Teams must submit entry forms by June 1st, to join the list of rally-raid pros and enthusiastic amateur crews for the start in Moscow’s Red Square on 8 July.
With the participation of Mini X RAID, Toyota Overdrive, Toyota Auto Body, Ford, SMG, Dessoude Competition, Sodicars Racing and as of yesterday Peugeot confirmed with 2016 Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel and nine-time WRC champion, Sébastien Loeb competing, the 2016 Silk Way Rally car category is taking form.
The 15 stages through Russia, Kazakhstan and China will feature everything rally-raiders demand: challenging ergs, canyons, steppes, dunes, navigation as well as scenery and opportunities for cultural exchanges with different peoples no other sporting enterprise can offer.
The Silk Way Rally offers participants more than 10,000kms, (apx 4,200kms of special stages) of competition and adventure in regions few have explored and the chance to race in the same stages and rub elbows with the sport’s most decorated drivers and teams in the confines of a friendly bivouac.
And finally, after all the challenges have been met and the GoPro and digital memory cards have been exhausted, the Silk Way will parade through Beijing on 24 July in front of the welcoming Chinese people, past the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square.
Quotes:
Bruno Famin, Director Peugeot Sport: “The Silk Way Rally is a tough challenge for the team, with its stages amounting to 10,500 km with large dunes and long desert stages, which we are not familiar with. The 15-day rally will pose a real test not only for the drivers and co-drivers, but also the assistance team. I think the Silk Way Rally this year is probably more difficult than the Dakar. It promises to be an event that tests both our human and sporting strengths to the absolute limit. But Peugeot is ready to take on the challenge because we have the best technology and the best drivers. So, we will all do our best to put in a strong performance in the rally. That said, following our Dakar success earlier this year, it goes without saying that our sights will be set on victory.”
Stéphane Peterhansel: «The most important thing will be to have a good car with the best technology and the best assistant team. For me, Sébastien Loeb is one of the best drivers in the world. He is very fast and learns rapidly. In this, his first year in Rally-Raid, he has had some problems in the desert stages. But he is also gaining experience. So, since he is not only quick but also a quick study, he has great chance to win the Moscow-Beijing Silk Way Rally.”
ROUTE SCAN
ASIA: the Yellow Cruise
30 000 km across Asia from Beirut to Beijing
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Raiders ahead of their time!
Rally-raid can trace its roots to the 1920s and 30s. After the Croisière Noire in 1925, André Citroën backed his third motorized expedition: the Croisière Jaune in 1931 Georges-Marie Haardt led the Pamir group on the project to open the “Silk Road” to auto traffic with 6 Citroën Kegresse Type P17s and 1 Type P1 half-tracks: 13,000km from Beirut to Beijing via Turkestan, Xinjiang, the Gobi Desert and all the difficulties the route and elements presented from 4 April, 1931 to 12 February 1932. Sadly Haardt died from pneumonia on the return trip but famously explained the philosophy of the mission. “To abolish geographic, cultural and political borders around the world”.
ROUTE
• 3 countries being crossed : Russia, Kazakhstan, China
• 10 000 km out of which, around 4 300 km of special stages
• 15 legs • 1 rest day