Drivers cross over the border to Mongolia

After spending more than ten hours at the Russian and Mongolian border controls, all of the participants of the Transsyberia Rally 2007 have reached Mongolia. The last vehicles arrived at the driving camp near the village of Oelgy in the evening. Several Porsche crews were forced to take a break on the almost 43.5 mile long rocky route following the border,in order to change tires. The Italian pilots Biagio Capolupo and Angelo Lancelotti were hit particularly hard. They had to change two tires of their Porsche Cayenne Transsyberia within minutes of eachother..

Tomorrow the teams have the day to themselves. On Sunday the drivers compete again for evaluation points during the 9th stage.

The last participants are awaiting border patrol

The participants of the Transsyberia 2007 have been processed by the Russian and Mongolian border patrol since this morning. To this hour the last teams are waiting at check point Taschant for permission to leave Russia and enter Mongolia. Usually the border patrol closes in the early evening. A few minutes ago the rally organizers said: "Time is running out, but we are confident that all participants will enter the country yet today." The Mongolian authorities have signaled their willingness to cooperate, and the organizers are in contact with all participants in case help is needed.

In spite of the bottleneck, the organizers are satisfied with the procedure at both borders. "The Russian, as well as the Mongolian authorities have been working cooperatively. The first vehicles were in Mongolia after only two hours. Last year we were standing at the check point for hours, without anything happening at all." they commented.