OREANDA-NEWS. July 18, 2012. Despite the dramatic events of the last stage, the KAMAZ-master team won first place in the Silk Way’2012 rally. The winners are Ayrat Mardeev, Aydar Belyaev and Anton Mirnyy.

The press service of the KAMAZ-master team informs:

The final section of the Silk Way’2012 rally has completely changed the situation in the truck category. Two of three leaders of the race – Eduard Nikolaev and Ales Loprais – stuck in a swamp and lost a lot of time there.

There started a struggle between Peter Versluis and Ayrat Mardeev for minutes which could bring the victory. The day before, these racing drivers ranked fourth and third, respectively, in the general classification.

The final stage of the Silk Way’2012 rally along the route from Elista to Maykop, like the previous two stages, was reduced to 348 kilometers. The start was moved to the first control point. The route of one of the sections passed through almost impassable wetlands. Loprais was the first who was entrapped. He stuck in a swamp so deeply that one or even two trucks couldn’t pull him out.

Following them, Eduard Nikolaev found the safest way to bypass the competitor, but soon faced technical difficulties, and, as a result, also ran down into the swamp.

"It happened on the 190th kilometer of the special stage. Eduard`s vehicle passed through the wetland. Because of the engine malfunction, it was difficult for the pilot to drive the vehicle – he ran onto the edge of the swamp, and the truck was sucked down. It seemed impossible to drive out of the swamp without any help," KAMAZ-master team trainer Vladimir Chagin said.

The vehicle was pulled out of the swamp by four crews. Anton Shibalov, Dmitry Sotnikov, Mardeev Sr., and Artur Ardavichus stopped to help their teammates. Then, a repair truck came to help with engine problems, and the rest continued their competition. Soon, Nikolaev’s crew repaired the engine and continued the race to finish sixth.

In the meanwhile, Mardeev Jr. continued taking the lead over Versluis – from three minutes to 24 minutes at the finish. The crew was also the best in the general classification. The KAMAZ racing drivers were 28 minutes ahead of Russian Boris Gadasin who won in the auto category.

Anton Shibalov’s crew managed to enter the top three losing 28 minutes to Versluis. Dmitry Sotnikov`s crew finished fifth. Sergey Kupriyanov and Artur Ardavichus finished 12th and 17th, respectively.

The final truck classification is the following:

 1. Ayrat Mardeev (KAMAZ MASTER) – 20:06:25
 2. Peter Versluis (EUROL VEKA MAN RALLY TEAM) – 20:36:53
 3. Anton Shibalov (KAMAZ MASTER) – 21:03:43
 4. Ales Loprais (INSTAFOREX EUROL VEKA TEAM) – 21:09:34
 5. Dmitry Sotnikov (KAMAZ MASTER) – 22:12:23
 6. Eduard Nikolaev (KAMAZ MASTER) – 22:20:34
 7. Steven Rotsaert (RR BELGICA) – 23:48:57
 8. Iakov Mekhtiev (RENAT-TRANS TEAM) – 23:57:24
 9. Ilgizar Mardeev (KAMAZ MASTER) – 24:20:41
 10. Martin van den Brink (MAMMOET RALLYSPORT) – 24:37:40
 11. Aleksandr Vasilevskiy (MAZ-SPORT AUTO) – 26:29:58
 12. Sergey Kupriyanov (KAMAZ-MASTER) – 27:25:41
 …
 19. Artur Ardavichus (ASTANA) – 192:57:06