The Russian Rally-Raid Championship Stage "Zoloto Kagana" ended in Astrakhan.
On the fourth day of the competition the participants returned to the Special Stage route, but the athletes did not have an easy walk despite the relatively short distance of 240 km. The day again shook up the standings of leaders of the truck classification.
Andrey Karginov's crew had set itself the task to keep the leadership formed by the results of three days of the race, but technical reasons got in the way of the first place: "We started today first, we were going well, the first among trucks. We felt that our track was a great off-road track, as we like. We realized that we had a good pace, that we were in the lead. But unfortunately, the turbine failed, we lost boost. We stopped to replace it and lost about 55 minutes. We continued to drive, trying to keep up the pace. We realized that we were not in the lead, but, nevertheless, we should use every kilometer of the race for training, building up our professional skills, piloting and navigational work, because at such a speed it is especially difficult for co-pilots to navigate. We stopped at the crew of Eduard Nikolaev at 35 kilometers before the finish. They had problems with a broken fan clutch, they asked for the missing tool. We helped them and continued driving. It was an interesting ending, a working one, we tried to pass it quickly".
The problems of crew 303 did not stop at this. Due to the hard track, the suspension travel limiter belts sealed by the organizers were broken at Andrey Karginov's truck as a result of furious shaking. The Board of Sports Stewards imposed a 10-hour penalty for this.
Today Bogdan Karimov after yesterday's problems tried to increase the pace from the start and again proved that he is good at it - almost at all control checkpoints his time was the best: "At the beginning there was a strong bump, the suspension was broken, we thought that we did not hit the settings. We started to worry a little bit, but then began more high-speed sections and it turned out to go faster. The weather today is more favorable and not so hot: sun, but wind and a little easier than on the first day. We managed to show what we are capable of, and that is the main thing. We will analyze the mistakes and correct them.
Dmitry Sotnikov's crew is an example of how the motto of rally-raids works - never give up and fight until the last meter of the race. As a result - victory in the 13th edition of the Baja Zoloto Kagana. "There were 2 trucks ahead today. - told after the finish Dmitry. - The day promised to be difficult, we tried to work carefully, technically. In principle, we managed to do everything, despite the fact that there were some inaccuracies in navigation, we tried to quickly return and catch up. We saw Andrey Karginov standing with a raised cabin, it was before the beginning of the high-speed section. Further we drove in our own mode and at the finish we saw Eduard Nikolaev standing there. The road was very bad, I don't even remember that we had ever driven here, there were no tracks at all. He had problems with the fan drive and as a consequence there was a threat of engine overheating. We stopped, talked it over and drove on even more carefully. We are happy with the result. All the crews worked hard, but someone was luckier. That's what rally-raids are all about.
The co-pilot of Dmitry Sotnikov’s crew noted, that he liked the race, it was challenging: “There were three full days not like at the other years. It is a very good testing of our new designed solutions at the trucks and training of co-pilots. I liked the navigation during the race though it had to get used to road-books. Yesterday we discussed with co-pilots what can be upgraded, where the font can be bigger, where to zoom in order to be able the difficult places and bindings. Today the Organizes led to absolutely unknown places. It was hard. The temperature was 15 degrees above Celsius, it was windy and it was a little bit cold, but at the finish teapots were empty, because it was already hot. We saw that Andrey Karginov stopped and then we passed Eduard Nikolaev. They had technical problems. Further there were no tracks. We finished the going ahead the others”.
KAMAZ-Master team leader Eduard Nikolaev took a good pace from the start and drove the entire stage with assertiveness and excitement, as he was separated from the leader Andrey Karginov by only a minute and a bit. The time shown by him at the checkpoint 50 kilometers before the finish left almost no one in doubt that Nikolaev wins the race. But 35 kilometers before the finish, fortune played a cruel joke on the leader.
"Unfortunately, our crew was unlucky today," said Eduard Nikolaev.
- We drove well, very interesting special stage today, but 35 kilometers before the finish, the hub of the fan failed and it broke off. The fan broke off and the engine started to heat up. We tried to drive, but it started to go into error. We started stopping, trying to bring everything back to normal, to cancel this error, but unfortunately, the motor still got hot and did not return to normal mode. There was an excessive temperature, we had to stop.
It's my debut as a team manager, my first race. It's great that the guys managed to hold their positions. Dmitry Sotnikov, Bogdan Karimov. The crew of Andrey Karginov managed to replace the turbine and finish the race. We also made it to the finish line, and that's the most important thing. The result is technical, it is better to see problems here than at a more important race. We will deal with this assembly, why it failed and make the right conclusions.
Ahead of us is the stage of the Russian Championship in Volgograd region in May, the race "Sands of Archeda". We will come home, do a debriefing, and make a decision on what сrews and on what trucks we will go there".
STAGE 4 RESULTS
1 305 KARIMOV B. KAMAZ-MASTER 3:08:22
2 302 SOTNIKOV D. KAMAZ-MASTER +5:22
3 306 NAIMAN Y. URAL MOTORSPORT +48:40
4 303 A. KARGINOV KAMAZ-MASTER +59:53
5.309 FILIAKIN A. GAZ RAID SPORT +2:00:59
6 308 SHKLYAEV M. GAZ RAID SPORT +2:02:57
7 304 NIKOLAEV E. KAMAZ-MASTER +5:06:38
8 301 VYAZOVICH S. MAZ-SPORTAUTO +9:03:48
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF BAHA "ZOLOTO KAGANA 2024"
1 302 SOTNIKOV D. KAMAZ-MASTER 12:36:04
2 305 KARIMOV B. KAMAZ-MASTER +21:41
3 306 NAIMAN Y. URAL MOTORSPORT +2:55:57
4 304 NIKOLAEV E. KAMAZ-MASTER +4:55:26
5 303 CARGINOV A. KAMAZ-MASTER +10:46:56
6 309 FILIAKIN A. GAZ RAID SPORT +26:29:09
7 308 SHKLYAEV M. GAZ RAID SPORT +49:33:20
8 301 VYAZOVICH S. MAZ-SPORTAUTO +76:21:27
