The first stage of the Year 2004 Russia Rally Raid Cup started on Saturday January 31 in the “Extreme” park, Dmitrovski District of Moscow Oblast. It is not the first time that the “4 x 4 Club” of Moscow has become organizer of the race, which promises a high level of organization of the track and expert umpiring.

For the first time the team “YAROVIT – ROSAGROLEASING” took place in the competition, including a crew from Belarus: Andrei Birukov and Dmitry Kniga. Andrei Birukov and Dmitry Kniga represent the company YAROVIT, which had been organizer of several truck trial cups and competitions. The crew whose captain is Andrei Birukov has been several times participant and champion (2002 and 2003) of the Republic of Belarus Open Jeep Trial Cups.

The participants had to do a maximum number of laps within the 4 hours allocated by the race organizers. The length of one lap would not exceed 11 km. With each consecutive lap the racers increased speed. However, the narrow track with few strips fit for overtaking forced the participants to follow in the trail of the leading vehicle for long minutes on end. By close of the first two hours of racing the cars started failing, and more than 10 crews dropped from the race because of breakdowns.

Sergei Shmakov and Konstantine Zhiltsov in the T2 (Superproduction) Category led the race. This made Ilya Kuznetsov’s breakthrough, in the less-power T1 (Production) Category, to the second finishing place even more fascinating.

The “YAROVIT – ROSAGROLEASING” crew in the T1 category took the second place, losing only by a narrow margin to Ilya Kuznetsov and Alexander Gorelov of \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"VMP Racing Team\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\".

In the national rating, the first and second places were divided between members of the novice team of ‘YAROVIT – ROSAGROLEASING” Vladimir Tupenkin and Maxim Orgiets.

The first stage of the Cup turned out to be not without a sensation, as the first place was unexpectedly won by the newcomer team of ‘YAROVIT – ROSAGROLEASING”.

In accordance with the 2004 Russia Cup schedule the next stage is slated for February 20-22: the “Sworanda” mini-baja at Saint Petersburg.

Materials from http://www.avtosport.ru/ were used in preparing this article.

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