Vadim Pritulyak, the primary and solely Ukrainian to finish the Dakar Rally on a motorbike, will deliver a pair of wounded Ukrainian troopers to Spain to race the Rally TT Cuenca, the ultimate spherical of the Spanish Cross-Nation Rally Championship on 20/21 October. The troopers will likely be co-drivers on two SKARLAT XTRM buggies, with Pritulyak piloting one in every of them.
SKARLAT is a Ukrainian UTV model with a base within the United Arab Emirates, the place Pritulyak resides; he’s additionally a spokesman for the marque. Their centrepiece Raptor 1000 is a rebadged Massimo Warrior 1000 MXD Crew, sporting a four-stroke V-twin engine able to 80 horsepower. Measuring at roughly 154.5 inches (392.43 cm) lengthy by 74.8 in (190 cm) broad and weighing at 2,530 kilos when dry (1,147.59 kg), the four-seater can tow 1,763 kilos (800 kg) which makes it able to fast cargo transport and evacuating wounded personnel from battle. A racing-spec model referred to as the XTRM underwent three weeks of testing in desert environments led by in Could. He hopes to unveil the SKARLAT on the Rally TT Cuenca and lift curiosity from exterior traders.
XTRM is the title of Pritulyak’s sportswear model, and his workforce additionally competes beneath the SKARLAT-XTRM banner. Autolife Ukraine, an auto restore store specialising in restoring autos just like the Toyota Land Cruiser, will help the workforce on the Rally TT Cuenca.
In August, the Actual Federación Española de Automovilismo‘s inclusivity committee invited the Car Federation of Ukraine to deliver troops wounded in fight to the Rally TT Cuenca, the place they will turn into navigators for automobiles competing within the ParaBaja class. The category is organised by ParaBaja Step by Step, an organisation devoted to offering alternatives in racing for individuals with lowered mobility. ParaBaja entrants aren’t timed nor are they included in race outcomes because the programme’s mission is solely to have fun them participating.
Vitaliy Yevtyekhov, a Ukrainian co-driver with Dakar Rally expertise, applauded the provide and described it as an essential step in serving to troopers recovering from the traumas of warfare. Yevtyekhov additionally envisioned related programmes being established for a number of motorsport disciplines throughout Ukraine and doubtlessly a crew of completely injured Ukrainian troops competing at Dakar; the latter is harking back to Race2Recovery, a workforce of British and American troops wounded in Afghanistan, that ran the 2013 and 2014 Dakar Rallies.
If the Rally TT Cuenca effort succeeds, Pritulyak intends to develop it to different cross-country rallies in Europe just like the Baja Poland and Hungarian Baja.
Pritulyak competed on the Dakar Rally from 2009 to 2011. A former firm chief within the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces whose brother was a colonel within the Russian Military, he led a joint Russo-Ukrainian workforce on the 2014 Abu Dhabi Desert Problem with a message of peace and unity following Russia’s unlawful annexation of Crimea, although the sentiment has understandably withered for the reason that full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022.
