Ulyanovsk, July 16, 2026. This weekend, from July 17 to 21, the second stage of the Russian Rally-Raid Championship – the legendary Baja "Hills of Russia" – will kick off in the Ulyanovsk and Samara regions. 37 crews from 24 cities across Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan will compete for the main trophies. The GAZ Raid Sport team will field a powerful contingent of five crews: two in the raid-sport class, one in the T2 standard SUV category, and two trucks competing in the T5 category.
On the eve of the race, the team has completed all preparatory work. On Friday, July 17, a bivouac will be set up on Cathedral Square in Ulyanovsk, and an official training session will take place near Ulyanovsk, where drivers and mechanics will make final adjustments to their vehicles before the start of the competition. On Saturday, July 18, after the grand opening and the passage through the starting arch, the first special stage (SSS) will take place.
In the "R" ("Raid-Sport") class, two crews will drive for GAZ Raid Sport in the GAZelle NN:
Alexey Khlebov / Evgeny Pavlov (starting number 216) – Nizhny Novgorod
Maxim Kirpilev / Oleg Tyupenkin (starting number 218) – Belgorod and Moscow
The recent triumph at the Gorky Automobile Plant Cup in Nizhny Novgorod demonstrated the high readiness of the Khlebov/Pavlov crew.
In the "T2" class (production SUVs), the crew of Alexander Semyonov and Dmitry Okhotnikov (starting number 222) will once again present their "Sobol NN" vehicle. For this car, the race will be a serious endurance test following its first successful outing in Nizhny Novgorod, where the crew won bronze. With each race, the vehicle gains power and will once again challenge the faster prototypes of its rivals.
In the "T5" truck class, the team will be represented by two traditional Nizhny Novgorod crews:
Alexander Filyakin / Alexander Laguta (starting number 311)
Alexander Sheludko / Evgeny Sdobin (starting number 312)
Given that the total length of the special stages exceeds 800 kilometers, and the overall race distance is 1,165 km, engineers and mechanics will need to find the ideal balance between suspension stiffness and driver comfort to overcome the hilly terrain. However, the team, as always, is in full combat readiness to fight for podium positions.
The geography of the participants is impressive: the races will bring together drivers from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Ryazan, Kolomna, Tolyatti, Miass, Zlatoust, Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk, as well as guests from Kazakhstan (Almaty) and Belarus (Minsk, Borisov).
GAZ Raid Sport will face serious competition from seasoned rivals. In the T5 truck class, 12 crews will battle for victory, including the legendary "blue armada" of KAMAZ-master (4 vehicles), the Belarusian "red bison" of MAZ-SPORTauto (3 vehicles), and the fast Chelyabinsk drivers of the URAL MOTORSPORT team (3 vehicles). Additionally, one truck will participate in the regional "Hills of Russia" series. In the overall standings of the national championship, St. Petersburg drivers Boris Gadasin and Andrey Novikov, competing this time for a team from Kyrgyzstan, will present their prototypes. Furthermore, the fast Belgorod drivers, the Cherkesov brothers, will also strive to stay within the top five strongest. In the raid-sport category, the GAZ Raid Sport crews will face competition from the highly experienced Anton Melnikov and Anton Nikolaev in a Nissan NP-300, as well as the LADA Sport Rosneft team, represented by two fast crews. In the T2 class, Alexander Semyonov might have an easier time – only two rivals – but Andrey Sushentsov from S&A Racing and Leonid Petrov from the Rus team are serious enough drivers not to be taken lightly.
Race organizer Alexander Okhotnikov has promised an interesting and challenging route that will test the endurance of all participants. How well the athletes will manage it, we will find out very soon. The race finish and the awards ceremony will take place on July 21 in the Samara region, in the village of Novaya Krymza.
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