19 days, 7850 km of Russian winter roads, 1740 liters of gasoline, 5 time zones. The members of the Grand Tour had successfully covered the distance to the designated goal, having completed all the tasks related to geography, history and nature conservation specially developed by the Russian Geographical Society; the tasks on the topic of the culture of the region from the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Buryatia; and tasks related to technology and motor sports, invented by the organizers. The members of the “Baikal Mile” expedition finished their journey in the village of Maksimikha in Buryatia, on the shores of the legendary Lake Baikal, to conduct a decisive race as part of the festival of speed on ice of the same name.
During the rally, the members of the expedition carried out an honorable mission to transfer capsules with the soil raised from the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the area where Soviet submarines were sunk to the families and friends of the hero sailors. At the start of the Grand Tour in Moscow, the valuable cargo was handed over to the members of the International Underwater Search Expedition "A Bow to the Ships of the Great Victory" and the organizers of the "Immortal Regiment" event in Russia consisting of three teams. The transfer of the capsule to the family of the Red Fleet sailor Mikhail Sednev, a serviceman of the sunken submarine Sch-317, took place in Orenburg near the memorial complex "Eternal Flame".
Фото предоставлено командой BraapX
The length of the "Baikal Mile" race track is 1642 meters, which corresponds to the distance to the deepest point of Lake Baikal. A total of 14 teams participated in the race, plus two Safety cars. The race was carried out in two stages. The start of the acceleration to a distance began at the zero mark of the section and ended at the "One Baikal Mile" mark. During the race, speed telemetry data was recorded in the selected sections, which made it possible to determine the record holders of the race.
“This year there was only one track, not two, as in the past. Due to the fact that this season the ice was frozen very unevenly, forming cracks and other obstacles that we could not get rid of, the organizers decided to direct the track along the coast. But, despite this, in some places it was not possible to avoid the difficulties associated with natural obstacles affecting the speed. We had to lighten the car and urgently tune it. As a result, it turned out very spectacular – we even decided to keep this model for next year," said a member of the St. Petersburg team BraapX, Maxim.
Фото предоставлено командой BraapX
At this festival of speed and light reflecting from the snow-white Lake Baikal, the teams of racers tried to break their own records of previous years and successfully coped with the tasks, completing the next season of the Grand Tour "Baikal Mile – 2021".