As he successfully pulled off in 2023, Siarhei Viazovich was the primary challenger to KAMAZ-master’s reign at the Silk Way Rally. Alas, barring a miracle transcending Cinderella’s story over the next two days, 2025 will look like another addition to the rival trophy room.

Viazovich entered Stage 9 with a quartet of KAMAZs breathing down his neck, but some margin for error of his own as he won on Saturday to pull ahead by 5:21 on Eduard Nikolaev. Unfortunately, Sunday’s error ultimately did him in when he rolled his truck just moments after the start.

According to Viazovich, he was going through a transition from a fast and wide road into an off-piste section when he came across two large gullies that weren’t marked on the roadbook. He managed to avoid the first by swerving, but this caused the truck to drift and he couldn’t dodge the second, hitting the washout at top speed. This sent his MAZ into a roll so violent that his left-side wheels stayed airborne the entire time before the truck landed back.

Although the truck landed back on its wheels, the rollcage suffered severe damage and ended his race. With the next highest MAZ in the order being Pavel Murylev in 16th overall (seventh in T5), and over 20 hours behind new leader Anton Shibalev, the Belarusian team’s hopes are done for.

Viazovich was frank about what happened in his debrief:

The sad truth is that a year of preparation has been ruined because of such a mistake. We’d been racing for eight days already, and today is the ninth day, and there were a lot of places where it was written clearly on the roadbook that there was a washout: “go around it”, “go left”, “go right”, “don’t go straight”, watch for the water. Even Eduard Nikolaev hit one three kilometers from the finish of a stage even though it clearly said to go around it on the right. It was also hard to see, and he drove right into it. But at least that was written in the roadbook. Here, it was just a fork in the road and we followed the most visible one.

Looking at the roadbook, we should’ve taken the left track. But instead, there were two washouts: one parallel, one perpendicular. A year of preparation was destroyed in an instant.

What can I say? Of course, I could use flowery language like ‘That’s racing, these things happen,’ but in our case, it hurts. Losing the race from first place with 15 hours before the finish and the easiest stages ahead of just fast plateaus, having gone through the hardest and impassable sands of the Gobi Desert, proving the reliability of our truck, it crushes your confidence. We’ve already trusted the roadbook as a reliable document, but when you’re leading and the notes are incorrectly written, that’s what happens.

I’m glad none of the guys were hurt and that I’m fine, but it’s hard to say if I feel bitter, ashamed, or embarrassed. I just feel bad for the team, who’ve spent all year preparing and working late nights until morning on the truck. They spent so much time to ensure it had no issues and the truck never let us down, and then this happens. I’m worried about the mood and motivation of the guys. While racers still get their adrenaline during the race, the mechanics get theirs from building a vehicle stronger, faster, and more reliable than their rivals’. I feel especially guilty in front of those guys.

And, of course, to all the fans too who were rooting for us, I’m sorry for this situation. Maybe the phrase “That’s motorsport” is just right for this situation. I’m not sure why this happened to us, and why today.

Nikolaev, who started directly behind him, commented there was “a little confusion with the navigation. We saw how Siarhei Viazovich was driving straight at us. We also hesitated at this point, stopped, and tried to figure it out. Siarhei quickly realized where to go, went first, and we followed him. Literally a kilometer later, we saw he was already back on his wheels after the rollover and there was a large stream ahead. He was trying to get out of there. The windshield was lying nearby. We drove up, honked the horn, he waved his hand, and we drove on.”

He would finish the stage fourth overall, losing some ground due to power steering damage leading to some fluid leakage.

With Viazovich out, KAMAZ-master swept the top five to finally achieve what they couldn’t in Stage 6. Almaz Akhmedov led the way, edging out Bogdan Karimov by just 11 seconds followed by Shibalov, Nikolaev, and Dmitry Sotnikov. The quintet were separated by 6:35. Murylev placed sixth, nearly 13 minutes behind.

Shibalov inherited the overall lead with a 49-second gap on Nikolaev. Akhmedov is third but 32 minutes back, meaning the battle will likely come down to Shibalov and Nikolaev barring surprise developments in Stages 10 and 11.

Likewise, T3 saw an overall lead change as Dmitry Cherkesov finished second in class and ahead of his brother Alexey by 15 minutes, giving him a 4:27 advantage. Roman Rusinov won the stage for the category, slicing his deficit down from 21 minutes back of Alexey to six behind Dmitry.

T2 had a shakeup too as Maksatmyrat Danatarov, who had dominated the class prior to Sunday, retired and took a 21-hour penalty for missing too many waypoints. Merdan Toylvev won the stage to take the top spot in the overall.

G-Moto Challenge leader Ivan Li bowed out as well, ending his prospects.

Stage 9 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	10	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	3:42:18
T2	19	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	6:00:50
T3	7	205	Roman Rusinov	G-Drive Racing	3:21:50
T5	1	307	Almaz Akhmedov	KAMAZ-master	2:58:20
Open	15	221	Evgeny Frezorger	Sibir.SDE	4:33:45

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	3:52:19
Motorally Quad	5	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	4:48:56
Motorally Open	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	N/A	DNF
G-Moto Challenge	2	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	DRC Racing Team	4:33:36

Leaders after Stage 9

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	9	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	26:01:13
T2	21	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	54:17:12
T3	5	209	Dmitry Cherkesov	Dmitry Cherkesov	25:01:46
T5	1	305	Anton Shibalov	KAMAZ-master	21:08:52
Open	10	223	Anatoly Kuznetsov	Anatoly Kuznetsov	29:28:00

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	26:46:07
Motorally Quad	4	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	36:25:02
Motorally Open	15	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	151:25:57
G-Moto Challenge	2	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	DRC Racing Team	28:46:49

Featured image credit: MAZ-SPORTauto