Sotnikov wins fifth Silk Way Rally, Rusinov notches first

The Silk Way Rally might not be Le Mans, but being one of the premier rally raids in the world still makes the White Tiger a worthwhile addition to Roman Rusinov‘s trophy case.

Rusinov won the T3 category for his maiden rally raid victory, a year after the endurance racing champion made his début in the discipline and finished second in class at the 2023 SWR. Sergei Kariakin, who held off Rusinov for last year’s T3 victory, claimed three of the final four stages but electrical issues and a fire in his car’s engine during the post-Stage #7 liaison relegated him to last among the four T3 finishers. Rusinov had electrical issues of his own on the final day but managed to bring it to the finish safely and seal the win.

“We were stressed for the ninety-nine kilometres before the finish, so we drove gently and kept our pace because we understood that we had a big lead and just needed to finish,” Rusinov commented. “This is motorsport, rally raid. There were a lot of small pitfalls, and in some places we drove very slowly. It’s great that we reached the finish line.”

Both Rusinov and Kariakin’s team-mates failed to reach the finish. The former’s G-Drive Racing colleague Anastasiya Nifontova won a leg but exited after crashing into a gully in Stage #9 and rolling. Alexey Shmottev of SNAG Racing, who raced the new Can-Am Maverick R in the Open class, lost control of his car in a tight corner slammed into a tree during the third leg.

Vyacheslav Paputsky, the other retirement in T3 alongside Nifontova, did the same as Shmottev but managed to recover and continue, only for his rally to end two days later when his Yamaha’s engine blew due to defective fuel. Many competitors had bemoaned the fuel quality, provided by Lukoil, and Paputsky recalled a rider who crashed after it caused his bike to stall. Both of Ural Motorsport‘s trucks retired after Alexey Popov crashed into a rut three kilometres into Stage #7 and suffered a compression fracture of the second vertebra while Yuri Naiman broke down just thirty km from the race finish.

Besides Kariakin, none of the class winners from 2023 repeated in 2024. In fact, only half of them even reached the finish.

Siarhei Viazovich, who stunned powerhouse KAMAZ-master last year by leading MAZ-SPORTauto to the outright victory, had his title defence take a bizarre setback when he took a wrong turn in the forest in Stage #3 and nearly collided head on with the KAMAZ of Eduard Nikolaev. Both tangled again throughout the rally, though on the leaderboard instead as Viazovich won two stages to Nikolaev’s four. Nikolaev even beat Viazovich by just fifty-six seconds for the Stage #10 victory.

However, Nikolaev’s colleague Dmitry Sotnikov walked away with the T5 and overall wins, claiming Stages #3, #4, and #9 to edge out Nikolaev by less than nine minutes. Viazovich’s steering column failed during the eighth leg after the oil seal in the control broke; MAZ team-mates Vitaly Murylev and Aliaksei Vishneuski sacrificed their runs to give him the necessary parts, and he joined the Sotnikov and Nikolaev on the podium.

The victory is Sotnikov’s fifth at the Silk Way, having previously won in 2013, 2017, 2021, and 2022. KAMAZ has been the top-performing truck in the race every year save for 2011 (Tatra) and 2023 (MAZ).

“A very intense race until the last kilometre,” began Sotnikov after the last stage. “Today, we started without seeing our opponent so we had to give it our all. It was only during neutralisation did we see that everything was in order. The day was quite treacherous; there were many places where you could have a flat tyre or end up somewhere else. It’s been a busy year and we’ve done a lot of work. It’s great that we did it, first and second places for two teams, and KAMAZ won the title again. A well-deserved victory. The entire crew did a great job.

“The goal for next year? We will fight for victory, as always.”

Andrey Rudskoy, last year’s T1 winner, finished at the back in his class after a rash of engine and tyre problems. Reigning T2 victor Anton Melnikov and bike champion Ilya Scheglov both bowed out halfway through.

With Scheglov out, Mongolia’s Murun Purevdorj hoped to deliver the bike win on home soil. Despite setting the fastest time overall, he received twenty-three minutes of penalties that allowed Aleksey Naumov to claim the victory instead. Nonetheless, a runner-up at the Silk Way builds upon a busy but impressive year for Purevdorj, who scored top-ten finishes at the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and China’s Taklimakan Rally in the spring.

The Federation Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan fielded three cars in T2 and enjoyed a double podium courtesy of Merdan Toylyyev and Maksatmyrat Danatarov. Turkmenistan intends to organise its own rally raid in September with support from the Silk Way Rally Association.

The 2024 SWR was the first since 2019 to extend beyond Russia as it started in Tomsk before crossing the border into Mongolia, finishing in the capital of Ulaanbataar. China was previously scheduled to be on the route before backing out in March.

Even without China on the 2024 route, the country was still represented by Zhou He, who finished fourth in Quad on a Sharmax. Hou Hongning drove a KAMAZ in the Grand Tour, a regularity category, though he served as the control vehicle and was not classified with the others. The Tank 300, an SUV produced by the Chinese Great Wall Motor, had four in the Grand Tour’s top five with Dmitry Fedorov leading the contingent.

As has been the case since 2021, the race was relatively scant in terms of national diversity; the first edition was due to COVID-19 restrictions while the last three have been a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for which the Silk Way Rally Association was sanctioned by the United States in June. In December, the Russian government lifted a 2022 ban on support vehicles entering the country from Western countries including Ukraine, which the Association hoped would encourage some to take part in the race. This evidently did not work as most hailed from Russia, allies Belarus or Turkmenistan, Mongolia, or the aforementioned Chinese duo. The Grand Tour featured slightly more nationalities as Dusko Bielic is from Serbia, Vasily Kulkov is Swiss, and the #511 (Qasim Hossein and Mohammad Sameh) and #514 (Ali Karful and Eiyas Al-Khatib) teams are respectively Afghan and Syrian.

The Silk Way Rally was the fifth round of the 2024 Russian Rally-Raid Championship.

Route

Overall results

Cars

T1

T2

T3

T5

Open

Bikes

Cross-Country 450

G-Moto

Quad

Grand Tour