Roman Rusinov got an impromptu shower from a firefighter’s hose after completing Stage 2 of the Silk Way Rally.

Sunday’s 52-kilometer stage was plagued by rain and mud, leading to very slippery terrain filled with ruts and puddles. Due to the conditions, cars and bikes had to race as cautiously as possible. Bike rider Murun Purevdorj, fresh off his Dakar Rally debut in January, compared it to an enduro track whereas Pavel Murylev admitted it was a “bit scary” because he had never raced on such a course yet was having to go the maximum 140 km/h.

On the other hand, it was a perfect environment for his teammate Siarhei Viazovich, who excels in racing in narrow and damp forests. He quickly caught Eduard Nikolaev before passing him for the lead after 50 kilometers, going on to win the stage overall.

Alexey Cherkesov also said he “felt like a fish taking to water” because he’s from Belgorod, where slick black soil is common. He finished runner-up in T3, 57 seconds behind Anastasiya Nifontova, and third overall.

Nifontova had lost five minutes to Cherkesov, but still holds the T3 overall with the stage win. In the closing stretch, she passed a Ural truck without issue but caught up to a MAZ that refused to yield; she elected to drive conservatively and let them pull away because of rocks that she didn’t want to puncture the windshield.

With Nifontova and Cherkesov finishing behind Viazovich, no KAMAZ trucks were on the outright podium for the stage. Almaz Akhmedov led the KAMAZs, settling for fourth with a time of 35:42 and losing to Cherkesov by 23 seconds. Stage 1 winner Bogdan Karimov was 12th and seventh in T5, while Nikolaev was 15th overall and ninth in class.

Despite his relatively poor finish, Nikolaev had little reason to worry and called it a “great day. Yes, the weather adds its own factors, but this is normal for rally raids. Light rain is always slippery: neither dry, nor very dirty. It was important not to overdo it here.”

Open runner-up Anatoly Kuznetsov, who finished over a minute behind the Lada Niva Sport Turbo of Mikhail Mityaev, was quite receptive to the conditions. The 2023 Quad winner compared it to a “classic rally” stage, enjoying “the mud and high-speed roads.”

Rusinov rounded out the top 20 with a sixth for T3.

Sergei Kariakin retired from the rally after the electronics issues that plagued him in Stage 1 continued. Kariakin surmised one of the gears in the transmission was damaged by millimeter-long metal fragments to the point where his Can-Am Maverick R couldn’t tell what gear it was in. The team spent the night disassembling and putting the car back together, but diagnostics still showed no pressure within the gearbox.

“It’s either some kind of electrical or non-electrical system error, which, unfortunately, we don’t have enough knowledge to solve,” Kariakin explained.

“Many people told me, ‘You should have raced with your X3, which you’ve already done before and is guaranteed to reach the finish.’ Regardless of how it sounds, our goal isn’t just to win. We have a job to develop, innovate, try something new, and of course improve the car so that one day, we can go to Dakar and win the Dakar. This time, it didn’t work out.”

Stage 2 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	5	202	Andrey Rudskoy	NG-Energo Rally Team	35:44
T2	29	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	48:25
T3	2	210	Anastasiya Nifontova	G-Drive Racing	34:22
T5	1	302	Siarhei Viazovich	MAZ-SPORTauto	34:05
Open	18	220	Mikhail Mityaev	Lada Sport Auto Finance	39:27

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	2	32	Ilya Shcheglov	Doc 32	44:02
Motorally Quad	1	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	42:06
Motorally Open	13	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	1:04:57
G-Moto Challenge	4	1	Oleg Pavlenko	MMK	47:00

Leaders after Stage 2

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	5	202	Andrey Rudskoy	NG-Energo Rally Team	41:36
T2	28	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	55:58
T3	2	210	Anastasiya Nifontova	G-Drive Racing	40:25
T5	1	302	Siarhei Viazovich	MAZ-SPORTauto	39:55
Open	17	220	Mikhail Mityaev	Lada Sport Auto Finance	45:59

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	2	32	Ilya Shcheglov	Doc 32	50:29
Motorally Quad	1	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	48:45
Motorally Open	13	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	1:14:40
G-Moto Challenge	4	1	Oleg Pavlenko	MMK	54:28

Featured image credit: G-Drive Racing