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

Stage	Start	Finish	Selective Sections	Road Sections	Date
1	Tomsk	Tomsk	24.96 km	31.60 km	5 July
2	Tomsk	Barnaul	79.54 km	438.57 km	6 July
3	Barnaul	Gorno-Altaysk	132.85 km	218.20 km	7 July
4	Gorno-Altaysk	Kosh-Agach	164.97 km	449.17 km	8 July
5	Kosh-Agach	Khovd	296.20 km	259.22 km	9 July
6	Khovd	Khovd	440.17 km	102.13 km	10 July
7	Khovd	Altai	385.15 km	127.29 km	11 July
8	Altai	Altai	314.08 km	178.04 km	12 July
9	Altai	Bayankhongor	422.69 km	135.34 km	13 July
10	Bayankhongor	Mandalgovi	307.64 km	255.22 km	14 July
11	Mandalgovi	Ulaanbataar	323.51 km	55.93 km	15 July

Overall results

Cars

T1

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	12	203	Aleksandr Semenov	Dmitrii Okhotnikov	GAZ Raid Sport	GAZelle NEXT	45:34:52	Leader
2	14	202	Aleksei Ignatov	Evgeny Pavlov	GAZ Raid Sport	GAZelle NEXT	48:13:46	+ 2:38:54
3	17	201	Andrey Rudskoy	Dmitrii Karpov	NG-Energo	G-Force Bars	52:30:44	+ 6:55:52

T2

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	13	223	Andrei Sushentsov	Aleksandr Schanov	S&A Racing	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	47:15:01	Leader
2	15	220	Merdan Toylyyev	Shohrat Toylyyev	Federation Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	Nissan Patrol	52:24:08	+ 5:09:07
3	18	221	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Didar Orazmedov	Federation Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	Nissan Patrol	52:46:11	+ 5:31:10
4	23	224	Mikhail Mityaev	Egor Okhotnikov	LADA Sport ROSNEFT Raid	Lada Niva Sport	74:30:45	+ 27:15:44
5	24	225	Meylis Abdullayev	Italmaz Charyyev	Federation Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	Nissan Patrol	88:59:08	+ 41:44:07
DNF	DNF	218	Anton Melnikov	Anton Nikolaev	PODMOSKOWYE	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	DNF	N/A

T3

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	7	206	Roman Rusinov	Dmitrii Pavlov	G-Drive Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3	36:37:46	Leader
2	8	208	Dmitrii Cherkesov	Vladimir Prostakov	Dmitrii Cherkesov	Can-Am Maverick X3 Max XRS Turbo	37:17:00	+ 39:14
3	9	214	Andrey Novikov	Aleksei Goriunov	G-Force Motorsport	G-Force T-3GF	42:29:19	+ 5:51:33
4	10	205	Sergei Kariakin	Anton Vlasiuk	SNAG Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	42:53:04	+ 6:15:18
DNF	DNF	209	Anastasiya Nifontova	Kirill Shubin	G-Drive Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3 Max XRS Turbo	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	210	Vyacheslav Paputsky	Igor Chudaykin	Truck Garage Racing Team	Yamaha YXZ1000R	DNF	N/A

T5

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Mechanic	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	1	303	Dmitry Sotnikov	Ruslan Akhmadeev	Ilgiz Akhmetzynav	KAMAZ-master	KAMAZ-435091	29:24:41	Leader
2	2	302	Eduard Nikolaev	Yevgeny Yakovlev	Dmitry Avdeev	KAMAZ-master	KAMA3 435092	29:33:32	+ 8:51
3	3	301	Siarhei Viazovich	Pavel Haranin	Andrei Krahelskiy	MAZ-SPORTauto	MAZ-6440RR	30:47:45	+ 1:23:04
4	4	306	Bogdan Karimov	Dmitrii Nikitin	Almaz Akhmedov	KAMAZ-master	KAMAZ-435091	31:02:50	+ 1:38:09
5	5	308	Sergey Kupriyanov	Aleksandr Kupriyanov	Ivan Tatarinov	KAMAZ-master	KAMAZ-43509	32:55:33	+ 3:30:52
6	6	304	Aliaksei Vishneuski	Maksim Novikau	Siarhei Sachuk	MAZ-SPORTauto	MAZ-6440RR	33:27:00	+ 4:02:19
7	11	305	Andrey Karginov	Ivan Malkov	Danil Telepov	KAMAZ-master	KAMAZ-435091	43:48:58	+ 14:24:17
8	16	312	Vladimir Moiseev	Aleksandr Laguta		GAZ Raid Sport	GAZelle NEXT	52:24:50	+ 23:00:09
9	19	311	Mikhail Shklyaev	Aleksandr Sheludko		GAZ Raid Sport	GAZelle NEXT	57:44:50	+ 28:20:09
10	22	309	Vitaly Murylev	Aliaksandr Shved	Pavel Muyliou	MAZ-SPORTauto	MAZ-6440RR	73:29:40	+ 44:04:5
DNF	DNF	307	Yuri Naiman	Dzmitry Vikhrenka	Nikolay Korolev	Ural Motorsport	Ural	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	310	Alexey Popov	Anton Kushnikov	Ivan Teterin	Ural Motorsport	Ural	DNF	N/A

Open

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	20	222	Dmitrii Voronov	Kirill Enikeev	LADA Sport ROSNEFT Raid	Lada Niva Sport	68:05:23	Leader
2	21	229	Sergei Shalygin	Nikita Erzhenin	Sergei Shalygin	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	70:50:15	+ 2:44:52
3	25	228	Nikita Yurkovsky	Aleksandr Kuznetsov	CS20 Racing Team	Lada Niva Travel	164:49:14	+ 96:43:51
DNF	DNF	227	Konstantiv Ivanov	Aleksandr Gorkov	PODMOSKOWYE	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	215	Aleksei Shmotev	Ivan Bezdenezhnykh	SNAG Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	DNF	N/A

