– Al Rajhi with problems
– The field crosses the border to Kazakhstan tomorrow
On Saturday the Silk Way Rally started into its seventh edition. With their MINI John Cooper Works Rally vehicles, the two pairings, Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) / Tom Colsoul (BEL) and Bryce Menzies / Pete Mortensen (both USA), hit the road from Russia across Kazakhstan to Xi’an, China. With two special stages contested, Menzies holds fourth position in the overall standings and Al-Rajhi follows in 23rd.
The first stage with a total distance of 726.95 kilometres took the competitors from Moscow to Tcheboksary, Russia. In the 61.43-kilometre special stage Al-Rajhi and Colsoul finished fourth. For the pairing these kilometres were the first they covered jointly. Al-Rajhi’s regular co driver, Timo Gottschalk, had a motorbike accident a few weeks ago and can’t contest the Silk Way Rally due to his injuries. “Unfortunately we had no opportunity to practice together in the run-up to the event,