JUMPIN'.... UNLIMITED...

St. Petersburg funs of Off-Road 4x4 races are the most active part of local motorsport this November. While all the others or having rest after circuit or rally seasons, or only waiting until steady frosts and deep snow would let to start winter kinds of competitions - snow circuit, short track, "hippodrome" races etc. - the 4x4 fans had held the 3 competitions this month. All the 3 existing clubs suggested different types of competitions.

In the last week-end of November the Federation of 4x4 Off-Road Autosport, created in 1998 and headed by Igor Kan suggested something new. The Jeep-Sprint in the suburb town of Kirovsk was the first official competition there. There is a cross-track in Kirovsk, but previously it was used only by motorcyclists or for practicing of "buggy" cross-vehicles. The jeeps were here for the first time, and the conditions of cross-track was quite specific.

Most of the participants were used to compete on long-base cars which were hardly competitive here. That's why the most experienced "jeepers" like Boris Gadasin (multi-time regional Off-Road Champion from Land-Rover Club) or Alexandr "Funtik" Fulidi (who made himself famous all over European part of Russia usually competing on Toyota LC80 bigfoot) left their "battle horses" for the short-base Russian all-terrain UAZ cars, the freinds shared to them. Only the Mocsowites - Red Racing Team - kept belief into their Mitsubishis - one short Pajero and one L200 pickup. And the other St. Petersburg favourite - Alexey Bogdanov brought from Finland the Montero Mitsubishi, that was purchased after roll and still is planned to be repaired.

The weather fitted the race greatly - the temperature was keeping on slightly below zero and the track stayed hard, though it was not too cold for a lot of spectators - the locals and those who came from megapolis. The tracks (1 - "plain" circuit where only speed was the goal, 2 - cross-track with 7 huge jumps) also let the competitors to pass it three times each. And the time permitted to start the third race - "jumps backwards", that was even more tricky. The jumps-jumps-jumps - that's the word that can describe the race. The impressive sounds of "landing" 2-tons cars, seeming smashing their sumpguards and suspensions attracted the spectators all the second part of the day, and there was a lot things to see! The competing huge jeeps also "called to order" - even those spectators with additional "inner warm-up" with traditional "fuel" - vodka :) - didn't ever think to show their "fearlessness", standing too close with the track borders.

The "masters" kept their positions quite secure - Gadasin won on one track, Fulidi was third and second. The main pretender for overall victory was the Army Autocross Team member Vasily Moudrov - he was the won who shared his specially prepared for cross-racing UAZ with "Funtik". But the "Red Racing" Pajero driver Sergey Dodonov attacked his time on the final track and could mix the cards for Moudrov. And the final attempt run of Moudrov became the subject this race would be remembered for a long long time. The checkmate flag was shown to the racers just on top of the wery rough jump, and most participants preferred to suppress jumping here, but not Vasily! The car jumped at over 3 meters height and flew almost all over the hill - about 10 metres. The driver was really happy that the balance of UAZ didn't let it to "land" on front or rear - just on 4 wheels. Of course, such "flight" was "mentioned" with suspension - the steering bars were destroyed, but that was it! The race was won in overall, and Vasily received the glory of the "great jumper" and special prizes from the race sponsors.

The second place was taken by Fulidi, who proved his top-class, competing on UAZ for the firts ever time. And the fird prize was taken to Moscow - it was Sergey Leonov, the Red Racing L200 racer, who won it.

Would You believe, but among 18 competitors there were 3 ladies! And Tatyana Bogdanova performed the most skilled "Lady Off-Road", passing even some men!

Of course, that was the very first experience for our 4x4 racers to compete on such tracks. And it showed - the specially prepared cars are needed, different from those traditionally used on bajas, trophy-raids and trials. But the competition itself was a real success!

You can see some more images from "Kirovsk-99 Jeep-sprint" in Russian version of the story.