Experienced athletes consider the Kagan Gold to be the most difficult race of the season. The answer to the question “why” is simple – because Astrakhan! This year the Astrakhan race confirmed its highest status. In four days, the pilots traveled about a thousand combat kilometers, and with liaisons – only one and a half. On top of everything else, the heat: we started at +30, then it “got cold” to +26, but it’s still not easy. Almost 80 crews, many breakdowns and derailments – “Kagan’s Gold 2024” has become one of the most difficult races in the last few years.
There are many participants: 41 crews in the car competition (14 buggies in T3, 10 cars in Raid-sport, 9 trucks in T5, and 5 SUVs in T2), 27 cross-country rally participants (15 motorcycles, 9 ATVs and 3 all-terrain vehicle) and 13 Track Race crews.
We already talked about the first day – a fast 8-kilometer prologue, although the organizers came up with navigational traps. The second day was the most difficult and exhausting – 360 kilometers through sand and off-road. The third one turned out to be fast and taxiy. But still, two laps of 225 kilometers knocked out many crews. Final day: the special stage of the second racing day turned in the opposite direction – 250 kilometers along the sand with some changes to the route of the second day. The technology couldn’t handle it. Some managed to fix the breakdowns, others ended the fight ahead of schedule. The mechanics worked their butts off, reviving the cars and crews overnight and getting back to the start.
Alexander Zhikharev
In the Overall classification (trucks are not included), the leader after four days was the crew of Vyacheslav Paputsky, who was able to beat the Cherkesov brothers and the most experienced Boris Gadasin. Papoutsky brought Alexey Cherkesov and Boris Gadasin 22 and 49 minutes, respectively. As a result, Alexey Cherkesov is in second place, and the G-Force Mororsport pilot is in third. The podium in “Absolute” exactly copied the podium in the T3 category – the same crews.
Alexander Zhikharev
“Yesterday we learned to ride first, today we already learned and everything worked out,” Vyacheslav Paputsky shared his impressions. Today there was a nerve-wracking special section in places, terrible shaking. But overall everything is fine. I enjoyed it.
The density of results and high speeds raised the stakes: technical problems or even a simple tire puncture already throws pilots a significant distance from the podium, so it is no longer possible to make up lost time. This happened with the crew of the GAZ Raid Sport team of Anastasia Nifontova, who completed the prologue perfectly, was the first to open the track on the second racing day, but a problem with the variator on the second day of the race dashed all hopes for prizes. It’s a shame to break down 20 kilometers from the service area! Her teammates came to the rescue, but lost time and penalties assessed by the judges pushed Nifontova to the bottom of the standings.
Alexander Zhikharev
In the truck classification, the Belarusian MAZ of Sergei Vyazovich alone tried to resist the Blue Armada (KAMAZ master). But this time Fortune turned away from Vyazovich. On the eve of the race, the Belarusians had problems with the engine, and they changed the cylinder block right at the bivouac, which was promptly delivered from Minsk on the eve of the first racing day. The team passed the prologue perfectly, but on the second day the equipment could not stand it: the frame of the MAZ-SPORTauto team’s truck burst, and it became clear that the Belarusians were definitely not fighting for prizes this time.
On the fourth day, Vyazovich’s crew traveled completely, but it was more of a training session in combat conditions. But for the KAMAZ-master crews, in the absence of their main rival, the race was not an easy ride. Every racing day, KAMAZ drivers were plagued by various breakdowns, drive trains were flying, and other technical nuances arose. At first, Bogdan Karimov’s crew was in the lead, but they broke down on the SS-3. The most experienced Dmitry Sotnikov took first place, Karimov ended up in second position.
Alexander Zhikharev
“The race is traditionally difficult and, one might say, even in some old traditions,” said Dmitry Sotnikov. I remember it from the very first year. It has the endurance of both cars and people – you need to get there, save… There is always a lot of work, always a lot of spare parts, and it is always unpredictable. For us, the race this time was actually a lottery; the distribution of forces changed every day. Everyone had problems with reliability, MAZs, KAMAZs, and everyone else. Today on the podium they are probably the most reliable. The good news is that new roads have been found where there are no traces of our trucks yet. And it’s great that there are fresh routes or reserves that will allow the race to become better and better, and the project to develop and be even more spectacular!
The dark horse of the race was URAL, which managed to take third place.
“Today we had problems from the start,” said Ural Motorsport driver Yuri Naiman. The hydraulic booster was not working at full capacity. It was difficult to steer, but we managed it. We consider our performance satisfactory. Everyone broke down and went down, KAMAZ trucks also had some breakdowns, but we finished successfully. Of the four days, the second was the most difficult: it was hot, 360 kilometers was a lot. We are still gaining experience, training a new navigator and mechanic. If we compare the overall pace of the race, it increased towards the finish, which means the training was going well. We are preparing the crew for the second car, which we are currently building and on which Anton Kushnikov will later be the navigator, and Alexey Popov will be the pilot. I think we’ll be in time for the Silk Road.
Alexander Zhikharev
For the Sadko Next trucks of the GAZ Raid Sport team, this stage became a serious test: malfunctions arose, which, however, were successfully eliminated. On the second day, Alexander Filyakin managed to work as a rescuer and carried Anastasia Nifontova’s crew to the service area. In the T5 category, leaving behind two more energetic rivals, Alexander Filyakin and Alexander Laguta took sixth place, Mikhail Shklyaev and Alexander Sheludko took seventh.
