LEADERS VS LEADERS
The third day is a little easier than the second – 233 km. It’s still a lot! Strong crews continue to drop out. The crew of Andrey Novikov retired on the prototype G-Force T-3GF – the flywheel was split and the engine turned around at the back. The same story as with Rudsky’s G-Force – it goes fast and breaks down quickly.
The pilots were not as exhausted as the previous day.
– Today it was a little easier for us, the road is faster, – said the pilot of the GAZ Raid Sport team Alexei Ignatov. There were places and uneven, but a lot of high-speed sections. We made it through the day with no technical problems. And the result is more worthy than yesterday. Let’s write in our experience that we need to choose a more gentle pace and try to overcome the sands as well as today without much difficulty.
On this day, Sergei Vyazovich, it seems, decided to save the car. I drove carefully and let Andrey Karginov go ahead, who won 8 minutes.
– It was a good day, the track was opened today, – said Sergey Vyazovich. For 50 kilometers before the finish line, they made a single mistake in navigation. But we had a margin of time, which allowed us to let our main rival approach us. We drove very carefully so as not to break the car and remain first in the general classification. Andrey Karginov managed to win back a good chunk of time, but did not catch up, so we had a temporary advantage in our favor on the last day. Tomorrow we have an advantageous position, but for Andrey it’s the other way around. This will be the decisive day. We have a four-minute handicap left, this is not so much, so we will not go at a pace to hold, but to attack.
The gap between the leaders was reduced to 4 minutes. Can Viazovich keep the lead? Will Karginov win another 4 minutes?
And now the moment of truth has come – the fourth, final day!
The first to enter the track was the crew of Andrey Karginov (KAMAZ Master). Behind him is the crew of Airat Mardeev (KAMAZ), followed by Boris Gadasin on the prototype. Race leader Sergey Vyazovich (MAZ Sport-auto) was fifth. Rubilovo went from the very start. Vyazovich overtook a number of cars, only Karginov’s crew was ahead of him. Closer to the finish line, Vyazovich took a risk – he rushed through a field full of pits and bumps and was able to overtake Karginov! A convincing victory for the Belarusian crew! They are the first in trucks, they are the first in the absolute!
– This year, the “Gold of Kagan – 2023” baja has developed without any problems for us, we have won three stages out of four, we are satisfied, of course, with the result, – said Sergey Vyazovich, the winner of the rally. Although yesterday our nerves were tickled when we went from the first position and gave quite a lot of time. But still they kept the lead and today they attacked very hard from the first kilometer, probably on the verge of an accident.
In the T2 category, the crew of the S&A RACING team Andrey Sushentsov/Alexander Shchanov won. In the T3 category, Dmitry Mordkovich / Ivan Bezdenezhnykh (TEAM MARIA OPARINA) became the first. In the category R (raid-sport), the crew of Konstantin Ivanov and Alexander Gorkov won on Toyota LC 200. The second and third places in the raid-sport were taken by the crews of the GAZ Raid Sport team on sports Gazelles NN.
“We have seriously improved our cars,” Alexey Ignatov, the pilot of the GAZ Raid Sport team, told AvtoVzglyad. Now we are testing reliability in combat conditions. There are problems, not without it. This is the evolution of the sports car. Now we will draw conclusions and prepare for the Silk Road 2023.
Start in Kazan – July 5, finish in Moscow – July 15. The total mileage is 5230 kilometers, of which 2350 are combat. We have great cars, strong crews and experienced mechanics – every chance to become winners!
