Burning haze, hanging over the ancient Kappadokia, flavored with thick clouds of dust from the wheels of the race vehicle, kept on brining troubles to the participants of the oriental rally. If to add a heat of sport madness, it is possible to imagine the value of every passed kilometer. It was shown especially clear on the 13th of August, when the race passed its sports equator: three laps out of six are back, as well as the half of the way to the finish.

Sport ambitions of the participants has determined the main positions in the Turkish round of World Cup 2003 of off-road rallies – raids, also among trucks. As the leader of the race, KAMAZ under the number 300, piloting by Vladimir Chaghin, started in the tight ring of jeeps. The road menu of the third lap of “Rally Orient”, with the total extension more than 600 km, 307 of which were the high speed area, was very much the same as the first lap. The huge arc of “ Urgup – Taspinar – Urgup” route was running along the narrow lacer of mountain passes, stony bottom of numerous canyons or lead the drivers out to the dusty plains. “ I can compare this lap with the Moroccan one, shared the impressions V. Chaghin. Difficult, but excellent test before Dakar. We didn’t have any problems this time. We drove fast, but cautiously. We paid attention to the truck: while driving we, visually and by the indicators made diagnosis of work of certain blocks and systems, which we prepare for Dakar. For now everything works hazard – free. As we started the first among the trucks, we competed with jeeps. We overtook them and they did the same with us. Two jeeps, not long before finish, were pulled out from the parched river - bed. That were Latvian and Hungarian crews. They looked really miserable.”

“All route long, -added Aidar Belyaev, the navigator of Ilghizar Mardeev’s crew, - we drove together with Chaghin’s truck. Other trucks, especially MANN of Philippe Jacquot, were trying to reach us, but not successfully. All this ended with the fact, that Jacquot punched the wheel and we were far ahead, realizing that we could be the second in general test among trucks.” So it happened. The triumphal finish of two KAMAZ trucks on the second lap for the second time changed the situation in the upper part of the “Rally Orient” draw. The crew of V. Chaghin strengthened its position of the leader, and the crew of I. Mardeev consolidated his grip on the second position, being 48 minutes 14 seconds behind Chaghin. The French P. Jacquot with his mates went down on the third place, losing 1 hour 7 minutes 37 seconds.