The second day of the Baja Russia Northern Forest – the starting round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies taking place this weekend – became the longest of all three competition days. On Saturday the participants covered a distance of 144 kilometers, while the total length of six special stages was 104 kilometers.
According to the second racing day results, Andrey Novikov was the fastest. Yesterday's leader Vladimir Vasilyev was a little bit slower today than his rival in the G-Force Bars prototype.
On the night from Friday to Saturday the weather threw a curve to the race participants – heavy snow covered the special stages of the second day that seriously complicated the course of the struggle for the crews that started in the leading group: some of them were driving slower than their usual pace, and someone even went off the track.
It is interesting that everyone could watch all the twists and turns of the struggle on the track from the screen of their computer or smartphone – the idea of a live broadcast from the special stages was implemented at the Baja Russia Northern Forest in 2021 for the first time in Russian cross-country rallies. In real time you can not only see how the participants are fighting on the track, but also to hear interviews with drivers and comments from the presenter. Unlike other racing disciplines, cross-country rallies have very long special stages and liaisons, so covering such an area with a reliable and powerful signal is very, very difficult. But this year, the organizers managed to implement this project together with Gazprom Space Systems.
Vladimir Vasilyev, the first day leader, opened the first Saturday section, as they say, “by touch” – as the driver noted in an interview at the day service, the visibility was practically zero and he had to go like an excavator, laying a track! There were blizzard, snow, shroud and everything was white. Even yellow glasses that should increase the contrast, did not help Vasilyev. Therefore, it is not surprising that crew #201 that has started first today, has lost time due to the track cleaning.
His opponents used this opportunity – the greatest benefit from the situation was taken by Andrey Novikov, who started the second. He showed the best time at each of the three morning special stages that allowed him to slightly close the gap to the race leader.
Denis Krotov at the first leg could not stay on the track and went off it. The front of his BMW X3 prototype got stuck in the snow, while the rear remained on the track. And rivals came to the rescue of one of the race favorites – Alexey Ignatov helped Krotov to get onto the track and he was able to continue moving, albeit with a great loss of time and no longer pretending to fight in the overall standings. At the first Friday special stage finish, Krotov had only seventeenth time.
At the three morning special stages, the other racers who held leading positions at the end of Friday were also unlucky. Boris Gadasin came fourth on Friday, but after the first Saturday special stage he had only 11th time. And Andrey Rudskoy, who finished the fifth yesterday, was the sixteenth.
After yesterday's incident Sergey Uspensky returned to the race and, having started today from the 16th place, found himself in the most advantageous position – the rivals had already "cleaned up" the track. Anastasia Nifontova showed the fourth result at the third special stage, and Yury Arshansky rounded out the top five at the third special stage.
St. Petersburg resident Yury Arshansky wedged into the struggle in the group of leaders, but at the first leg a message came from the track – his buggy refused to start. It was a transmission breakdown. Also at the first day leg, two more participants retired – Andrey Sushentsov believes that the reason for their stop was frozen diesel fuel, and Sergio Galletti suffered from the transmission falling apart from the very morning and as a result his car stopped.
Denis Krotov tried to win back the minutes lost in the morning and won the fifth special stage. Novikov came the second, and Anastasia Nifontova managed to climb to the third place.
The day service was located on the territory of the Igora Drive sports and entertainment complex. After a half-hour break that the participants and mechanics spent on repairing their cars, the racers went to the second pass of the same three morning special stages. After the first pass, the participants cleared the track and Vladimir Vasilyev immediately restored the status quo – the St. Petersburg resident won back the seconds, had the best time at all three special stages of the leg, and finished the second day, nevertheless, the second!
Andrey Novikov showed no less stability – he became the second three times. But Denis Krotov was unable to continue his attack that he started at the fifth special stage. At the sixth SS he was the third, at the seventh – the sixth, and at the eighth stage his BMW lost its rear right wheel and Krotov had to show miracles of balance and drive on three wheels, which, of course, led to the loss of 34 minutes! Nevertheless, he made it to the finish of the day, but only with the 19th result.
As a result, after the completion of all six Saturday special stages of the Baja Russia Northern Forest, according to preliminary data, Vladimir Vasilyev retained the leading position in the race. The second is Andrey Novikov. And Boris Gadasin is rounding out the top three – he is also the leader in the T3 standings. The fourth place is belonging to Evgeny Sukhovenko, and Anastasia Nifontova, who is also leading in the unofficial female standings, is rounding out the top five.
In the standings of the Russian Cross-Country Championship round, Vladimir Vasilyev is also the leader and he is ahead of Andrey Novikov.
Tomorrow the participants will find two special stages with a total length of 188 kilometers.
NB! Information about the position of the crews is preliminary before the approval of the race results by the Stewards of the Meeting.
Source: Baja Russia
