After the exhausting second day, they promised a gentle regime. But does this really happen in rally raids? 450 kilometers of special stages across fast steppes turned out to be difficult, and “Kagan’s Gold” continues to test crews’ endurance.
On the third racing day, April 22, there were fast, dusty Kalmyk steppe paths – two laps of 225 kilometers each. During the night, the team mechanics serviced all the cars, and already at 7 am the GAZ Raid Sport crews again left the bivouac in full force towards the start zone. Race director Alexander Grachev promised high speeds and a large number of straights, and he did not deceive: the average speed was indeed higher, and the tracks were closer to rally ones. But the load is still serious – technical problems literally devastated the race participants. Anastasia Nifontova took into account the mistakes of the previous day and today drove both laps perfectly, finishing fourth on SS3 and sixth on SS4. It is clear that we are no longer talking about fighting for the podium, but the crew, despite the failures of the second day of the race, is cheerfully and confidently rushing to the finish line.
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In the Raid Sport standings, the main contender for 1st place – the crew of Alexey Kuznetsov – dropped out of the fight today: two ditches caught at full speed damaged both front shock absorbers on the car of the Volgograd crew of Alexey Kuznetsov and Boris Borovkov. Three more participants were also forced to stop fighting due to various technical problems: the crew from Kolomna Bogdan Vavrenyuk, the S&A Racing crew of Andrey Sushentsov and the GAZ Raid Sport crew of Alexander Semenov. Another crew of the GAZ Raid Sport team – Alexey Ignatov and Evgeny Pavlov, despite minor technical difficulties, was able to win back part of the time. There are three main contenders left: Konstantin Ivanov/Alexander Gorkov, Mikhail Rastorguev/Petr Ponomarev and, of course, Alexey Ignatov/Evgeny Pavlov.
In the truck category, Mikhail Shklyaev/Alexander Sheludko and Alexander Filyakin with Alexander Laguta bravely fight surrounded by the legendary KAMAZ and Urals. Yesterday, the Belarusian crew of a MAZ vehicle withdrew from the race due to a broken frame side member. But Sergei Vyazovich is not used to giving up easily, and the team still does not give up trying to reach the start of the final day. Today the crews raced cheerfully through the first lap, and Shklyaev managed to finish in fourth place after SS3, but on the second lap the axle shaft failed. Repair in the steppe. We lost time, but we got to the finish line on our own.
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The managing director of the GAZ plant, Andrey Sofonov, and the head of the plant’s press service, Nikolay Markov, are participating in the amateur competition “TRACK RACE” on standard Soboli 4x4s. For the amateur competition, the race organizers shortened the route, and it was necessary to complete one lap of 225 kilometers. Sofonov's crew successfully completed the day. But you won’t be able to participate in the final stage – business calls, you need to go on a business trip. Nikolai Markov continues to fight.
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In the evening of the third racing day, Astrakhan schoolchildren visited the race bivouac. The sports cars of the Gorky Automobile Plant aroused great interest, which were discussed by the sports director of the GAZ Raid Sport team, Vyacheslav Subbotin, and the current champion of Russia, Alexey Ignatov.
April 23 is the final fourth day, 250 kilometers and three famous dunes Big Brother, Africa and Red Sand. The section will partially repeat the Sunday special stage, but turned in the opposite direction. We'll find out soon who will take the Kagan Gold and whether the team will be able to make it to the podium!
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Today there was a special stage when you had to hit the floor and drive. I can’t say that I like such special stages, and one lap would be quite enough for me for variety. On the first lap the track was a bit rough, then when KAMAZ trucks and others drove along it, the roughness was removed and it became better. And it felt like we went faster. The first lap I couldn’t catch the pace, it was hard, including mentally because of our adventures yesterday, but then I rolled in and things went well. The car feels great. This year we sometimes have breakdowns. With the variator, for example, it’s completely unexpected: the guys installed a new variator, and it’s unclear whether the part was defective, or something else… It’s impossible to find out now. It feels like I’ve been jinxed (laughs), because it’s impossible to explain such breakdowns. For some reason, the glands can withstand training, but at the most crucial moment they fail. As for the route, I would like some kind of mix: a combination of high-speed sections with aerobatic taxi sections, but for now we get some extremes – a day of only high-speed sections, a day of aerobatic sections. Let's see what happens tomorrow. I prefer sandy rolling paths, perhaps with hummocks and ditches, but not as “plugged” and ragged as today. Let's just say, classic Astrakhan roads.
Anastasia Nifontova, driver of the GAZ Raid Sport team
Today was more fun than yesterday, the paths were straighter and more level. It wasn't very hot. Overall, everything is good. We drove the first lap faster than we expected. On the second lap we again had technical problems: the rear hub needed to be changed, we lost 20 minutes. But we are happy with the result. Tomorrow there will be sand, and there will be something to work on. We couldn’t play as much time today as we planned, so we left it for tomorrow.
Alexey Ignatov, driver of the GAZ Raid Sport team
Today was an interesting day, it wasn’t difficult, but there were a couple of places that were ambiguously read. They haven’t given me this part of the route for a long time, since I was driving myself, around 2012. Then our hub also fell off.
Evgeny Pavlov, co-driver of Alexey Ignatov, GAZ Raid Sport team
The high-speed section is new, we went through it twice, and I liked it. A combination of fast tracks with sand, killer roads. Real Astrakhan. The first lap went well, but on the second the axle shaft was broken. We lost a lot of time: a piece of the axle ended up inside the bridge, and the gearbox had to be removed. We picked up some fines, but on the final day we go out on the track again.
Mikhail Shklyaev, driver of the GAZ Raid Sport team
We, together with the pilot of another crew, managing director of the Gorky Automobile Plant Andrei Sofonov, are taking part in this difficult race in order to practice and “roll in” a little before more serious starts. At the same time, we are training the new young navigator of the team, Alexander Kapustin, in combat – today’s race is his debut. We plan to take part in the T2 classification in the season of the Russian rally-raid championship on the new promising Sobol NN 4×4 car, and now we are, so to speak, on a training trip. We want to get into the swing of things, understand the ropes, work with navigators, so as not to be extras in more serious competition groups. Therefore, we are now racing the well-known serial Sobol 4×4 in the third category rally. At the same time, we will be preparing new cars for the next season. Andrey Sofonov was able to fly to Astrakhan for only two days in between work trips, and this time he did not have the opportunity to take part in all four stages of the race. As for the special stage: it was very taxiy, we went very dynamically, we overtook our colleagues. I liked everything very much. The co-driver and I had fun and are looking forward to the next day.
Nikolai Markov, head of the press service of the Gorky Automobile Plant and GAZ Raid Sport pilot in the “TRACK RACE” competition
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