OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2010. Silk Way 2010 Off-Road Rally Raid, Stage 5, Volgograd – Astrakhan

Three crews of the KAMAZ-master team which had been in the lead of the race kept their positions, and the fourth one joined them in the Caspian roadless terrain.

“This was already a real Dakar!” – this phrase was most often heard in the pilots’ comments on the track of the fifth stage. The rally became there what the racers were used to naming Dakar – a lot of sand, an unpredictable track, difficult navigation, and, as a result, a lot of retirements including the leaders’ ones. For example, Giniel de Villers finished the race on the way to the Caspian Sea when his vehicle was sent by an unexpected ditch on its roof. The South African was on the point of winning pretending to a high rank of the overall standings only at the previous stage…

In the truck event the battle continued between Vladimir Chaguin and Firdaus Kabirov. This time, the sixfold winner of Dakar was better on the track driving a new vehicle, by the way. “It’s difficult to draw conclusions yet, the car is a little bit lighter, but I can’t say anything definite about it. On the whole, the day was interesting, like a real Dakar, there were dunes and high-speed sectors where we drove at our maximum speed, a great number of ditches and gullies. The most important thing for us was not to finish the race in pits of Astrakhan.” Valdimir Chaguin said.

Eduard Nikolaev’s crew became the truck leaders’ real competitor as it ranked third in the overall standings. Vladimir Chaguin was glad to see the young pilot’s success, “He is stable and fast, and Vyacheslav Mizyukaev, the navigator of the crew, copes with all difficulties of the track. They have already shown good results, and it’s important for them to get to the finish and not to make mistake.”

The fourth result was shown by another trio of the tem – Ilghizar Mardeev’s crew which overtakes the crew of Austria’s Franz Echter for fourth position after five stages. “I’m very happy about today,” said the pilot after the finish. “It was interesting in the respect of navigation. And it was close to Dakar in difficulties.”

The rest crews of the KAMAZ-master team also successfully got to the finish, Ayrat Mardeev who had shown the tenth result commented on the track, “Today it was various, sometimes fast and even, and sometimes hilly, and it was rather hard for the suspension of our vehicle. The sands were not so difficult to pass, but some crews still managed to stick there.”

Andrey Karghinov and Andrey Leontyev finished seventh and thirteenth respectively. Karghinov ranks seventh in the overall standings and doesn’t let the Czech Republic driver Ales Loprais and Franz Echter go far.