Silk Road Rally 2011 got off to a roaring start in Moscow July 9.
Silk Road Rally 2011 got off to a roaring start in Moscow July 9.
The official starting line for the rally was at Red Square. Photo (from right): Eduard Nikolayev, driver for Russia’s KAMAZ Master team, and navigator, Sergei Savostin, at the official opening ceremony.
The 3,960-kilometer rally will pass through Lipetsk, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Stavropol, and Maikop, and will end on July 16 in Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Photo: Russia’s Alexei Cherkesov and Sergei Skripka driving an UAZ (Ulyanovsk Automotive Plant) SUV during the first leg of Silk Road Rally 2011.
Silk Road Rally involves 140 drivers and navigators from 28 countries. Photo: Martin Macik, Josef Kalina and Jan Bervic from the Czech Republic taking part in Silk Road Rally 2011.
This Moscow-Sochi auto race will cross half of Russia as the world watches live broadcasts. Photo (from right): Semyon Yakubov, head of Silk Road Rally, and Frederic Lequien, director of the Dakar Series, hold a broken panel from a wrecked racecar body.
“This race now compares with the well known Dakar Rally in terms of organization and the number of participants,” Vitaly Mutko, Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy, told Voice of Russia radio station. Photo: Vladimir Vasilyev and Kirill Shubin from the G-Force Motorsport team during Silk Road Rally 2011.
Airat Mardeyev from the KAMAZ-Master team clocked the best time (5 hours 51 minutes, 15 seconds) for the truck qualifications during the Volgograd-Astrakhan leg of Silk Road Rally 2011. He outraced fellow team member Firdaus Kabirov by 6 minutes and 14 seconds, and Hans Stacey from the Netherlands (Iveco) by 10 minutes and 28 seconds. Photo: A KAMAZ Master team truck driven by Aidar Belyayev and Airat Mardeyev during the second leg of Silk Road Rally 2011, Lipetsk-Volgograd.
Ilgizar Mardeyev, the father of Airat Mardeyev, is also involved in the rally, and rides in the KAMAZ with Yevgeny Yakovlev and Dmitry Sotnikov.
Joan Elfring and Enno Hortulanus from the Netherlands in a Mercedes-Benz truck during the second leg of Silk Road Rally 2011, Lipetsk-Volgograd.
France’s Christian Lavieille and Jean-Michel Polato from the Nissan team during the first leg of Silk Road Rally 2011, Kulikovo Field – Lipetsk.
This is the third Silk Road Rally to date, and 2,500 km of the 4,000-km route will be high speed sections.
Photo: France’s Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret in a Mini during the first leg of Silk Road Rally 2011.
Photo: France’s Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret in a Mini during the first leg of Silk Road Rally 2011.
