The Ceremonial start of the Baja Russia Northern Forest – the starting round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, the first round of the Russian Cross-Country Championship and the FIA Eurasia Zone Cross-Country Rally Cup – took place on Friday, February 11. The eighteenth race has started!
Before the start the competitors had to complete the administrative checks and scrutineering, and then tackle the first serious test – a qualifying special stage with a length of sixteen kilometers: it was here that the starting positions for the second day of the Baja Russia Northern Forest were determined.
Today both the favorites of various standings – Vladimir Vasilyev, Evgeny Sukhovenko, Vadim Fedotov, Aldis Vilcāns, Anton Melnikov – and the debutants of the event Sergei Remennik, Pavel Molgo, Saleh Al-Saif, Tomasz Bialkowski have passed the administrative checks and scrutineering. Having completed them, the racers went to the start of the qualifying special stage.
The best time on the sixteen kilometers distance is set by Yazeed Al-Rajhi – one of the main favorites of the Baja Russia Northern Forest. He is thirty seven seconds ahead of the second result of Vladimir Vasilyev – the reigning winner of the event. However, the result of the Russian racer could have been much better if the gas pedal had not come off right at the start.
The Spaniard Enrique Reyes is the third – his time is forty five seconds worse than the result of the qualifying special stage winner. The Russian female racer Anastasia Nifontova and the Polish driver Tomasz Bialkowski round out the top five. Sergey Uspenskiy, Cristiano de Sousa, Pavel Silnov, Miguel Angel Valero and Sergei Remennik, debuting in the cross-country rallies, are in the second half of the top ten.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi is also the best in the T1 standings, Enrique Reyes – in the T3 lightweight prototype standings, and Tomasz Bialkowski – in the T4 SSV standings.
Unfortunately, the GAZ Raid Sport factory team drivers had problems overcoming the qualifying special stage. Yevgeny Sukhovenko was forced to stop and back out – his car could not fit into a narrow corner. In the same corner his teammate Alexander Rusanov decided to cut off the snow parapet, but got stuck, losing about fifteen minutes.
The lightweight prototype of the Spaniard Ricardo Ramilo went off the track and got stuck. The crew could not get out on their own, but the Portuguese Filipe Nascimento came to their aid – he helped the opponents by hitching a tow wire.
Quotes:
Yazeed Al-Rajhi, driver (1st place), “We are doing well. We are happy to return to Russia - we started here in 2014 and haven’t been back for a long time. When I started cross-country rallying, I came here and won. Now we are back after many years and I hope that everything will be fine, that we will enjoy. And we’ll win!”
Vladimir Vasilyev, driver (2nd place), “It’s a cool track. It is very twisty, steep, with jumps – everything is cool! But I had a little problem: I was driving almost a quarter of the gas. Because my gas pedal came off right at the start, and I couldn’t press it properly. Sometimes races begin like this”.
Sergei Remennik, driver (10th place), “It’s very interesting. I mean, really! There are sections that are similar to the classic rally, where I can drive the way I’m used to. But then I realized that “danger 3” in the Road Book is not a joke at all! It was interesting. We were given the car five minutes before the start. Number 404 does its job, there were problems with navigation equipment – we drove almost hob-nob. But I must say, that Yaroslav Fedorov managed very well. He read all these dangers on time. We have an interesting competitive debut. Of course, my expectations were somewhat different. But in general – we finished the Prologue, nothing was torn off, so it’s a victory for us. It’s very interesting, we will go further and gain experience”.
Dania Akeel, driver (15th place), “How was the Prologue? It’s cold! It’s a lot of fun to drive in the snow – we went off in the very first corner, we had to back out and only after that we continued to move. This is such a typical beginner’s mistake taking the first steps on the snow. But, to be honest, towards the end I became better at cornering. It’s only a dozen and a half kilometers, and I’m looking forward to the other two days of the race. I hope that with every kilometer I will be more comfortable in the car in this new fun environment. I just want to learn as much as possible”.
The day ended with a Press Conference and a procedure for choosing a starting position.
During the official Press Conference Sergey Smyshlyaev, the PR director of the Silk Way Rally, announced that, according to a good tradition, the fastest crew of the Baja Russia Northern Forest this year will receive a certificate to participate in the 2022 Silk Way Rally free of charge.
“I would like to emphasize that, like the Baja Russia Northern Forest, the Silk Way Rally is included in the calendar of the FIA Eurasia Zone Cup and will become its final round, also incorporating Gold of Kagan – the round of the Russian Championship. We wish the drivers good luck and a good track on the way to victory! And we will be very glad to meet you at the start of the Silk Way Rally in Astrakhan on July 6”, Smyshlyaev said.
On Saturday, February 12, the competitors will have to overcome six special stages with a total length of 157 kilometers.
Source Baja Russia
