St. Petersburg – Kiev motor rally held

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first Emperor Nicholas II Prize International Rally Gazprom held an international motor rally between St. Petersburg and Kiev.

 

A total of 20 vehicles participating in the international rally started out from the Orlov Gates of the Catherine Park in Tsarskoye Selo. Over a six-day period the vehicles reached Kiev. The motor rally ran through Veliky Novgorod, Tver, Kaluga, Bryansk and Chernigov. These cities gave a solemn welcome to the rally participants and held concerts involving such popular Russian and Ukrainian bands as Nogu Svelo! and Vopli Vidoplyasova.

 

The event is intended for reinforcing the good neighbor relations between Russia and Ukraine. During the rally the population in the cities concerned had an opportunity to get acquainted with the history of the Russian automobile industry.

The rally was a reconstruction of the historical Emperor Nicholas II Prize race held by the Russian Imperial Automobile Club on June 16–29 (old-style calendar) 1910. The rally route in 1910 was as follows: St. Petersburg – Kiev – Moscow – St. Petersburg. Taking part in the competition were more than 40 vehicles. The race was won by Willy Pyoge (Mercedes car). Subsequently, the Emperor Prize race took place on an annual basis.

 

The motor rally ran under the 3rd category rally rules according to the classification of the Russian Automobile Federation. The primary goal of the rally is to accurately follow the route rather than speed up. A rigorous requirement for the participants was to comply with Russia and Ukraine’s traffic rules.

 

Taking part in the rally on the Russian side were representatives of Gazprom; singers Dmitry Malikov, Alexey Glyzin, Paskal; Otpetye Moshenniki band; actors Valdis Pelsh, Oscar Kuchera, Semyon Strugachev, Anastasiya Zavorotnyuk; the legendary boxer Konstantin Tszyu; the Olympic Games judo medalist Dmitry Nosov; the repeat World Kickboxing Champion Batu Hasikov; blogger Russos. Also participating were teams from NTV, Auto Plus and My Planet TV Channels, correspondents from Strana.ru, Autoweek.ru, Autoradio, Radio Baltika and the Automir magazine.

 

Ukraine was represented in the rally by employees of Ukrtransgaz; sculpturer Oleg Pinchuk; singer Viktor Pavlik; Jurmala 2010 song contest participants Irina Skrinnik and Alyona Slyusarenko; theater and cinema actors Alexey Zubkov and Vitaly Borisyuk, as well as correspondents from Inter TV Channel.

 

The rally fleet was comprised of modern cars made in Russia. Vintage cars joined the rally at the starting point in St. Petersburg, at the Russia-Ukraine state border and at the destination point in Kiev.

 

The media partners of the rally were ITAR-TASS, NTV, Auto Plus, Autoradio, Inter, Baltika Radio, Automir magazine, RuTube, Auto.Vesti.ru and Strana.ru.

 

The rally winners were the NTV television company’s camera crew: correspondent Yegor Kolyvanov, operator Nikita Chalyh, and video editor Alexey Gaydamakin. The 2nd prize was won by the Ukrainian team: singer Viktor Pavlik and the artist’s director Igor Atamanchuk. The 3rd prize came to the team of Moscow bloggers: Alexander Popov (Russos) and Dmitry Yakimtsev.