Media Information
Silk Way Rally 2017
10 July 2017
Silk Way Rally 2017
– Leg 3: Ufa – Kostanay
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Bryce Menzies (USA) retains top-five position after
12th place finish in Leg 3. -
Yazeed Al Rajhi back on track with a show of strength to
finish today’s leg with a determined fifth.
Munich. American duo Bryce Menzies and co-driver Peter
Mortensen retain their top five standing on the leader board despite
completing Leg 3 in 12th position. The #105 MINI John
Cooper Works Rally performed perfectly over the once again
troublesome tall and slippery grass surface but a puncture cost some
time despite a fairly rapid wheel-change. Today’s racing still finds
the Silk Way Rally first-timers in fourth place overall.
Leg 3 saw similar levels of deep holes and obscured vision from
dense, tall vegetation as Leg 2 when the competitors crossed the last
stages of Russian terrain en route to the Kazakhstan border and
stop-over point Kostanay, where they will start tomorrow’s Leg 4.
Mortensen: “The stage started out good for the first
100km. After that the navigation was very difficult and hard to see
the tracks with how high the grass was. We suffered a right rear
puncture around 250km, which was quickly changed. A lot of big holes
and off camber hills came our way. Overall, it was a great learning stage.”
Yazeed Al Rajhi (KSA) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) set about making up
ground after yesterday’s (Leg 2) disappointing incident that incurred
a five-hour-plus penalty and saw the unfortunate pairing drop from the
top five leaders to 41st overall.
Today’s race response was equally dramatic but this time in a
positive direction for the crew of the MINI John Cooper Works Rally
#101. The MINI Family members crossed Leg 3’s finish line in fifth
position. With such a severe time difference to make up, Al Rajhi is
intent on showing what a force he and the MINI John Cooper Works Rally
can be by being at the thick end of the racing action.
Tomorrow’s Leg 4 starts in Kazakhstan with the competitors taking on
908.8km of new terrain, of which 373.22km are special stage kilometres
en route to Astana.
Silk Way Rally 2017: Ranking after Leg 3