The Baja Russia Northern Forest – one of the country’s main international motorsport events takes place in the Leningrad Region on February 10, 2022. The only cross-country rally in the world that is held on snow and ice surface will traditionally be included in the calendar of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas. But this is not the only series, the competitors of which will be hosted by the Russian event this year; there are four of them.
The first round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, the first round of the FIA Eurasia Zone Cross-Country Rally Cup, the first round of the Russian Cross-Country Championship, the rally for regularity – all these competitions will be held as part of the Baja Russia Northern Forest. Both professional racers and amateurs will be able to take part in them, as well as the owners of ordinary passenger cars.
The main feature and main difference between the Baja Russia Northern Forest and other rounds of the World and Eurasia Zone Cups, as well as the Russian Championship rounds, are the temperature and road conditions: no other cross-country rally on the planet is held with air temperatures from -10 to -30 °C. At the same time, competitors drive on forest winter roads covered with snow and ice, using tires studded with a sports spikes up to one and a half centimeters long.
This year the Northern Forest event will be held for the 18th time. It was first organized in 2003 and was held simultaneously as a round of the Russian Cup and Championship in the Leningrad Region near the settlements of Priozersk and Sosnovo. The organizers of the first Northern Forest in the history were Ruslan Misikov, the racing car driver and a multiple champion of Russia, and Igor Kan, the president of the St. Petersburg Off-Road and 4×4 Motorsport Federation. Then the race has gradually changed, raising its status.
The first foreign competitors – from France and Italy – came to the Russian race in 2005. Since then, over the past fifteen years, the world’s leading racers have come to the start of the Russian event: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Yasir Seaidan, Jouni Matti Ampuja, Tapio Suominen, Eric van Loon, Reinaldo Varela, Marek Dąbrowski, Miroslav Zapletal, Maris Neikšans and many others. Of course, the leaders of Russian cross-country rallies also participated in the Baja Russia Northern Forest: Vladimir Vasilyev, Andrey Zhigunov, Sergey Savenko, Evgeny Firsov, Andrey Novikov, Anton Melnikov, Alexander Terentyev, Artem Varentsov, Andrey Rudskoy, Viktor Khoroshavtsev, Anastasia Nifontova, Maria Oparina, Evgeny Sukhovenko, Alexey Ignatov – this list is endless.
It is also impossible to list all the countries from where the racers came to the Northern Forest event, there are too many of them: Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Finland, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, the Netherlands and so on .
In 2008 the Baja Russia Northern Forest was first held as a candidate for the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, and a year later the race received the status of the second round of this prestigious world series. In 2013 the event was held as a candidate for inclusion in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies calendar, and since 2014 it has the status of the FIA World Cup round that Russia then accepted for the first time in the last ten years. A year later the Baja Russia Northern Forest moved in and was held along the roads of the Sortavala and Suoyarvi regions of the Republic of Karelia.
Karelia hosted the event competitors until 2019; in 2020 the Baja Russia Northern Forest returned to the Leningrad Region and since then has been held at the Igora Drive sports and entertainment complex, the general partner of the race.
Igora Drive is a unique place – it is the largest motorsport complex in the Russian Federation. There are ten tracks on its territory that meet all international requirements. Competitions in a wide variety of motorsports can be held here: circle car and motorcycle racing, enduro, drift, autocross and rallycross, motocross and supermoto, karting and cross-country rallies.
The Igora Drive complex capabilities make it possible to place the entire infrastructure of the Baja Russia Northern Forest here. The rally Headquarters, Service Park, Parc Fermé, Press Center will be located at Igora Drive. In addition, spectator special stages will be laid on the territory of the motorsport complex, as well as in its immediate vicinity. Thus, on February 12, the audience will be able to watch the struggle of the Baja Russia Northern Forest competitors in comfortable conditions.
The snow and ice Baja Russia Northern Forest will be held from 10 to 13 February.
