MOSCOW, April 22 (R-Sport) – Formula One’s upcoming Russian Grand Prix in Sochi caused an unusual casualty Tuesday as the organizers of Russia’s highest-profile rally said it had forced their event to be called off.

The Silk Way rally for off-road cars and trucks was launched in 2009 as an annual competition modeled on the Dakar Rally and has become one of the largest events of its kind in the world.

The 2014 edition was scheduled to cross Russia and Kazakhstan over 3,000km and eight days in July, but organizers said they had decided to cancel it to allow the event’s government backers to focus on promoting October’s F1 Grand Prix in Sochi.

“The country … in several months’ time is to host another strategically important motorsport project and take on the first Formula One race in Sochi,” Silk Way organizing committee head Semyon Yakubov said in a website statement.

“Being a state project and unreservedly acknowledging the priorities of sport, the organizing committee of the Silk Way rally has postponed the 2014 competition to next year.”

The decision was taken “with the aim of balancing the load on those structures tasked with organizing large-scale events,” he added.

The Silk Way rally is widely seen as a key test for teams and drivers targeting victory in the Dakar Rally, especially Russia’s dominant Kamaz truck racing team, which has won its class in four of the five editions of the Silk Way to date.

Kamaz team manager Vladimir Chagin, a seven-time Dakar winner as a driver, said the decision to cancel the 2014 Silk Way was a blow to the sport of cross-country rallying.

“The Silk Way was obviously very necessary to all the teams that compete in the Dakar,” he told R-Sport. “For our team it’s not just a training process, checkup and equipment test, but also a way to reach our Russian fan, a chance for our spectators to see the team and the vehicle not just on television, but in the flesh.”

As a result of the cancelation, the Rallye du Maroc in October will be the only opportunity for top teams to prepare for January’s Sakar, Chagin added. He suggested that F1 had played a part in reducing the financial viability of the Silk Way.

“It hasn’t been possible to finance the race for this year because in the country this year there are other big competitions – the Olympics, Formula One being held for the first time,” he said. “The financial strain is very high.”

Among the previous winners in the off-road class of the Silk Way are former world rally champion Carlos Sainz and ex-F1 driver and Dakar winner Jean-Louis Schlesser.

http://en.ria.ru/sports/20140422/189310614/Top-Russian-Rally-Axed-Due-to-Sochi-F1-Grand-Prix.html

Start of the 2014 rally season was (at least for me) the 2014 Queen’s day rally, a rally held this year fron Nederweert castle up to Nieuw Vennep, a track of 160 km. http://www.vkrit.nl/  About 140 classic cars competed!  Though it started in the rain, the wetter quickly became better and in the end we even could enjoy some sunshine.

The T 87 did well after its engine had become noisy last season. Luckily, it was a bearing in the cooling fan that made the engine noisy, and not the engine itself.

It should be know by mid-April which Tatras will be invited for yhis year’s PB’ Concours d’Elegance.

Today I found an invitation on my doormat to present my T 77a there.  Costs for a European participant are enormous though and it will need higher financial creaativity to get the vehicle down there and back.

The closing date of this year’s TFI meeting, at Noordwijkerhout, NL is getting nearer and will expire in a few days.

At this very moment we have confirmed applications of a T 54, six T 57s, three T 75s, one T 77a, two T 97s, two T 87s, a single Tatraplan, two T 1-603s, 11 later T 603s, three T 613 and a T 700.  Nevertheless, we are expecting some last-minute bookings.

Invitation English: http://www.tatraclub.at/images/stories/Dokumente/Uitnodiging_Engels_final.pdf

Application form English: http://www.tatraclub.at/images/stories/Dokumente/Aanmeldingsformulier_Engels_final.pdf

Einladung Deutsch: http://www.tatraclub.at/images/stories/Dokumente/Uitnodiging_Duits_final.pdf

Anmeldung Deutsch: http://www.tatraclub.at/images/stories/Dokumente/Aanmeldingsformulier_Duits_final.pdf

9.4.2014

INSTAFOREX LOPRAIS TEAM presents
LOPRAIS BUGGYRA DAKAR FORCES

End of to-date hegemony of Kamaz make and defeat of the Dutch trucker DeRoy (Iveco)? Why not! This is exactly the brave goal of the newly established Loprais Buggyra Dakar Forces team.

Marriage of Convenience

The marriage of convenience just entered into, or the Dakar coalition, is based on partnership of three long-term most successful Czech pilots of the Dakar Rally, Aleš Loprais, Martin Kolomý and Jaroslav Valtr. This trio of elite pilots will fully rely on all developmental and technological capacities of the Tatra Buggyra Team and the Loprais Instaforex Team. “We have agreed all substantial, now we only discuss technical details, such as manufacturing capacities,“ confirmed the Buggyra team manager Jan Kalivoda. But as he subsequently added, both teams will retain their identity and keep their liabilities towards their current partners. “It is also in their interest that our new joint project manages as well as it can.“

Although Aleš Loprais and Martin Kolomý controlled several Dakar stages in the past, their ambitions are higher. “Man must always go forward. We all know that if we want to compete with makes like Kamaz and Iveco, we must follow in Russian footsteps, that is to be able to assess the situation and define priorities. I would not even be against the term team strategy,“ précised Martin Kolomý. “Although the team consists of individuals that want to win, we are absolutely clear in that in certain parts of races individual ambition may be subjected to team interests. The Russians show this every year. to achieve overall success it is necessary to put together a strong team of three equally good pilots. A team mate driving in the critical moment two hours behind you is no help,“ added Jaroslav Valtr to Martin ´s explanation.

