried to get away from us. He did not let us pass for quite a while, so we had to brake around him at the next restriction. That was the first time we lost time, and the second was that a point on the road would not take hold for some reason, so we had to make a loop. Overall, everything went smoothly. We arrived at the service station, the truck was fine, but when it was time to head to the start of the second special stage, we discovered a problem with the tire inflation and had to remove it. We lost time and missed the start of the second stage, for which we received a four-minute penalty. It was very frustrating, because the battle was down to the last few seconds. Realizing we were already a bit behind, I set the goal of driving technically, cleanly, and hitting all the corners. Basically, everything was smoothed out, which was clear after the first pass, so everything worked out. In one place, we almost did not have time to stop due to the slippery surface, and had to reverse. That was my only mistake. And then we slowly approached Eduard Nikolaev. Eduard let us pass, and we went to catch Yuri Naiman. "Unfortunately, there must have been some problems with our Sentinel today, and we could not send a signal to Yuri; we were chasing him for a long time. Only right at the finish did we manage to pass him to save some time. We drove the second part quite quickly, confidently, and enjoyed it. But, unfortunately, this is not the final result”.
Almaz Akhmedov, pilot of crew N 304: "Today there were two 150-kilometer laps. We started second on the first lap, caught Ivan Korolev by the ninth kilometer, passed him, and drove at full throttle for almost the entire special stage. It was just as slippery as on previous days. The first special stage was quite interesting, with forests and fast roads along a field. Towards the end, about eight kilometers from the finish, Sergey Vyazovich caught up with us, drove around us, and we finished behind him. On the second lap, we started behind Vyazovich; the track was already dry, allowing for good driving. But around the 20th kilometer, we saw the truck was overheating and slowed down a bit. We did not finish at our usual pace—we just made it. On the second lap, we saw the Lada Niva burning out. And another ten kilometers away, Anton Kushnikov's Ural truck was lying on its side. It looked as if it had crashed into a tree, after which the truck was thrown off”.
Dmitry Avdeev, pilot of crew N 308: "The first special stage was quite challenging because it was wet after the rain, especially on the forest roads. Towards the middle of the stage, the brakes overheated, and we were forced to slow down and just finish. The second special stage was more productive because we were able to fix the issue that was causing the brakes to overheat. I adjusted my driving style slightly, and we were able to drive at full speed until the finish. Overall, everything went well; there were no navigational issues."
On Monday, July 20, the stage will again consist of two racing sections. The first special stage. 170 km long, will cross fords, ravines and impressive vertical drops of up to 70 meters, known as “mega-dolphines”. The second section will be the true highlighted of the Baja: 90 km of the route runs along a sandy river, including a unique 10-kilometer stretch. And then continues through a canyon with continuous fords.
