This year there are seven stages in the Russian Rally Raid Championship. The top five are counted, and the final stage is mandatory for the count. Therefore, the Simbirsk Tract race is especially important for athletes – it will determine the winners of the season.
The stage cannot boast of a large number of participants – this time only 15 crews will compete for prizes. However, it is this race that determines the placings in the 2024 season.
Alexander Zhikharev
Exciting competition was expected in the overall classification and in the T3 buggy category. Experienced Boris Gadasin, together with permanent navigator Dmitry Kozhukhov, sought to maintain the lead. Based on the results of six races, their crew scored 102 points in the “absolute” and 86 in T3, and led the standings in these classifications at the end of the season. However, despite the difference in points with Vyacheslav Paputsky, the G-Force Motorsport pilots could not be sure of their final victory. The battle between two teams from St. Petersburg promised to be intense and spectacular.
In the T2 classification, Andrey Sushentsov, with 100 points at the end of the season, has practically secured a place on the podium, but the factory crew of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, led by Vadim Novikov, will try to impose a fight. Although the chances of challenging unconditional leadership are small.
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev
In the raid-sport standings, the situation is similar to the previous one, but here the pilots of one team are fighting for first and second places – GAZ Raid Sport: Alexey Ignatov with 100 points in his treasury at the end of the season against Alexander Semenov and his 76 points.
Alexander Zhikharev
“The decisive seventh stage is ahead,” said GAZ Raid Sport team navigator Evgeniy Pavlov. “There is a good foundation, and we don’t have to win the race.” But even despite this, it is still too early to celebrate victory. Now we are going out with Alexey Ignatov as favorites, since we won four stages out of the four qualifying stages, which go to the total. The previous stage was interesting, but in terms of results it was not the best for us. And we need a successful finish to this final stage. Therefore, everything will be decided here, in Ulyanovsk!
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev
The Ulyanovsk region has become home to rally raids – competitions are held here every year, and more than once. On the first day of the race there is a short prologue. The main intrigue of the Simbirsk Trakt was the fight between the crew of Boris Gadasin and Vyacheslav Poputsky – not only victory in the Simbirsk Trakt race, but also the overall ranking at the end of the 2024 season was at stake.
However, the intrigue fell apart even before the start – Vyacheslav Paputsky damaged the car during tests and retired before the official procedures. For the rest, the unusually long prologue of 38 kilometers became an excellent warm-up; all crews coped brilliantly with the assigned tasks and reached the finish line.
Alexander Zhikharev
Nature presented an unexpected gift: instead of the cold and precipitation predicted by weather forecasters, there was comfortable, dry, sunny weather, and the thermometer was around minus five degrees. Since there were no real serious frosts yet, the ground was not completely frozen, but the track was still hard and slippery.
“The prologue today turned out to be drier, not wintery, as we expected,” said Alexander Semenov at the finish line. “We did not put on our favorite spikes, but returned to the usual BF Goodrich tires for soil and sand. At first there was a high-speed track, and at the end there were forest sections, slightly frozen paths, and you had to lean sideways to take turns. The race is generally very fast, and today we even achieved a kind of speed record. Everything turned out well for us today; we didn’t make any mistakes.
Alexander Zhikharev
In the overall prologue and in the buggy-T3 category, Boris Gadasin had the best time to overcome the prologue – 26:34. His teammate Andrey Novikov finished just 9 seconds behind. The Arkhangelsk crew of Pavel Andreev came third to the SSU finish (+0.12). GAZ Raid Sport team pilots Alexander Semenov and Alexey Ignatov brought their crews to the finish line and showed the fourth and fifth results in the overall standings, as well as the first and second times in the raid-sport standings. Due to a slight deviation from the route, the judges gave Alexander Semenov’s crew a 30-second penalty, but he is still 19 seconds ahead of Ignatov.
Alexander Zhikharev
Mikhail Rastorguev is just a minute behind Alexey Ignatov with the sixth time at the finish line. The top ten was completed by the crews of Andrei Sushentsov, Denis Nazarkin and Nikita Yurkovsky. It was these 10 best crews who were able to choose starting places at the bivouac in the evening for Saturday’s special stage. And the responsibility to open the second racing day fell to the crew of Alexander Semenov and Dmitry Okhotnikov.
The second day of the race is ahead: two 100-kilometer laps, with a service and refueling area between them – a serious test. Snow-covered paths, narrow turns and slippery soil, already slightly frozen, are especially fraught with surprises. Bach’s “Simbirsk Tract” is gaining momentum, and the denouement is very soon! /m
Grand off-road festival in the Chinese Baja desert Astrakhan: day two What is endurance karting
