“Mongolia Rally”: Ready! Steady! Go!

VLADIVOSTOK. 4 August. VOSTOK-MEDIA. On Monday the racing “Mongolia Rally” in Ulan-Bator has taken the start. Rally started at 8.00; the first period is about 500 kms to Tsetserleg.
The day before racers held the registration and received a road-book. 66 teams from Japan, Mongolia, Germany and Russia were registered 19 teams of which go by car and 47 – by motorcycle.
The most serious rivals of the Primorian team “Sumotori Raid” are thought to be Mongolian racers: teams of S. Lkhagvasuren (pilot) and D. Danbinboy (navigator) going by Mitsubishi E-V55W; and G. Shamkhu (pilot) and S. Vayambanov (navigator) on Toyota Land Cruiser 80. Last team has participated in the rally for 10 years; they twice became the winners, including “Mongolian Rally 2007”.
“Mongolian team has an advantage of participating on the own territory: they know Goby desert like their own finger-tips”, - explained Primorian racers. Also serious rivals can be Japanese racers Yoshima Sugavara and Hiroiki Sugura on Suzuki Jimmy.
All participants came through the technical examination procedure on August, 3. President of SSER Organization Yamada Tetsu personally examined the racing cars of the Russian teams and confirmed that they were ready for the rally. As said by technical director of Sumotori Raid Maxim Naumets, participation of Primorian teams in “Mongolia Rally” is the first step towards cooperation.
“At the present time Yamada considers Primorian Auto Federation to become the official representative of “Mongolia Rally” in the Russian Far East, - says Maxim Naumets.
There are only 4 Russian participants in “Mongolia Rally 2008”: racers Pavel Fedorov and Alexander Vaulin from Chita and Leonid Smagin and Alexander Gorbachev from Primorye.