The gruelling 5,000 km journey across Mongolia and Russia begins on July 6, taking racers through a minefield of tough terrains, scalding heat, and beautiful vistas.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Silk Way Rally is gearing up in Russia for it's ninth annual edition.
Starting on July 6 in Irkutsk, not far from the shores of the Baikal lake, the gruelling rally raid will be divided into ten varied and highly technical stages, crossing Mongolia from North to South and ending in the ocean of dunes that is the famous Gobi desert.
Participants will race for a total of 5,000 kilometres, crossing three countries that offer the perfect balance of technical difficulty, variety and beautiful landscapes.
The most populous category of this year's Rally is the All terrain – CARS in which 54 vehicles will battle it out for the top spot.
The list is headed by last year’s winner, Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al Rajhi who will go head to head against his main rival, the Qatari pilot Nasser Al Attiyah. The star airman looks forward to taking revenge after coming off second in 2018.
16 crews have been announced in the Truck category, 6 of them representing Russia.
The attention will surely be focused on the four KAMAZ-master trucks: Andrei Karginov, the previous edition’s winner, together with his fellow racers Ayrat Mardeev, Anton Shibalov and Sergey Kupriyanov, will be competing for the podium.
In 2019, for the first time in its history, the race will host the motorcycle category that will gather 24 bikers.
The countdown is ready, start your engines. The Silk Way Rally is back.