What is a rally-raid?

Rally-raids are the motorsport events which are run in off-road conditions and on normal roads. The task of every crew, which consists of two persons (three for trucks, where a mechanic is also needed) - a driver and a co-driver, - is to complete the speed test of a determined route (and with some check points) within the minimum amount of time.

Considering the long distance of a route it's almost impossible to create a consolidated itinerary, and special stages often alternate with road sections or so-called liaisons. Such sections take place on normal roads, generally opened for the public transport, where crews have to follow the schedule of passing time control points and observe the road transport regulations. Any deviation from the schedule and breaking the rules is recorded in special Time Cards, and then is taken into account when estimating the eventual results.

Such races are very popular in many countries and they attract the attention of lots of participants and spectators. Rally-raids take origin from France, where the legendary rally marathon "Paris-Dakar" used to start for many years. After 2003 the famous "Dakar" race began its route from Spain and Portugal, while for 2009 it moved to the South America. Despite the sport having started the development in Russia just recently (officially the Russian Championship has been carried out since 1999), its rounds (up to 4-6 per season) regularly gather up to 80 crews. Many Russian drivers' names are well-known abroad.

There're three types of cross-country events dependable on the length of the competition: Bajas, Rally-Raids and Marathons.

A competition with the Spanish name Baja (its name origins from a cognominal region in the South part of California - according to one of the versions, it was there where a short rally-raid was held for the first time) is run over 1 to 3 days. As it's the shortest of rally-raids, the length of the route is not more than 1200 kilometres.

A Rally-Raid is an Event that must be run over a total distance of between 1200 km and 6500 km, and must last no more than 10 days.

A Marathon is an Event, the itinerary of which may cover the territory of several countries. The total distance must be greater than 6500 km, with a minimum total distance of 4000 km for the Selective Sections. The total duration of a Marathon may not exceed 31 days. Found in the Book of Records marathon "Paris-Moscow-Beijing" 1992 started from Paris on September 1st and, having crossed the number of European and Asian countries, finished in Beijing 30 days later. The route of the event estimated 17600 kilometres. It must be mentioned that the Russian crew of Alexander Nikonenko/Sergey Talantsev, driving the LADA SAMARA T-3 prototype, finished 2nd in that race.

Annually the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) draws 2 official series: the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies and the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas. In 2007 the winner of the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas became Russian driver Boris Gadasin. "Saint-Petersburg - Northern Forest 2009" is the 2nd round of the Cup 2009 calendar.

RULES

Please take into account that rally-raids, as any other kind of sports, are a rapidly developing discipline. The rules might differ from the description given here. The Supplementary Regulations of a competition, published by its organisers, ALWAYS contain the most precise information.

As in any other motorsport activity, in rally-raids all participants must pass administrative checks, where the presence of driving licenses, competition licenses and medical clearance is checked. Crews then pass scrutineering, where the cars and equipment are carefully examined for compliance with homologation (see Glossary).


A race starts with a short and spectacular special stage - SuperSpecial (SSS). It's held not only for sportsmen, but also for fans that can witness the action fight and compare the skills of different crews.

No less than 8 hours before the start of a race crews receive a Road Book (see Glossary), including an Itinerary (see Glossary), a map of the region where the race is held, and a detailed legend. All main features of the track conditions are noted in the legend: its width, holes, crests, drops, rain channels, so in short - all important details.
The fundamental difference of rally-raids to rallies is that any reconnaissance of the whole route or even its small part is strictly prohibited. And while in rallies each special stage is carefully recorded in pace-notes (detailed description of special stages), in rally-raids there's no such a thing as pace-notes, and all crews tackle the roads only following the legend's directions. For tracking the passage of each crew there are check points introduced en-route, with control points at every check point. For missing any of controls crews are penalized with time.

Cars eligible for participation in rally-raids are divided into the following categories:

• Т1 (superproduction) - Modified cross-country vehicles in relation to a standard car (engine, transmission, suspension), free-designed prototypes and baggies.

• Т2 (production) - This category includes standard (manufactured) cars with minimum amount of changes allowed. No modifications in the body's design or suspension are permitted.

• «National» category - Cars manufactured in Russia.

• «Raid» category - Cars of previous generations, which don't meet the technical requirements of modern international categories.

Based on information from  www.automania-tv.ru, www.rallyraid.ru & www.freedrive.ru