Sotnikov won the third stage, Karginov became the leader of the Silk Way Rally

The third stage of the international Silk Way Rally has brought fundamental changes to the general classification in the truck category. And the main beneficiary at the end of the day was the KAMAZ-master team.

Saturday's almost 400-kilometer loop route included 320 kilometers of special stage, which was 100 kilometers longer than the day before. Despite the fact that yesterday's finish point became today's starting line and, in fact the athletes were moving in the opposite direction, this time there were much more high-speed segments. And the racers were happy with such a track construction: it was possible to accelerate and keep a higher pace. The spice of the Astrakhan part of the rally was passage near the famous dune "Big Brother", where hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the eminent racers.

It all started with the fact that the leader of the race, the Belarusian Siarhei Viazovich, again faced the wheel issue. As on Friday, a tire exploded on the MAZ, and it was not possible to replace the wheel immediately due to inconvenient position of the truck. To this should be added the fact of the subsequent stop to re-fix the wheel, which was completely lost a little later. This stop was used by three crews on KAMAZ vehicles, that overran the rival.

Dmitry Sotnikov, during passage of the special stage, avoided technical problems that chased him at the second stage. The only obstacles for the current winner of the Silk Way Rally were columns of dust and a huge number of tracks in the overgrown with greenery steppe. Moreover, there were hidden obstacles that were not visible even from a high cabin - they had to slow down to a complete stop at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour. However, the great experience of the crew helped them to make right decisions and to finish with the best result of the day not only in their own classification, but also in the overall standings - Vladimir Vasiliev, the leader of the car standings, was seven minutes behind the KAMAZ!

Dmitry Sotnikov, driver of crew No 300: “The reason for yesterday's damage became a technical feature, as we test different parts at the race. Today, we were happy with everything, nothing bothered us. We tried to work accurately and efficiently. There was a lot of dust, and as I understand, everyone was driving quite smoothly. I saw Eduard Nikolaev - he was standing with the wheel, then Siarhei Viazovich was standing, and Andrey Karginov was already on the horizon. Apparently, he had some problems - there were traces, as if he was turning off. And in the end they drove slowly, and we ran into their dust a little. In general, we coped with the task, there were no losses. The vehicle worked great today. There were more and more new tracks on the route, on which there were no traces, no overruns and we awaited a fast ending, but the route to the “Big Brother” turned out so killing, just for patience - you couldn’t go around, there constantly were hard bumps. I don’t think things will get easier in Grozny.”

The crew of Andrey Karginov, No 303, quickly caught up with Viazovich, who was going around in search of a point, but did not make a mistake in navigation, leaving the opponent behind. Karginov had to slow down his high racing pace 30 kilometers before the finish line - the racers did not see a hidden ravine in the tall grass. As a result of a hard impact on the road, one of the shock absorbers was torn off. After a talk, the crew decided not to carry out field repairs: the process of replacing a damaged element would take much more time than continuing the race at a lower speed.

It became clear at the finish line: Andrey Karginov led the general classification of the truck standings and won the stage of the Russian Rally Raid Championship - Saturday's stage became final within the Gold of Kagan Baja.

Andrey Karginov, crew No 303: “We started third behind Siarhei Viazovich, caught up with him and overran him. All was clear with the navigation. Viazovich began to spin in front of us, and there we overtook him. We kept a good pace, we felt that we were going well, but 30 km before the finish line we got into a mud hole. The grass was tall, we didn’t even understand what was the matter. We stopped, saw that the left shock absorber was torn off. We decided to go further without repair, but lost in pace. I had to cut the track carefully and I had to limit myself in maneuvers. It was the shock absorber that we damaged on the off-road.”

The crew of Eduard Nikolaev also did not escape losing time. Replacing a punctured wheel and fixing the left side of the body due to a worn out rubber gasket took them about seven minutes. Sergey Kuprianov showed his best result at this rally in the gas-and-diesel KAMAZ - he showed the fourth best time, climbing up one position in the overall standings.

Eduard Nikolaev, driver of crew No 302: “Today the special stage was faster than yesterday. It was important to drive in full concentration in order not to fly out at a high speed. There were narrow fast lanes, but in some places we had to slow down to zero. Navigation was uneventful. We lost time due to replacement of a punctured rear wheel. The pumping could not cope, we decided that it was necessary to change not waiting for a break. It was difficult to understand where we made the puncture, but it happened at the very beginning. It took us six minutes to replace, another minute was spent on removing the torn rubber band on the side of the body.”

Sergey Kuprianov, driver of crew No 305: “It was good today, warm outside. On the “Big Brother” there was a large corridor of spectators - on the left and on the right, and it was necessary to pass between them, we were even afraid for them (smiles). The tracks were fast. Everything was fine with the truck: nothing was heated, the wheels were also brought whole, so there was a progress comparing to yesterday. According to navigation, today we drove several times in the wrong direction, but returned quickly.”

On Sunday, contestants of the SWR will have the longest stage of the first half of the rally - 344 kilometers of special stages from Astrakhan to the capital of the Chechen Republic.

Truck Category. Results of the 3^rd Stage

Truck Category, General classification after the 3^rd Stage