Bikes

Cross-Country 450

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Margin
1	1	95	Aleksey Naumov	Federation Free Bikers	Husqvarna FE 450	36:07:23	Leader
2	2	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	KTM 450 Rally	36:20:07	+ 12:44
3	5	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	Naikom Extreme Motocross	KTM 450 EXC-F	48:03:36	+ 11:56:13
4	11	39	Pavel Bortvin	ITF	Husqvarna Norden 901 Expedition	67:47:05	+ 31:39:42
5	12	58	Galmanakh Gantulga	Team Mongolia	KTM 450 Rally	86:02:19	+ 49:54:56
6	13	42	Rustam Satrudinov	ITF	Husqvarna Norden 901 Expedition	106:59:38	+ 70:52:15
DNF	DNF	32	Ilya Scheglov	Doc_32	Husqvarna FR 450 Rally	DNF	N/A

G-Moto

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Margin
1	3	1	Oleg Pavlenko	Pavlenko Oleg MMK	KTM 500 EXC	41:01:58	Leader
2	7	71	Ivan Li	Ivan Li	Husqvarna FE 450	52:05:15	+ 9:03:17
3	9	57	Anton Kruglov	Bionica	KTM 690 Enduro R	54:12;48	+ 11:10:50
4	14	9	Oleg Smoljarchuk	Enduro-Team	Yamaha Ténéré 700	126:57:54	+ 83:55:6
5	15	73	Aleksei Shvetzov	Aleksei Shvetzov	KTM 500 EXC-F	194:40:46	+ 151:38:48

Quad

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Quad	Time	Margin
1	4	112	Danil Loginov	Lion Racing Team	Can-Am Renegade XXC 1000R	44:23:12	Leader
2	6	122	Azat Shaimukhametov	AR Team	Can-Am Renegade XXC 1000R	49:20:48	+ 4:57:36
3	8	111	Maksim Sdvizhkov	AMA Lipetsk Racing Team	Can-Am Renegade XXC 1000R	53:10:26	+ 8:47:14
4	10	102	Zhou He	Panda Racing Team	Sharmax	61:31:34	+ 17:08:22
5	16	159	Aleksandr Gilemov	Sharmax Motors	Sharmax	291:45:23	+ 247:22:11
DNF	DNF	123	Aleksey Sverdlov	AMA Lipetsk Racing Team	Can-Am Outlander Max XTP 1000R	DNF	N/A

Grand Tour

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Vehicle	Points	Margin
1	518	Dmitry Fedorov	Andrey Sukhov	Tank 300	625	Leader
2	525	Petr Bakanov	Yuri Uyrukov	Tank 300	661	+ 36
3	508	Vladimir Melnikov	Vadim Gagarin	Tank 300	765	+ 140
4	523	Stanislav Kurenkov	Maxim Hunter	Toyota Hilux	779	+ 154
5	507	Oleg Kharchenko	Ilya Kangun, Alexander Tyumentsev	Tank 300	975	+ 350
6	521	Anna Alexeev	Ivan Shcherbina, Alexei Korotenko	Tank 300	1,042	+ 417
7	501	Petr Kupriyanov	Artem Sysoikin, Nikita Bobirenko	Toyota Land Cruiser 100	1,090	+ 465
8	512	Timur Khasanov	Alexander Tychinin	Tank 300	1,105	+ 480
9	517	Vadim Rudskikh	Andrey Lychagin	Ford F-150	1,139	+ 514
10	522	Adele Yakupov	Ilnur Batyrov, Ruslan Abdulnasyrov	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	1,167	+ 542
11	524	Natalya Nilekhina	Dmitry Grafsky	Suzuki Jimny	1,179	+ 554
12	500	Alexey Kolpakov	Surko Taramov	Jeep Wrangler	1,263	+ 638
13	519	Andrey Golik	Pavel Danchenko	Toyota 4Runner	1,276	+ 651
14	510	Sergey Lyushnin	Olga Zaytseva	Tank 300	1,374	+ 749
15	520	Vasily Glukhov	Stanislav Kudinov	Jaecoo J8	1,451	+ 826
16	509	Alexander Potapov	Alexander Lapokin, Sergey Zheleznov	Lexus LX450d	1,627	+ 1,002
17	513	Artem Cholakyan	Danila Rochev	Toyota Land Cruiser 200	1,922	+ 1,297
18	503	Sergey Utkin	Maria Belyavtseva	Toyota Hilux	1,954	+ 1,329
19	515	Matvey Ulyanychev	Dmitry Stepanov	Land Rover Defender	2,313	+ 1,688
20	506	Dusko Bielic	Elena Vitkovskaya	Lada Niva Travel	2,625	+ 2,000
21	504	Pierre Fornage	Vasily Kulkov, Elena Kulkova	Jetour T2	3,000	+ 2,375
22	511	Qasim Hossein	Mohammad Sameh	Lada Niva Travel	5,938	+ 5,313
23	502	Yuri Shashlyuk	Valery Khlebutin	Nissan X-Trail	6,531	+ 5,906
24	514	Ali Karful	Eiyas Al-Khatib	Lada Niva Travel	6,838	+ 6,213
25	505	Sergey Savin	Alexander Zhivov, Maxim Kulkov	Jetour T2	18,112	+ 17,487
GTT	800	Hou Hongning	Zhang Ya, Sergey Shportko	KAMAZ-43509	1,175 points	N/A