Rally Global

Some might say that taking manufactures out of a series kills the interest and sounds its death knoll, but with the departure of the utterly dominant VW team the Silk Way Rally, still full of world-class drivers in stunning thoroughbred racing cars, adds a strong element of unpredictability. The rally proudly proclaims itself to be part of the Dakar series, and with 105 cars taking the start took a step away from being a giant Volkswagen PR exercise to become an enthralling battle between old masters, ascending champions and young heroes through the heartlands of Russia.

Whether is be about the weather or horses, it’s human nature to make
predictions and before the ceremonial start in Red Square few would
have bet against nine-time Dakar champion Stephane Peterhansel in his
pea-green X-Raid Mini All4. If there was a form book though, it was
thrown out of the window and trampled into the thick mud that the
summer rains had turned the first stage into. Just a few kilometres in
his Mini developed fuel feed problems and starved of power had to
crawl through the 260km stage, dropping a massive 2 hours 24” and
instantly the event that he had such high hopes for became a 4000km
test… At the top of the timesheets was the previously unknown
Alexander Zheludov, the two-time Russian Rally Champion taking good
advantage of the route cut through the tall grass by the 16 cars in
front of him. Heroes die young though and his glory was sadly short
lived as mechanical woes cost 50 minutes on the very next stage… and
suddenly Polish X-Raid BMW driver Krzysztof Holowczyc had a lead of
nearly an hour over Christian Leville in his Nissan buggy.

The French ASO team run the Dakar and they have a well warranted
reputation for laying out routes that challenge man and machine to the
absolute limit. The 2nd stage was a mammoth 484km long and if anyone
doubted Peterhansel’s heart after the previous day’s disappointment he
showed why he doesn’t have 9 Dakar titles to his name by accident.
After overtaking the 67 cars that started ahead of him he took the
stage win by 14′ 09 over his Polish X-Raid stablemate. His comeback
wasn’t without incident though… the Mini doesn’t make a very good
lawnmower and with the long grass blocking the radiator the crew were
in desperate need of extra water. Fortunately there was a small farm
near the route… “The owner was quite scared when she saw me coming
at her like a madman, with my helmet and completely black suit. But
right afterwards, it was my turn to be scared when her husband
appeared covered in blood! He was actually skinning a sheep…”

A few places behind the battle for outright victory was a driver
familiar to MarathonRally.com from his exploits in the Abu Dhabi
Desert Challenge and more recently for winning his class in one of the
world’s most extreme off-road competitions, the Ladoga Trophy, a
certain Roman Briskindov. “6th place is obviously good, but our
performance was really good enough for 4th… but on the longest stage
of the rally we had a problem with the engine loosing oil… every
50km it took about a litre… We had to keep driving off the route to
find supplies in the villages which took a lot of time. But I would
like to say a very big thank you to Frederic Chavign in No 111, he was
the only guy who stopped to help, and he gave us 3 litres of his oil
to use. A brilliant guy!”

After his ‘blue giant’ slaying exploits on last year’s event, Russian
Boris Gadasin was again hoping for big things in 2011… but it was
not to be and he made a rather low-key exit when his 7 litre Corvette
engine lost oil pressure… The team still had their moment of glory
though when Vladimir Vasiliev took the honours of winning the final
stage in his G-Force Proto… in only his third ever rally-raid
outing. “I can’t say that I did anything special,” he shrugged as a
small crowd of press queued to get some quotes from the newest giant
killer. “I just drove my own pace and the car did the rest… and it
is a very special car for a novice to be able to beat such people,” he
smiled. “It’s made by G-Force’s Boris Gadasin, and last winter it was
him who taught me how to drive it… and the result, as you can see,
is quite promising!”

Whereas the story of the rally took place on the first stage for the
car category, it was the opposite way around for the trucks. Don’t
think of these brightly coloured behemoths as anything like the things
you see hauling goods on the motorway… imagine a 7 ton Group B rally
car from the mid 80′s capable of flying and taking outright stages
wins and then you would have a better understanding of what these
oversized beasts really are. After the opening stage three Kamaz’s
were in the top three positions, although on the next test 2010 Eduard
Nikolaev’s engine failed, from where new team leader and ‘mentor’,
two-time Dakar winner Firdaus Kabirov took over at the helm of the
leaderboard. Despite the best efforts of Kamaz young gun Ayrat Mardeev
and the gutsy Ales Loprais in the bright yellow TATRA (who almost
knocked himself out after crashing over so many hard landings) he held
a comfortable hour’s lead. So far out in front was he that he had time
to become the Good Samaritan of the rally and stopped to help fellow
Russian Alexander Mironenko out of a tricky spot. The recovery cost 16
minutes, but a lead of 46′ over Loprais should surely have been enough
for the final 16km stage… but the next day was caught speeding and
had an hour’s penalty added to his time… In a nasty twist it seems
as though his generosity cost him the win… although in another
twist, there was rumour that Loprais was also speeding in the same
place… yet escaped penalisation.

Back at the front of the car class the winner was a little more clear
cut. Holowczyc didn’t just take his inherited lead for granted and set
a couple of fastest stage times, although he was quick to complement
his vastly more experienced team-mate. “You can always learn a thing
or two when you are following an expert. I compare his pace to ours in
different sections and see where I am being too cautious and where I
am going too fast. He is the best reference there is right now, is he
not?” But nothing with the word Dakar in the title can ever be taken
for granted. Even Peterhansel commented on how tough the stages were.
“[Some] sections are nasty because you get shaken around a lot, you
are afraid of getting a bleed… In short, it was not very nice, and it
was also long and physically tough… I am not sure we have had 5h 56′
specials in the last Dakar!” To Holowczyc’s credit with Peterhasel
chasing him down for over 2000 competitive kilometres, the Pole only
gave away some 20 minutes… a performance to be proud of and one that
should put a marker against his name for future events.

After 7 days of racing through the land of the Tzars, a memorable and
extremely tough event (the penultimate stage was a staggering 689km
long) the champagne bottles were sprayed with weary arms. Sochi is
perhaps a fitting place for Holowczyc’s Olympic performance to be
celebrated, but rest doesn’t come easy for those at the top of their
game. In just a week the FIA World Cup for Cross-country Bajas resumes
under the harsh Spanish sun with Leonid Novistky back behind the wheel
of the lead X-Raid BMW hunting down his second championship.

Fuente: Robb Pritchard / Marina Kosenkova.
Foto: Silk Way Rally for Press

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