Ardavichus' crew ranked 21st at the third stage of the Silk Way Rally

The crew of Kazakhstan team Astana was ranked 21rd at the third stage of the Silk Way rally, Tengrinews.kz reports. Arthur Ardavichus’ truck was 1 hour 56 minutes behind the leader Airat Mardeyev from Russia. The driver of Astana said that they fell behind becaused their truck broke down not far from the finish. “The road at this stage was very tricky. It was a real test for trucks: a lot of lumps and hills. We started very well, but 30 km before the end of the stage the frame of our truck broke. We managed to fix it and get to the finish in an emergency condition, but that cost us over 1.5 hours,” Ardavichus said. Astana KamAZ is ranked 18th in the general classification being 4 hours and 46 minutes behind the leader. “It is not bad. We initially considered the Silk Way as preparation for Dakar. The accidents are even good for a team. We want to know all the capabilities of our truck.” Prior to the start Ardavichus was planning to drive with an Arab navigator who could not come to Russia. “We have a Russian navigator Aleksey Kuzmich this time. I am very happy with him, he is a good adequate guy. It is possible that we will work with him in Dakar,” Astana driver added. The fourth stage of the rally will be held today, July 13. “It is called “Astrakhan-Astrakhan”. This stage is very curved and sandy. This is another test for a truck. Mechanics of KamAZ-Masters quickly eliminated the failure last night, they fixed and welded everything. So we start confidently today. We hope that we’ll manage to show better results,” Ardavichus said. In the beginning of the Silk Way Kazakhstan was represented by three crews, one in trucks category and two in offroaders category. Astana jeeps, however, withdrew from the rally. The jeeps of Andrey Cherednikov and Dmitry Filonets had technical problems with electronic equipment and a clutch. There are four stages left and the rally will finish in Sochi on July 16.