Saturday, February 15 was the second day of the 1st World Cross-Country Rallies Cup round - Baja "Russia Northern Forest 2014". Today's stage was a 102-kilometer loop. The participants had to make it twice clockwise.
Due to a thaw snow and ice melted yesterday and froze at night, and the track was extremely slippery. The most part of crews were forced to seek for a compromise between high speed and chances to get their vehicle damaged. Keeping with the event spirit they made a choice in favor of speed. The show was definitely impressive and spectators were pleased and delighted but the cost was high, up to further participation at today's stages.
Thus Ilya Kuznetsov and Roman Elagin at Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution sped up on a slippery road and immediately suffered severe suspension damage and retired from the stage with riding on two wheels in front of amazed spectators few moments earlier. Boris Gadasin's attempts to increase their pace affected the G-Force Proto as well. They were able to continue, but the vehicle was in severely damaged condition. BMW #8, with Ruslan Misikov on board lost the braking system 30 kilometer after SS2 start. Only exceptional driver's skills brought a poorly controlled car to the finish line.
According to the day two results, an international crew of Saudi Arabian Yazid Al-Rajhi and German co-driver Timo Gottschalk keep their leadership in overall standings. Tapio Suominen and Jukka Tuomisto from Finland (#35) hold the second position. Russian sportsmen Vladimir Vasiliev and Konstantin Zhiltsov (#1) firmly close the top-three. Finns also lead in the national event. A family crew of Alexander and Sergey Kolembet top up the T2 classification in both international and national standings.
Speaking by attitudes, Russian crews intend to make an effort and regain the leading position at the final special stage tomorrow. Undoubtedly, spectators and journalists should expect an exciting and furious struggle!
Read all news at www.bajarussia.com
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