OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2012. Stage 4 of the Silk Way’2012 rally-raid did not change the leaders in the overall standings, but shifted the balance of power.

The weather again interfered with the race: it rained very hard throughout the night, and the heavy shower washed out all roads. The organizers had to change the route. They canceled the last part of the rally course during which the racing drivers had to cross several fords and gullies and reduced the length of the route from 504 to 391 kilometers. Thus, the finish was moved to the second check point. The participants had to pass over a large sandy area, steppe roads twisting among alkaline lands, as well as the most arid part of the Astrakhan desert. Before the last stage which will finish in Maykop, the struggle for prize-winning places was extremely intensified.

In the truck classification, KAMAZ-master’s pilot Ayrat Mardeev, who scored the best time in the middle of the route driving 6 minutes before his teammate Eduard Nikolaev, was very close to victory. Kazakh driver Artur Ardavichus (KAMAZ), who managed to recover his position after failures of the first two days, finished third. The main rival of the Russian team – Czech Ales Loprais (MAN) – was more than three minutes behind him. Another crew from Naberezhnye Chelny under the leadership of Anton Shibalov lost only one minute to Peter Versluis!

But during the second half of the rally course, the leaders were changed – Mardeev Junior faced technical problems, and Ales Loprais won. Eduard Nikolaev finished second (+4 minutes), and Peter Versluis came third (+7). Ardavichus took fourth place, only 32 seconds behind him. Anton Shibalov finished fifth (+16), Ayrat Mardeev ranked sixth (+35) followed by Mardeev Senior. Dmitry Sotnikov is ninth, Sergey Kupriyanov is on 12th place.

"I think it was the hardest stage of this race, and we had to sweat. It was necessary to dispose of an advantage properly, so we drove at our own pace, but after the second check point we wasted a lot of time examining the route. However, we will continue to pursue this tactic, that is, continue driving at our own pace during the fifth stage, learning, practicing, and, in fact, preparing for Dakar,” Eduard Nikolaev said after the finish.

In an interview to Evgeny Kustov, Chempionat.com, Ayrat Mardeev told about the fourth stage:

"Everything was all right till the 320th km. At the finish line, I learned that I was five minutes ahead of Edik and 15 minutes ahead of Loprais. The speed was normal, and we didn’t lose our way as our navigator worked very well. Everywhere we found our way at once. But the front right wheel seized up on the 320th kilometer, and the truck was thrown off the road. But we were lucky: the truck was not thrown down on its side, but we just stopped. It was very difficult, because the speed was high. We stopped, ran out and saw how the wheel caught fire. Because of the heat everything was thrashed, oil hit the drum, and it blazed up. We extinguished the fire, dismantled the equipment. We lost 48 minutes trying to eliminate the breakage. We tried to do everything to continue the race rather than just eliminated the breakage. We cut off the front axle and drove on the rear wheel drive the last 60 kilometers before the finish."

The results of the day did not affect the final standings: Crew 303 (Eduard Nikolaev, Sergey Savostin, Vladimir Rybakov) is still leading, second place belongs to Ales Loprais, Ayrat Mardeev ranks third. Now, the final day is crucial. This morning, the participants of the Silk Way’2012 rally have gone to Adygea.