Who has something car

Photographer Mikhail Domozhilov visited tractors' races, which have been held near Rostov-on-Don for more than 10 years

The race passes through the crossed terrain - pits, water, crushed stone. This does not prevent tractors from developing speeds up to 70-80 kilometers per hour. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov

The heat, the mud, the roar of diesel engines-the crazy Max would be delighted, but we are not in dehydrated Australia, but in the fields near Rostov-on-Don. For 14 years in a row, tractor drivers from all over the country gather here: and here they are not machine operators, but pilots of racing tractors.

“Bison-Trek-Show” was first held in 2002, then only ten participants were gained. The current tournament was attended by 28 racers, and the speed of the “Belarus” on the ski -engineering speeds jumped on the springboard, buried their nose into pits with mud and rammed gates, observed 35 thousand spectators.

Collective farms are put up for competitions for competitions-in May-June there are no serious work in the fields. The machine operators begin to prepare tractors in two to three months-they put turbochargers, wind up high-pressure fuel pumps, and modernize the transmission. As a fuel - a mixture of gasoline with aviation kerosene. Around the cab, a metal frame is mounted - so that the pilot does not break to smithereens if the car collapses to one side. Polish discs, paint the case. Tractors races are, first of all, beautifully.

The tournament consists of eight stages, each of them is a separate highway. The total length of all tracks is 11 kilometers. Tractors start in pairs with an interval of half a minute. Some highways are just soil roads covered with gravel, on some pits with water and dirt are digging in advance, and dungeons and obstacles are poured. At the second stage, there is generally burning gates into which you need to squeeze during the race.

By the end of the competition, only two pilots remain on the highway - in the superfinal they beat up to two victories. This year, Ali Akhmetov won the top from the economy of Lenin CJSC. For 25 years, he was driving a tractor as a machine operator, and recently a racer. In 2013, Ali took bronze, in 2014-silver, and then he finally won.

“Fear to not be - this is the most important thing. To keep such a tractor at speed is very tough, ”Ali says. - All the same, a large dimensions, and there is no depreciation. It shakes capital, you fly around the cabin-this is something! But nothing - the first two races are scary, and then you enter the excitement. ”

Akhmetov says that for a few months before the start, he prepared his “car” along with other machine operators: he worked in the field in the morning, and after that until two to three hours of the night lay under the abdomen of the tractor.

“Still, this year I earned the victory,” Ali argues. - It was not easy on the highway - very worthy rivals. In general, we treat each other very well there, all the guys well done. ”

The cabin of the tractor is a box sealed on all sides - so dirt and water do not get inside. In the thirty -degree heat, "Belarus" turns into a hellish stove, a roaring crematorium on wheels.

“You just need to be without a head to participate in this,” explains the tractor driver Vadim Boksha, who, along with Ali, went on the highway from CJSC Lenin CJSC. Boksha is a debutant, and although he did not take a prize, his race came out the brightest.

At one of the stages of the box, he was the first to go to the finish line, and when there were several meters left, the tractor landed on one wheel, the stand cracked, and the car collapsed on its side. Photographer Mikhail Domozhilov, who shot the race for TD, was even afraid to come closer to the boxes crawled out of the cab:

“He had wild anger - he could have been in the top five. He crawled out in the blood, brutalized, took off his helmet and threw it with such force that he scattered into pieces. "

For the feast of dirt and gasoline, local residents come with their families: “Bison Trek-Show”-this is not just a town competition of machine operators. In addition to racing in a huge field, a dozen entertainment: from tug of rope and throwing weights to races on pedal tractors for children.

For the first two places of the winning farms, they receive a tractor, for the third and fourth-fertilizers. The organizers separately reward each pilot, for example, a box for extreme driving received a chainsaw, a set of wrench and goblet.

The pilots will return to the Rostov field in a year in order to dive into the mud again, take off into the air and not just be machine operators, but crazy racers of Russian off -road.

Text: Evgeny Berg

Most of the tractors belong to farms. In 2015, machine operators from the Rostov, Moscow, Sverdlovsk regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territory and Crimea fought here. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Almost all of these tractors in peacetime are busy with agricultural work. However, there are exceptions - some machine operators take care exclusively for racing. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov The photographer Mikhail Dorozhilov, who traveled several farms before the competition, says that “the tractor drivers have an excellent sense of humor, they smoke a lot, do not thump, sit on the courts. About women - only with respect. They eat qibul, lard and ice cream, washed down with lemonade. ” Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Tractorists tunen cars to their taste. The only thing that is forbidden to touch on the regulations is brakes and a steering system. Before the start, all tractors are sure to undergo a GOSTEKHDZR inspection. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Pilots and mechanics spend a lot of time preparing cars for the start. The age of some tractors exceeds 30 years, but this does not bother pilots. “This is an indestructible technique,” ​​they say. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Fuel is also subjected to modding - gasoline is interfered with diesel fuel, kerosene, and add various additives. A personal speed record for the fastest participant in racing is 105 kilometers per hour. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov The cab of the racing tractor is mounted so that dirt from the highway does not get inside. However, as the racers say, after a couple of ditches with water, the entire cabin is still wet through and through. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov In addition to engineering solutions - special arcs and seat belts - the organizers insure each rider for a million rubles. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov In the heat - and the temperature on the day of the competition jumped up to 30 degrees - the cabin of the tractor turns into a greenhouse. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Ali Akhmetov with his tractor breadwinner. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Among the participants in the show there are newcomers, and there are also seasoned machine operators who have worked at the wheel of thirty years. The oldest participant in racing is 65 years old. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov The track is not too different from Russian country roads. Any city car here is not only to get up tightly, but simply drowning. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Not only farm workers come to the competition, and city residents come. For the past four years, the audience of the show has stably exceeds 30 thousand people. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov At stage No. 2, the organizers put a burning gate - viewers adore this part of the competition. One of the tractors knocked the support, but the burning wing was quickly extinguished. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Vadim Boksha gets out of the tractor overturned before the finish. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Boksha complains at the front wheel stand: they say, he and the team went through the tractor a hundred times, but still came across a defective part. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Competitions begin at 10 in the morning, and by two o’clock in the afternoon all stages are ending. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov Ali Akhmetov (left) accepts congratulations from fans. He says that in addition to the workers of his economy, very unfamiliar people approached him - they admired, expressed support. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov The economy of Lenin CJSC, from which Boksha and Akhmetov spoke, every year is sure to arrange a holiday in honor of the races on the tractors - regardless of the result. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov The following year, the Bison Track Show will be held again in the fields of Pridonya. Photo: Mikhail Domozhilov