In connection with the new project Aleš Loprais speaks about the team of three thousand horses from the Gyrtech stable that will drive the Tatra specials to the winners´ podium. And ideally to the overall triumph, for, as he says, the second in the finish is the first loser. “We will use a unified design, logistic and service background during the competition. We have agreed on testing with the aim of unification of selected components and the crews will undergo joint physical preparation.“

This year´s most successful Czech pilot has undergone initial testing of the Gyrtech engine, after which he announced start of the Dakar mission. “I must say I have not yet experienced a stronger engine drive. I was mainly surprised by the enormous torque in low speeds,“ commented Aleš on the performance of the new aggregate. His opinion is also shared by Robin Dolejš. “The technological cooperation has started in the right direction from the very beginning. We work on further particulars, which we do not wish to specify in detail yet, for obvious reasons. Anyway, there is enough time to the Silk Way Rally.“

Los Angeles T 87 owners Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein will cross the Atlantic for this year’s TFI Noordwijkerhout Rally. Dydia has Dutch roots and some family in NL still and speaks some Dutch. Regrettably, they will not take their magnificent T 87 with them. Instead, they will drive another T 87 at the Dutch TFI meeting at the end of May. Rallye info:  http://www.tatraclub.at/index.php?lang=en

The Jalopnik T 87 article: http://jalopnik.com/1941-tatra-t87-the-jalopnik-classic-review-1557341677

The history of TATRA 54

The new history of Tatra 54 from Ostrava is written since 1997. As in last year tore through central Europe floods, we wrote a short report to Austria Mr. Buchta of austroclassic.com so that we could all told affected – head up, everything will be good again !

Proud owner of the Tatras ” Verma ” itself was also affected by the floods , if it happened in the northern Czech Republic in Ostrava in 1997. Fortunately, he has not someone do not lose the roof over your head , nor life, near his surroundings. But it was TATRA 54 of 1931 , which was parked in the garage at the flooded river Odra , and which was completely destroyed by the floods .

As it is written above , lovers of veterans and old things do not hang your head . It’s a cruel thing if the item your family jewel will destroy , but man is a fighter by nature and is able to fight with such a fate . We know from personal experience – as Verma with his father lit the whole Tatra , cleaned, polished, as you have produced new parts or entire sections , the parts that were either destroyed or washed away. We could write the veterans still many pages about a total renovation , such as Tatra was gradually dismantled to screw , as the shack was prepared as everything had to fit , prepare for the paint and how it was painted, as the machine raised back to life but it would not be so interesting and after few lines you would get bored . Sometimes the problems were bigger , sometimes everything went so smoothly and sometimes you had to rewrite some parts even three times before the result was satisfactory. After 14 years my friend came almost to a complete objectives and the renewed Tatra was almost ready to go on the road.

Unfortunately, the thieves came and the refurbished Tatra stolen. That was in 2011 and we have for the first time almost all veteran clubs in Europe addressed , for the case that maybe somewhere our veteran appears. Fortunately, the police found after a short time in Ostrava Tatra again, and we have recalled alarm for which we have called immediately after the loss between friends , acquaintances and strangers and in the media.

The whole last year and already this season is also marked by the travel with this old machine , we regularly take on competitions elegance and orientation rally part . It pleased the whole family and especially my friend after all the years of hard work in the garage feel thoroughly enjoys .

Now we are happy to introduce a little Tatra 54 . Developmentally comes from the Tatra 11 , which was designed in 1923 by Hans Ledwinka . It is an air-cooled four-cylinder boxer that is on the front axle and rear drive capacity 1679 cm3 Bore 75×95 mm, with electromagnetic ignition Scintilla and 12 V vehicle electrical systems . Fuel flows by gravity into the carburetor Zenith 30U mounted above the engine with cylinder connected oblique sucking , wire rope drum brakes with shoes on the front and rear axles , worm control. Solid front axle with leaf spring suspension and rear axle that has two swinging half-axles , the transfer of the 4-speed transmission with dry disk clutch. Body type is two-door , four seat with solid roof made ​​of artificial leather . Tatra was made in 1931 and since 1938 has been owned by our family. She was rescued from the Second World War and the Communist bureaucracy and survived the great flood in 1997 and theft in 2011.

We would like to wish all of you bring their bikes or cars back to its former glory . Do not be afraid of the time , investment and effort that you need to insert into the machine , you overcame the problems that arise in the restructuring . We wish you all understood the family when you turn to the repair of their machines all your free time .

Nataša a Jiří Verma from Ostrava

Program & invitation Noordwijkerhout: http://www.tatraclub.at/index.php?lang=de German: http://www.tatraclub.at/index.php?lang=en

Well known navigator Serge Bruynkens has left the Loprais Team.  He did not go on well with Ales Loprais and the two became involved in a competence struggle in January’s Dakar. Bruynkens will now team up with Hans Stacey of the De Rooy Team. Vehicle will be a nosed Iveco Powerstar, similar to Gerard de Rooy’s one.