Flash interview at final service: Most of them are satisfied with the rally!

During the final service the sportsmen summed up the pluses and minuses of today race and shared their personal impressions and emotions. We had everything today – success, failures and big fights... Tomorrow everything will start from the very beginning: the route will go in an opposite direction – it means that today hints will be definitely useless. Moreover today driving lines will confuse the pilots, provoking to mistakes. But it will be only tomorrow. Now let’s concentrate on drivers’ thoughts.

№ 200 Leonid Novitskiy

The end of the day was quite good. There were no more mistakes. Two last sections weте successfully and we are now leading. We will try to keep this position tomorrow.

№ 212 Ruslan Misikov

Nothing more special happened. We moved up from fifth into second place overall. Boris Gadasin retired; we managed to make up 3 positions. Now we are behind Novitskiy. There were no more technical difficulties during the last two stages. We will try to maintain our position tomorrow. More than five minutes do we have till Novitskiy’s, and it would be risky trying to catch

№ 202 Alexey Berkut

More or less we did it. We are just getting used to our car. Slippery track! Fast! The engine does not work properly, I mean not like I wanted it to work! Car just couldn’t go faster. But the roads are very flowing and straights are decisive there.

№ 221 Boris Bukatov

What is wrong? Much more was expected from your crew!

Last season we took part in not so many events. It seems to me that we are improving from stage to stage. The first stage was the most difficult. Thanks to Kostya Zhiltsov, who made us drive faster. We’ll keep on, we’ll see.

Are you going to participate in the whole season?

Yes. Most probably we will do the whole season.

What happened last season?

There were some problems with schedules.  We didn’t have an appropriate car. Couple of times we used a diesel engine, but it blew up. It was unsuccessful season and we just didn’t have enough race practice and car mileage. 

№ 209 Alexander Oleinikov

A successful day! The leg to the leader is 20-30 seconds. We made up more than two minutes that we had lost before. We will continue to gain tomorrow. Everything is superb!

№ 203 Konstantin Zhiltsov

The day was not so lucky for us. We lost time to Alexander Oleinikov and got two minutes of penalization due to the fact of being late for TC. We are waiting for the results and we’ll see where we are. Tomorrow there will be two more stages. But the fight is very tight and it’s difficult to make up even seconds not talking about minutes. We must keep on fighting and will try to do anything possible! Everything can happen during the race. We always compete to the end despite any difficulties! We’ll see tomorrow!

№ 225 Andrey Dmitriev

You showed a good time at the yesterday superspecial! Is there some “know-how”?

I was surprised yesterday. It seemed to me that I was very slow. Thanks to the driving lines and average speed we did manage to show such a result.

How was it today?

It was a very steady race. Our results on the stages didn’t differ too much. But there were still some troubles with the car. It is diesel! It stalls! I do not know this car well enough. When you change a gear accidentally, the RPM is increasing and the engine “brains” fails. Hence, you have to stop in order to switch on and switch off. We stopped twice on the first stage, then three times at the second one and only once at the third! At least we had a progress and that was good! Tomorrow I will try to avoid any mistakes and have a normal steady pace.     

№ 211 Viktor Volikov

We had a double-feeling of today racing. Firstly, with every pass we were 1 minute faster than on the previous one. We have – 58, 57, 56. Secondly, once again we presented five minutes to our competitors. Judges put two positions at finish – regrouping and start. Usually they do not practice it. So, we messed the start time with the time of regrouping. It means that everything we had won, we gave back to our competitors. This fact gets us a bit down and depresses!

How good was your start order position?

Thanks to the new devices, such as overtake-alert system, we did not have any troubles with overtaking. You do not need to come closer to the car ahead, do signals and beat a car ahead with a bumper. You just switch on the overtake-alert system within 150 m. from a car ahead and this car gets an alert. Moreover, you can abuse it, because within these 150 m. you need to catch up the car ahead. But when pilot sees this indication signal, he already begins slowing down. This device can be tuned to 50m, but it is a responsibility of the organisation committee.

It is good that two competitions are divided into international and national ones. We failed yesterday at the end of the international competition, but most of the other participants were still behind. But we like to fight! And we will continue tomorrow!

№ 226 Vadim Nesterchuk

The day was good! Tomorrow we will be faster. This is our first winter race. No experience. We are getting used step by step. But there it’s possible to drive fast!

№ 205 Artem Varentsov

Car has no damages. Everything is fine! We are quiet satisfied. We will try to improve our results tomorrow.

№ 215 Benyamin Dzhepaev

First two special stages were like reconnaissance. It had some features. But the third one was much better, we improved there. The main fight with Yury Borovikov will be tomorrow. Today we were just getting to know each other. Tomorrow will be much more difficult and more slipperier. The road there is like a rail-track. You must choose the right speed in order not be go off. Trees, stones and stubs are from both sides of you. During the second section we hit the back wheel by stone, which was in an unexpected place. But no more accidents № 235 Andrey Novikov

We had a great day! Soup, shashliks... Drive! I do not participate in the championship, but I always come here. I like this fast route, good roadbook, good organisation.

№ 219 Janis Naglis

The engine failed. No pressure. We had to retire. So pity! It was a strong and beautiful race! I really envy the first six cars. I observed how they were passing by me. Of course, I would like to drive two stages tomorrow, but it is not allowed to repair the engine, it is sealed. So, we’ll be preparing for Italy! And then probably we will come to Astrakhan, Rostov or Kalmikia

Interviewed by: Olga Zhuravleva, Tatyana Grushina

Photo: Andrey Chursinov, Lina Arnautova