Hou Hongning: “I recommend Chinese drivers to come to the Silk Way Rally”

Participants of the Silk Way Rally received information from the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Samara region about the introduction of an orange level of danger in the region in different ways. Someone rejoiced at the upcoming Tuesday evening, a sharp change in temperature downwards and possible heavy precipitation in the form of showers and hail, as well as winds with gusts of up to 27 m/s. Someone did not like this behavior of Celestial chancellery, because not everyone wants to get wet at the bivouac in Samara on the territory of the football stadium.

Already from early morning, the sky in the start area of the fifth special stage was covered with dense clouds, which helped to bring down the heat and a strong gusty wind. Thus, yesterday's forty-degree heat changed to "comfortable" values of 30-odd degrees.

The KAMAZ-master crew led by Andrey Karginov had to open the sports 226-kilometer special stage on Tuesday. The new region, where the riders had never performed before, did not involve risky actions on an unfamiliar track, besides, the crew had to pave the way for the rest of the participants. This alignment was in the hands of the leader of the truck standings, Sergei Vyazovich from the MAZ-SPORT-auto team. The trail from the opponent walking in front served as a guide.

To prevent serious miscalculations in navigation and try to win back the 7-minute gap from the Belarusians, this was the task for the winner of the Silk Way Rally 2018 Andrey Karginov. And Ivan Malkov, who has retrained from a crew mechanic to a co-pilot, helps an experienced pilot solve it in the current edition of the rally. The results of the race show that the acquaintance with the new role is going on as usual, the crew makes a minimum of mistakes and claims high places according to the results of a multi-day marathon.

Andrey Karginov, pilot of crew No. 301: “The lack of heat is the main thing that I remember today. We drove more or less comfortably, although in tension. From the peculiarities, we started the first. Since our co-pilot is a freshman, we were worried, but the whole crew got together and understood: we would “trample” the trail, because we had to win back time, catch up. We made almost no mistakes, in some places we slowed down to get on the road. Yes, we were wasting time, but this strategy worked. High grass, many roads and navigation, it is not easy for the co-pilot to navigate without traces, they drove like from blank paper. Along the fields it was necessary to cut the grass, but without fanaticism.

On a linear flat track with a hard dirt surface, the athletes took the highest pace from the first kilometers. The average speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour at around 103 km obeyed three crews at once - Dmitry Sotnikov, Eduard Nikolaev and Sergey Vyazovich. In the absentee battle, none of the representatives of the truck category even thought to give in, scratching out seconds from the competitors, which resulted in tight results at the finish line.

In the second half of the special stage, which ran through fields and forests, Eduard Nikolaev’s KAMAZ became the leader of the timing table, the Russian crew showed the best time in the truck standings and won the first victory at the Silk Way Rally 2023 stages. The final 40 kilometers of the distance, suitable for competitions in the classic rally was also a success for Andrey Karginov, the pilot won back one and a half minutes from Sergey Vyazovich and finished the stage with a nine-second delay. And if it weren’t for the decision of the Minsk residents not to change the wheel with tire tread flying off, according to the results of five stages, Karginov’s crew would have led the overall standings.

Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew No. 303: “It is a dynamic special stage with a lot of dust. Due to the missed time, we have started at the end of peloton and we have to thank the participants of the race that they let us pass the way. Practically, we were not in dust. It was a good navigation with difficult road junctions, the co-pilot performed well. We would like to drive in rain and in mud, I always look forward to such weather conditions. It is very challenging at the race. The weather makes adjustments to competitive process and one can lose and win the time”.

The forth time of the day was shown by Dmitry Sotnikov. The slight errors in navigation did not much influence on the passing of the stage – it was two minutes ahead of the crew of Eduard Nikolaev.

Ruslan Akhmadeev, co-pilot of crew No. 300: “All 226 kilometers was ground coat, we drove through fields and forests, steppe paths. Navigation is not easy, in some places you had to find your way. Good special. The average speed is more than 110 km/h, we constantly drove at maximum speed. There were no fords, but there were many ditches, crossings of ravines and pits. There were no stones either. The road book is well written".

The sixth and seventh test results went to two more representatives of KAMAZ-master under the control of Sergey Kuprianov and Hou Hongnin, who are part of the Chinese-Russian crew".

Sergey Kupriyanov, pilot of crew No. 305: “There were fast paths between fields and copses. I liked the part where we were driving through a dry meadow: the path was winding, with holes and bumps - the most taxiing section. It was important accurately hit the corners, not to go past, and in general we succeeded.”

Hou Hongnin, pilot of crew No. 307: “Our result is the merit of people who daily share advice and knowledge with us and help with driving. Thanks to the pilots of KAMAZ-master for valuable tips. It will be difficult to finish on the podium: there are crews that go faster and more confidently. We made a few mistakes, drove to the wrong place, and also changed a punctured wheel. Totally, we lost about 10 minutes. Personally, I always recommend to Chinese racers to take part in the Silk Way Rally. Now we do not have cool truck teams as “KAMAZ-master” team in Russia, but we have many participants at cross-country vehicles. If the rally takes place at the territory of China, many crews must be expected. Our motorsports develops at high pace”.

Alexander Khlebov, pilot of crew No. 311: “The special stage for us was formed without incident, there is nothing to even talk about. Fast and dusty tracks, no navigational errors. I think it would be more interesting to ride in the rain, there is a rollover, rubber allows you to drive on a wet track. We set ourselves the goal of reaching the finish line with a good result for ourselves, climbing as high as possible in the overall standings. Last year we were eleventh, let's see if we can succeed. Fatigue accumulates at the end of the marathon, for me personally it is difficult to ride when the special stage is more than 320 kilometers”.

The sixth stage at the route Samara-Saratov on Wednesday will consist of 2 special stages with lengths in 118 and 75 km.

Trucks standings. The results of the 5^th stage.

Trucks standings. General classification after the 5^th stage