Wednesday, 22 June 2011 15:25
Vladimir VASILYEV - driver
Driver on the priority list of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA);
Winner of the World Cup for rally-raids in the teams' classification (2012);
Winner of international races (round of the World Cup) – Italian Baja 2012;
Podium finisher at international races (bronze medal at a round of the World Cup) - Baja España Aragōn 2012
Russian rally-raids vice-champions (2012);
Winner of events in the Russian rally-raid championship 2012 – in Belgorod and Uljanovsk;
Multiple participant and prize winner of events in the Russian rally championship and cup.
Vladimir Vasilyev was born in the Kalininskaya region in 1969, and now lives near St.Petersburg. He received higher education in economics at the Saint-Petersburg engineering and economics university. Vladimir runs his own business; he is the president of the holding company Rus' and a co-owner of the self-named football club Rus' active in the 2nd division of the Russian soccer championship. He is a candidate master of sports in kettlebell lifting.
Vladimir has been acquainted with off-road vehicles for a long time, thanks to his hobby – hunting. However, it wasn't until 2009 when he participated in rally-raid competitions for the first time. Having rented a prototype on the chassis of GAZ-3110, Vasilyev took part in a round of the Russian rally-raid championship – the snow Baja Northern Forest 2009. Albeit he managed to complete the event quite successfully, he didn't intend to pursue a career in autosport. A meeting with Boris Gadasin at the beginning of 2011 made its influence on Vladimir, though, and he returned to off-road competition cars. He decided to prove himself in a serious vehicle with paying much attention to tests and trainings. In March 2011, after a month and half of preparations Vladimir Vasilyev, assisted by experienced co-driver Vladimir Demyanenko, went to Italy for his first international race. His results impressed everyone as the crew would stay firmly in the top-10 and would provide serious competition to the event's leaders.
Vasilyev's career has been put on the fast track since then. Several months after the Italian Baja he sensationally won a special stage at the SilkWay 2011 marathon, and on the way to that victory he overtook several strongest competitors including the world star Stephane Peterhansel. Ironically, it was only the second SS victory of a Russian crew in the 3-year history of SilkWay, and it was taken by the driver making his debut in rally-raids. After then it didn't take long until winning his first special stage at a round of the World Cup – the success came in Egypt, at the difficult Pharaons rally where Vladimir tackled the real African sand for the first time.
In 2011 Vladimir Vasilyev became a co-owner of G-Force Motorsport which proved a huge boost for the development of the team's infrastructure and provided opportunities for achieving even higher objectives.
Before the start of 2012 Vladimir set himself a difficult target to compete full programmes in the World Cup for rally-raids and in the Russian championship. He won two rounds of the national series to become the vice-champion of Russia and participated in the World Cup's events where he helped G-Force Motorsport fight for the top positions. His achievements at the rounds of the international series enabled G-Force Motorsport to become the best team in the world – for the first time in history of the Russian autosport. After his first victory at the round in Italy Vasilyev's status among the world elite of rally-raids was officially acknowledged by the FIA, which included him in the priority list comprised of the planet's strongest off-road drivers.
Having started activities in autosport less than two years ago, Vladimir has achieved unbelievable success in such a short time. Now ahead of him lies the next and the highest peak he wants to reach in rally-raids – Dakar.