GAZelle NEXT crew is the winner at Stage 1 of the Russian Rally Raid Championship

The GAZelle NEXT crew is the best at the Russia - Winter Forest race. This is the only winter rally raid in the world. It is used as a stage of the Russian Rally Raid Championship and as a stage of the World Cup for Cross Country Rallies. GAZelle NEXT crews participated in both of them,

For the first time after a long pandemic-caused break it gathered a big international pool of drivers with 38 crews from Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Poland. In four days the vehicles covered 750 km of snow- and ice-covered roads, including 450 km of special and most challenging sections. The temperature was often below -20^о C, while the tough ice-covered road sections required outstanding driving skills and attention.

However the extremely challenging rally was not a big problem for the GAZelle NEXT vehicles and they got their well-deserved awards: The Best in Class Award in the Raid Sport category of the Russian Championship and the bronze award in the T1 category of the World Cup. GAZ Raid Sport ranks second in the overall tally.

The racing GAZelle NEXT (Alexey Ignatov/Evgeny Pavlov) first came with a new GAZ 6-speed gearbox. It goes with a Cummins ISF 2.8 engine which comes standard on GAZ light commercial vehicles. The new gearbox delivered great driving performance pf the vehicle in the rally and prove to be reliable in the most challenging engine operating conditions.