The trophy was organized on the army tank range and in the surrounding woods

The trophy was organized on the army tank range and in the surrounding woods. So if you want you can climb on a real tank and even ask for a ride:).

This is a real Russian tank

Race rules. We had to complete three routes 20 kilometers (about 12.42742 miles) each using the legend and searching for the check points. Half of them were with field judges (who mark your card) an half of them without (you should write down a personal “secret code” – letters combination unique for each team). What’s the legend? Look at the table.

Number of points (not check points but important points during your route)	Distance from the beginning of the route (km)	Distance from the previous point (m)	Instructions	Comments
1	0.00	00		Start between two logs
2	0.08	80

Before competition every team must pass so called "technical inspection". Each car should have had working lights and had to be equipped with minimum of gadgets: a tow-line, a spade, a saw, an axe, set of tools, a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit. We were sent to fix our battery “as you like and I don’t care how you’ll do it now” – a judge said. The problem was that one day before Max replaced the old huge Soviet one for modern foreign tiny battery. Old fixing system didn’t fit for the new battery and a clever guy decided to leave everything like it was: the battery just stood on its prop. It’s ok in the city but pretty dangerous during off-road race. So we were in panic: what to figure out quickly? The best solution was to use several logs to fill the space between the battery and prop’s side. We used an axe and jammed logs tightly. You can see it on the picture.

Fixing the battery

The judge was a little bit surprised but he couldn’t destroy this beautiful construction and allowed us to go:). It was preserved perfectly in spite of the tough ride.

These are our friends: Jan (in military colors) and Oleg.

Jan’s car is better equipped than ours because he hasn’t got a bike and he isn’t interested in upgrading his computer:). Besides we'll have to leave our car in Russia if I succeed in my exams.

This is a rescue car. It’s UNIMOG – German army vehicle.

UNIMOG is harrying up for help

These are Max and Ted (if you remember them:)).

Poor doggy-voggy hates to be inside the car during competitions. Within forced stops we allow him to run freely but it’s so hard to persuade him to return back:). Before and after a race he has an opportunity to enjoy freedom:).

We got stuck in the pit. Max didn’t noticed it:). I saw it and even told him: “Where are you going, dear?” He thought I was talking with myself:). Another car pulled us back using a plain rope.

We got stuck in mud. It was a queue (or a line as you prefer) on the main path because of unlucky team who couldn’t release their car from the huge puddle. Max decided to try an alternative route but it wasn’t better. Our friends pulled us on the dry place. After that we had a problem with ignition. Bloody alarm system blocked it and Max spent 30 minutes for disassembling and fixing it. Further we had a lot of problems with ignition and even decided not to go for the last route. So we were disqualified. But in the first and second routs we were in the middle of the table:).

Jan and Oleg had a little problem with Jan’s jeep releasing. They asked for a retriever and were disqualified immediately. I have no idea why didn’t they call us? We all had GPS devices and we could find them easily. Besides Max crossed this mud without any problems.

So as you see we are real losers:). But we take part in such events for pleasure not for victory. If you want some more pictures I’ll send them to you.