Place your bets: who will win at the Russia-Northern Forest Baja?

Nearly forty crews from eleven countries of the world – Russia, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Portugal will start at Baja Russia Northern Forest – the first round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and the first round of Russian Cross-Country Championship.

Winners and prize-winners of world and Russian motorsports series and championships in various disciplines of motorsports, competitors of Dakar, Africa Eco Race and Silk Way Rally marathons – all stars will come to the Leningrad Region in early February.

In 2022 the FIA World Rally Raid Championship is being held for the first time. The Dakar that took place in early January was the starting round of the series. Several competitors from those who overcame the Dakar distance decided to continue the season at the Russian round of FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas – Baja Russia Northern Forest.

The drivers starting in the most powerful prototypes of the T1 category will be the main favorites of the upcoming event. These are, first of all, Vladimir Vasilyev – the three-time winner of the Baja Russia Northern Forest and Yazeed Al-Rajhi the winner of the Russian event in 2014. Andrey Rudskoy, Evgeny Sukhovenko, the cross-country champions of Russia, will fight against them. It will be not only a battle of drivers, but also a struggle of four different manufacturers: MINI, Toyota, G-Force and GAZ.

This time the most numerous standings of the Baja Russia Northern Forest are T3 and T4 categories – there will be thirteen competitors in the first group, and seven crews – in the second one. Thus, more than a half of the racers chose the SSVs that make up these two classifications to participate in the Russian snow and ice baja.

There will also be several competitors of the recently finished Dakar. These are Fernando Alvarez, Dania Akeel, Russian driver Tatyana Sycheva, and Saleh Al Saif, who will be assisted by the Russian Egor Okhotnikov. However, the experience of participating in events with a sandy surface is not a guarantee of success at the Baja Russia Northern Forest – everyone will have to prove everything again here!

Therefore, the 2022 Dakar competitors will have to show their skills in a face-to-face fight both with experienced Russian drivers, including Anastasia Nifontova, Vadim Fedotov, Armen Puzyan, Pavel Silnov, and with foreign rivals.

The crew of Sergei Remennik and Sergei Kariakin stands apart. Driver Sergei Remennik is a debutant of cross-country rallies, but he is quite famous in motorsports. Born in Yekaterinburg, he is the winner and prize-winner of various competitions and European series in the classic rally.

Six crews entered the standings of specially prepared production off-road T2 cars. The main favorites here are Aldis Vilcāns, Aleksey Cherkesov and Andrey Sushentsov. But the rivals, including the Polish driver Magdalena Zajac and the Russian Roman Agoshkov, who changed his motorcycle to the off-road car, are not going to give up without a fight.

There will be six ladies at the start of the Baja Russia Northern Forest. In addition to the above-mentioned Dania Akeel, Anastasia Nifontova, Tatyana Sycheva and Magdalena Zajac, these are co-drivers Ekaterina Zhadanova and Jacqueline Ricci – the former will assist Nifontova, and the letter will help the Spanish driver Miguel Angel Valero.

Baja Russia Northern Forest is not only included in the program of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, but also is the starting round of the Russian Cross-Country Championship and the FIA Eurasia Zone Cross-Country Rally Cup. Thanks to this, four crews whose off-road vehicles are prepared according to the technical requirements of the Raid Sport standings will also take part in the event.