On September 22 in Ulyanovsk started the stage of the Russian Rally-Raid Championship - Baja "Simbirskiy Trakt 2023". 46 crews from 32 regions of Russia and neighboring countries applied for the race. The solemn start ceremony on the historic Cathedral Square of Ulyanovsk was preceded by test rides, administrative and technical checks.
Immediately after passing the arch on the Cathedral Square, the crews went directly to the start of the "prologue" - a short first high-speed section. The length of the circular stage was 17.42 kilometers and had a warm-up character for the drivers, and secondly, the results of the first day affect the arrangement of athletes on the second, already full-fledged, special part of the race, as the top ten by the regulations can choose the starting positions on SU2.
Due to Friday traffic jams in Ulyanovsk, the participants arrived to the start of the prologue with a slight delay. The line of trucks waiting for the signal to go to the special stage looked quite impressive - 5 trucks of the KAMAZ-master team, 3 trucks of the Belarusian team MAZ-SPORTavto, 1 truck of the UralMotorSport team and some more GAZ trucks. Because of the windless weather and, as a consequence, the strong dust, hanging in the air for a long time, the organizers increased the interval between the starting trucks up to 3 minutes. But even this did not save some participants from mistakes - mostly athletes "missed" the turns, well, and had to be careful with the choice of maximum speed.
The best time was shown by the leader of the car category Vladimir Vasiliev from St. Petersburg in a Mini Cooper Countryman with the result of 9 minutes and 42 seconds. Eduard Nikolaev (№303, bonneted KAMAZ-435092) and Alexey Vishnevsky (№305, MAZ-6440RR) were right behind him in the table with the same time of 10 minutes and 30 seconds. The third time in the cargo classification (fourth in the "absolute") was shown by the crew of Dmitry Sotnikov of Kamaz, driving a sports truck KAMAZ-435091 of the K5 family (№304, 10 min 44 sec). Other participants of the truck category also passed the stage quite steadily and showed tight results.
Anton Shibalov, this time driving a sporty K5 KAMAZ, was fourth (№306, +0:59), Bogdan Karimov (№307, KAMAZ-436509, +0: 59) - fifth, Sergey Vyazovich (№301, MAZ-6440RR,+01:13) - sixth, Vitaly Murylev (№308, MAZ-6440RR,+01:30) - seventh, Andrey Karginov (№302, KAMAZ-435091 (K5), +01:45) - eighth result.
On September 23 and 24, participants will have two intense racing days, three special stages, the route of which will pass through Ulyanovsk, Kuzovatovsk, Terengulsky, Tsilninsky, Sursky, Karsunsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts of the Ulyanovsk region. In total, it is more than 600 "combat" kilometers, and the total length of the competition route together with liaisons will be almost 900 kilometers.
