The annual Silk Road rally is over now. Our crews on two GAZelle and three Sadko vehicles have proved to be real fighters again and went through all the stages of the World Cup. All in all there were 90 crews in this challenging trophy. One of third of them never reached the finish line.
GAZ Raid Sport team members were really good. The GAZelle crew of Alexey Ignatov and Evgeny Pavlov rank 2nd in the T1.1 class of AWD light vehicles. They also rank 4th in the T1 class and 16th in the all-around competition. The Sadko crew of Mikhail Shklyaev and Vladimir Moiseev rank 16th in the truck class among winners of the Dakar rally tailor-made for such challenging routes. The Sadko crews of Alexey Khlebov/Alexander Filyakin and Alexander Laguta/Vyacheslav Gushchin come next in the ranking. All GAZ trucks reached the finish line in all the rallies. And they are nearly serial vehicles. Our congratulations to the crews and good luck in future challenges!
A big thank-you to our partners and sponsors, too! Valvoline oils helped the vehicles in extreme heat. The oil was always in the contact area, both in the engine and the transmission. Michelin XZL tyres of the Sadko trucks and BFGOODRICH tyres on the GAZelles helped the vehicles on terrible stone roads and in fording through mountain streams.
The video features the biggest challenges of this rally - extreme speeds, deep fording, ramp jumps, clouds of dust and, of course, the amazing nature of Altay. The crew members will also share their impressions about the stressful and dramatic rally raid.