The second stage of the Cross Country Championship of Russia has finished today in Astrakhan. G-Force Motorsport team supported during this season by the premium motor oil brand G-Energy finished not only in full strength but also a step away from the podium.

Vladimir Vasilyev/Vitaly Yevtyekhov won the day (241 km of SS) with 13 minutes advantage but it was too hard to reach the rivals in absolute. So Vladimir Vasilyev takes line 4 in absolute.

The fifth line at the race finish is occupied by Victor Volikov/Alexey Kuzmich.

Victor Volikov: We finished the race not exactly the way we wanted. We did our best to go faster but this was not enough. We’ll try to dig up supplementary reserves.

Sergey Fomin/Dan Shchemel: there were lots of things in the race new to the crew. For the first time together, first driving this car, for the first time in Astrakhan. But the main result is that the crew debut ended in such a high position in overall as the 6^th line in absolute!

Sergey Fomin: For the first 70 kilometers or so my driving was “taking the seedlings to the country” as my co-driver called it. But next I got some certain recommendations and proceeded according to the principle: the sport car must either pick up speed or slowdown. I came wet through to the finish line. For the first time in my life I was driving through the Astrakhan fields and steppes at 140 kph. Thanks God, we have finished. Many thanks to my co-driver, to the team and mechanics.

Sergey Kiselev and Alexey Ivanov with their truck successfully fulfilled their training task and the crew is quite happy with the race.

However, some nasty taste in the mouth left after some things we happened to see during the race. Our team considers one should not apply the saying “the end justifies the means” to the motor sports. All the more when it comes to the distance cutback for the sake of victory in such a way:

Gold of Kagan 2013 full results (first ten):

 Provisional results (full)>>>

 Photo: Mikhail Lastochkin, Svetlana Shakhova