Baja "Russia - Northern Forest 2014" - crew from Saudi Arabia wins!

The 1st round of Cross-Country Rallies World Cup completed in Leningrad region this weekend with a surprising win of Saudi Arabian crew. Yazeed AlRajhi took the leadership on Friday at a short spectator special stage and managed to keep the advantage on Saturday and Sunday through 312 kilometers for 3 hours and 36 minutes, which is about 2 minutes faster than Russia's Vladimir Vasilyev and 6 minutes faster than Brazilian Ricardo Varela. Only 26 out of 44 crews succeeded to get to the finish line.

Snow and ice baja is one of the most difficult event types in motorsports world. Unpredictable weather made additional barriers for drivers. Thaw, so unusual for Russian winter during the first two days of the event changed to fog and then snowfall and frost. With these conditions the road surface becomes soft but very slippery and makes contenders either risk or loose speed and precious seconds.

The Russian Championship leader board was also hardly predictable: a Finnish crew of Tapio Suominen was leading firmly until the very last special. 300 meters to the last special stage finish the driver made a fatal mistake that kicked his Toyota Hilux out of the track.

Vladimir Vasiliev won the Russian Championship. Ruslan Misikov made it the second and Boris Gadasin - third at the national event.

As for T2 standings, the leaders are Andrey Rudskoy and his co-driver Evgeny Zagorodniuk.

According to participants, the competition was tough and less speedy, but far more interesting.

Baja Russia