The marathon gives hard time both for racers and assistance crews. Very intense schedule of the rally is a great challenge to all. Please see below our brief overview of the first three days of the event.

Moscow – Lipetsk

The weather became the main difficulty for the competitors and obstacle on their first day. Shower rains at the special stage posed a real challenge for the competitors. Dirty, wet and slippery road required a lot of attention and care. It was especially hard for the first cars 

considering that most of them being priority drivers were allowed to choose only one type of tyres to use throughout the race. And of course the obvious choice for the race was not the mud tyres. Multiple river crossings scattered in abundance all along the route threw a roadblock to the drivers. And on section before the 1^st CP the co-drivers took some time to find the correct way. This all made results of the SS 1 unexpected and durptising for the press and participants themselves. The fans were upset to find out that technical problems with the car of the undoubted leader of the race Stephane Peterhansel threw him more than 2 hours back. All of buggy drivers also were defeated by the weather conditions – slippery forest roads is not their natural habitat, and they didn’t show good results. грязевой.  

Our G-Force Proto driver Vladimir Vasiliev has found his first difficulties – at 15^th kilometer he caught a hole and damaged suspension. The crew lost over 2 hours waiting for the team’s T4 support racing truck with Sergey Kiselev to get the necessary part and fix the car.

Bogdan Novitsky showed good results and finished 3rd overtaking Boris Gadasin who was 4^th.

 

 

Lipetsk - Volgograd

The unlucky Special stage of the Silk Way showed it’s bad luck to the team again. At kilometer 5-6 into the special stage the car of Boris Gadain/Dan Schchemel had a sudden oil pressure drop. The crew decided not to risk killing the engine and decided to stop. It’s unfortunate but this is withdrawal – and we will investigate the oil pressure problem at the team base getting ready to Hungarian Baja.

The crew of Vladimir Vasiliev and Kirill Shubin were brillian in the beginning of the Special stage. At CP1 and CP2 they were 3^rd. However the lack of racing experience betrayed them – they burned clutch in the sand and had to stop to wait for the T4. 

. This "haunted" Special stage also affected Bogdan Novitsky twice. First he tore off left halfaxles and after fixing it the righthandside halfaxle was gone. It got dark and the crew decided to get to asphalt and return to the camp.

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A few words about our racing assistance truck. This is the first event like this and despite this the crew of driver Sergey Kiselev and co-drivers Alexey Ivanov and Alexey Vinogradov are quite good at what they do. They are not after the results and they provide strong technical support for the G-Force Prototypes.  

Viktor and Anatoly Volikov steadily occupy 2^nd place in Production and 1^st place among Russian Championship competitors.

Speaking about results of the Special stage – they were quite predictable. Stephane Peterhansel is striving to take back his leading position – and with the speed he showed during the 2^nd day his chances to get on the podium are high. Main news in the truck group was withdrawal of Eduard Nikolaev – he was stopped by the engine problems.  

Volgograd - Astrakhan

After 2 not very successful stages Vladimir Vasiliev again starts the day after many slower cards. He had to overtake in the dusty Astrakhan steppe roads. But such hard racing event teach you well and fast and he was safe and cautious when overtaking and using new skills to attack sand dunes. So each next CP Vasiliev gained more and more time and finally finished 8^th. With all the penalties acquired quring the 1^st days Vladimir treats this race like big test.

At the same time Bogdan Novitsky wasn't as patient as Vladimir. It’s phycologically and physically hrd to be the last on the track and drive through the dust of the slower cars in front of you. Bodgan was 3th at CP1 loosing only 11 minutes to Stephane Peterhansel. Unluckily overtaking a car in the next section he was caught by the steppe ditch and destroyed suspension.

Volikovs crew also faced technical problemsduring the stage which thew them to the 6^th place in the Silk Way. But it’s just the middle of the race and the fight is still on!

Our special words of gratitude are dedicated to the mechanics of the team. It is very hard – to drive assistance cars during the day with the roadsections of 400-700 and then to repair racing cars, pulling sometimes all-nighters. It requires a lot of strength and dedication to the team and faith in the final result. Success of the driver is also success of the mechanics!

Official results

 

 

Official results

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