The rally raid has been held since 2003, and its route is considered to be one of the toughest in Russia. This time around it hosted over fifty crew teams from all over Russia and neighboring countries, competing in six racing classes.

The whole length of the Rally Raid is over 700 kilometers. And the final stage turned out to be the shortest and the hardest one according to the Rally leaders.

First to share their impressions of the Hazarian Rally Raid 2009 was the multi-time champion of Russian rally racing Ruslan Misikov and his co-pilot Sergey Talantsev, who clocked the very best time at the event and secured another domestic title.

“The final stage has been a bit shorter than the previous ones but hardly a bit easier. Neither I nor my co-pilot could relax for a little while. Both the navigation issues and driving have been very complicated due to loads of natural ramps and covered turns. All this required total concentration. At the same time, we were aiming to win this particular stage with no regard to our lead in the total standings,” Ruslan Misikov said.

“Of course, you first of all have to compete against your opponents during the raid. But on the other hand, you often find yourself alone in the sands, with no competitors in vision, and in this case, you just struggle against yourself, and the track, trying to stay cool and find the golden mean between getting the best of your skills and keeping the car safe. As a rule, you're not allowed to make a single mistake at such Rally Raids like this,” Sergey Talantsev added.

A Dakar rally veteran, Kazakhstan's Vadim Pritulyak, who was third among motorcycles, claimed the Hazarian Raid has much in common with the greatest event in the sport.

“I can recall the sixth stage of Dakar and especially, its first 20-30 kilometers. It looked nearly the same, except for the length of the route. Today's stage has been around 160 kilometers while Dakar's stages are minimum 270 kilometers. That's still a bit more tough,” Vadim Pritulyak said.

The 42-year old added that his vast experience helped him to perform so well.

“Any competition is a priceless experience to me… Today some guys have overtaken me a few times. If I had been younger, I would have gotten irritated, tried to catch them up and made mistakes. But this time around I was keeping my tempo and clocked a pretty good result. That's called experience,” he added.

So after making it through the tough and treacherous tracks of the Hazarian Rally Raid, the drivers will soon move to Rostov region, the location for the next and final stage of the Russian championships scheduled for mid-October.