“It’s an interesting and difficult race,” said GAZ Raid Sport team co-driver Alexander Laguta. We have raced in Astrakhan many times already, but the route is still new. The load turned out to be extremely heavy. Many crews dropped out. But our Sadko Next finished successfully.
Alexander Zhikharev
In the raid-sports competition, real knockout races took place all four days. Of the 10 cars that started competing in this competition, only the three most persistent ones reached the finish line. By the final day of the race, the crew of Alexey Ignatov from the GAZ Raid Sport team lost to Mikhail Rastorguev for almost 30 minutes, and to Konstantin Ivanov for three minutes. But on the final day of the race, all the problems that plagued Ignatov’s crew in the previous days evaporated. Alexey Ignatov was the first to finish in his qualifying group, and already at the finish he learned that Rastorguev had lost almost an hour on the track due to technical problems. As a result, the crew of Alexey Ignatov and Evgeny Pavlov – the current champions of Russia – won gold in the raid sport category.
Alexander Zhikharev
“Today is a great day, I liked it,” admitted Alexey Ignatov. The best of the four because it combined days two and three. It turned out to be varied and balanced. Not as exhausted as the previous days. But at the same time, there were difficult roads, a little sand, and there was room for both me and the navigator to work. We tried, we fought with all our might!
The T2 category was won by the Paristy/Marzalyuk crew in a UAZ Cargo. Silver went to the UAZ-Sport factory team of Vadim Novikov/Dmitry Rybin, and bronze went to the crew of Anton Melnikov from the Moscow Region team, who had a blast in Astrakhan
Alexander Zhikharev
“The race is very difficult,” Anton Melnikov takes a breath. It’s hard for both the car and the crews. Even more difficult than Dakar or the Silk Road. The load on the car was very heavy, it miraculously withstood it. Nevertheless, we have a finish, a finish in the prizes, plus first place for the team. It was not all in vain! The organizers did the right thing by making the starts earlier, which allowed, firstly, to return normally, and secondly, to leave the city without traffic jams, which is important for Astrakhan. We had difficulties with the car all the days of the race, once it even caught fire, but we managed to quickly put it out and even, despite this, we were able to be the very first at the finish of the fourth special stage. What we liked the most was the track on the third day; we got great pleasure from both laps, from the piloting, from the navigator’s work. The organizers selected the ideal combination of what should be in rally raids: the killer parts were offset by fast and taxiing, as well as fast straights, navigator’s riddles. All this together brought great pleasure.
The results of the team competition – the Podmoskovye team took first place, UAZ-Sport took second, and GAZ Raid Sport took third.
Alexander Zhikharev
In addition to the car and truck competitions, another 27 representatives of motorcycle competitions took part in the race. And Ilya Shcheglov took a high pace in the 450 cross-country from the first day. Aidar Galeev is in second place, and Pavel Vanin is in third.
“Very difficult conditions, very difficult tracks, very high competition,” said Ilya Shcheglov. The competition is young and fast. The victory was not easy: everyone made mistakes, there were falls and injuries. The falls are very hard, especially on the fourth day of the race – I then ran after the motorcycle and looked for where it was lying! Navigation is difficult, probably the most difficult in my career. Astrakhan dunes are some kind of 70 percent sour cream. I’ve been to different sands, I’ve never seen anything like this!
In the enduro ATV category, athletes from the Russian Mechanics team claimed first and second places – Alexey Zverev and Mikhail Orlov won gold and silver.
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev
In the Track Race competition, where amateurs took part in standard production cars, 9 crews out of 13 finished. In this category, two crews were entered by the GAZ Raid Sport team: the managing director of the Gorky plant Andrey Sofonov and the head of the press service took part in the race on standard Sobol 4×4 plant Nikolay Markov.
The team’s goal is quite ambitious: to try to “get into” motorsport for now in the amateur competitions, so that next year they can fully compete in the T2 category on the new Sobol NN. And the crews gained invaluable experience: when else can you try almost all types of surfaces, test yourself in off-road conditions, where even the cars of the winners of the Dakars and the Silk Road could not withstand the load, fight the sands and gain experience in repairs in field conditions with difficulties? Sofonov’s crew successfully completed three stages of the race.
On the fourth day, Sofonov left on a business trip, so the crew did not start. But the crew of Nikolai Markov fought to the end and won third place in the P3K category, leaving the crew of Artem Halliullin and Ekaterina Kovaleva in first place, and Konstantin Dobrovolsky/Evgeniy Shakirov in second place
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev 
Alexander Zhikharev
The race is over, it caused a lot of emotions, the fight was serious. But, despite all the difficulties and the harsh track, which did not forgive the slightest mistake, the athletes liked the race, and “Kagan’s Gold – 2024” became another milestone in the history of domestic motorsport. Many noted that it was one of the most difficult races in recent years, the most persistent people reached the finish line, but the more valuable the victory.
Alexander Zhikharev
The crews have a month to restore the equipment, because from May 16 to 19, the Volgograd region will host the 2nd stage of the Russian Championship in the truck category, the 1st stage of the Russian Cup in rally raids and the Volgograd region championship in rally raids. /m
Rally Gold of Kagan: day three Gold of Kagan: not everyone was able to finish Gold of Kagan: you can’t miss it!
