From Europe to Asia: Karginov's crew became the first in the second stage of the Silk Way Rally.

The international rally Silk Way 2023 is gaining momentum: on Saturday, the participants of the multiday race headed east from Ufa to Magnitogorsk. The almost 300 kilometer route from Europe to Asia for the most part ran through the mountain passes of the Ural Mountains driving along the serpentine and valleys was complicated by a difficult traffic situation: dense traffic, mostly one lane for traffic and rare opportunities to overtake. Such a speed march for 4-5 hours kept sports crews in suspense, and after all, 245 kilometers of a difficult special stage were ahead of the riders.

In the truck standings, the Chinese crew of the GAZ Reid Sport could not start the stage. The day before, their car turned over on the track and reached the bivouac only on a trailer at six in the morning. The team expects that on Saturday they will be able to put the truck in order and it will be able to start at the Sunday circuit stage in Magnitogorsk.

Technical troubles haunted the crews in other classifications as well. And this is in addition to the heat that has been established in Bashkiria in recent days, the thermometer in the open sun in some places reached 40 degrees Celsius. Pilots Evgeny Sukhovenko and Dmitry Voronov, driving Lada Niva, spent a lot of time repairing cars after hitting rocks: the first crew stopped already 400 meters after the start.

Punctured wheels have become an ordinary event in the life of racers, the track was full of of large and small sharp stones, about which the organizers warned all participants at the briefing. The first 50 kilometers were a test for tires heated to high temperatures on a hot dirt road. Experienced pilots were able to accelerate sports equipment to maximum speeds after crossing the Ural River on fast steppe routes. The navigators also had enough work: it was important not to miss the right turn and the treacherous ravines hiding in the grass.

The current winner of the Silk Way Rally, Dmitry Sotnikov, set the highest pace for all riders from the first kilometer. Five minutes of penalties were added to the lost almost two minutes following the results of yesterday's stage. By the way, the KAMAZ-master crew was not the only one who was penalized for speeding.

Today Sotnikov, at around 78 km, was 29 seconds ahead of the leader among SUVs Vladimir Vasiliev in the overall standings, and after another 60 kilometers he was ahead by an impressive 2 minutes 11 seconds! However, the crew number 300 had to end the sports day with a completely different mood: a mistake led to a hard exit into a stream and a broken front of the cab. The crew of Vitaly Murylev from MAZ-SPORTavto helped to pull a multi-ton truck out of the trap.

Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew No. 300: “It was a treacherous track, we spent the whole day in the dust: we overtook, outraced, and it was impossible to get close to other cars. In one place we made a mistake: following someone else's footprints, we left for a field with tall grass and ran into a stream. The wheels failed, they could not pass either back or forward. We waited a long time for help, and many thanks to the crew of Vitaly Murylev, who stopped and pulled us out on the third attempt. The rest of the race went as normal". Andrey Karginov also had to catch up with his rivals from the start. After the eighth result on Friday, the KAMAZ-master crew made a powerful breakthrough and showed the best time at the finish line in Magnitogorsk - 2 hours 36 minutes 40 seconds. Which is only 25 seconds slower than Vladimir Vasiliev, the owner of the World Cups in bajas and rally raids.

Andrey Karginov, pilot of crew No. 301: “The working special stage, fords, dust, dry season and heat made their own adjustments, did not let us relax. Narrow, winding forest roads where you need to keep taxiing and, of course, working moments when you need to be concentrated at maximum speed. Yesterday we lost a lot, so today we tried to catch up. We showed a good time, although we lost a little on overtaking. Large sharp stones did not allow cutting the trajectory, and stumps sticking out on the track made a variety."

The second at the end of the day was another pilot of the Russian team - Eduard Nikolaev, after the third position in the first stage, led the overall standings. The crew on a KAMAZ bonnet truck had to finish the special stage with a damaged windshield, which was hit by a powerful birch branch on the forest paths.

 Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew No. 303: “The second half of the special stage was slippery and muddy. We didn’t expect such conditions after yesterday’s abnormal heat. We came closer to Sergei Vyazovich, but let him go, not to take a risk. At one place we were turned around and was afraid not to lay down on our side. Plus, we caught birch knot in a narrow place and broke the windshield”.

For the second day in a row, the Chinese-Russian crew "One Zone - One Road" led by Hou Hongning can enter the personal standings. His "KAMAZ" crossed the finish line with the fourth result, and behind in the table is the debutant of the Silk Way Yuri Nayman on the "URAL". With the sixth time of the day, the stage was completed by the pilot of KAMAZ-master Sergey Kuprianov.

Sunday the caravan rally will be held in Magnitogorsk. The circular special stage with a length of 345 kilometers will be the longest in the program of the thirteenth edition of the Silk Way.

Trucks standings. The results of the 2^nd stage

Trucks standings. General classification after the 2^nd stage