Parizh-Mosar, maiden tractor off-road rally in Belarus

Roaring engines, speed, off-road endurance, adrenaline and crowds of excited spectators… In the run-up to the Day of Belarusian Science marked on 28 January, Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ trademark), the flagship of the Belarusian mechanical engineering industry, held a large-scale test drive of new models of BELARUS tractors in Vitebsk Oblast.

The 17km-long crazy rally ran across snow-covered ploughed fields, forests, water and man-made obstacles. The run featured eight tractors. The choice of the start and finish points was not arbitrary. The rally kicked off from the village of Parizh, Postavy District whose name sounds in Russian and Belarusian the same as the name of the French capital, and finished in the village of Mosar, Glubokoye District that sounds similar to ‘Dakar’.  

According to MTZ Director Fyodor Domotenko, the idea of holding Belarus’ first ever tractor rally came up last year when President Alexander Lukashenko visited the company and got familiar with the new lineup, including the mock-up sample of the innovative BELARUS-3522. Then MTZ promised to dispatch the first tractors for testing under commercial contracts to Vitebsk Oblast in several months. After a while a new idea was suggested: to pitch the tractors that have long been in service against the tractors that have just rolled off the production line in a debut test drive.

The off-road race and a spectacular ‘tractor football match’ featured seven crews driving the powerful BELARUS-3522 and one crew driving a BELARUS-2103. The crews were comprised of experienced drivers: MTZ test drivers and the drivers who operate MTZ tractors everyday. At the finish line, they were greeted with enthusiastic applause. The best were celebrated on the podium to traditional sprays of champagne.

Parizh-Mosar Tractor Rally, successfully completed by all the participants, proved the high quality and durability of MTZ vehicles. There are plans to make the competition a regular event, with its geography gradually expanding. In late August, similar competitions will be held in Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia. With the list of participants still held in secret, it is already known that it will include BELARUS-4522, the most powerful tractor in the MTZ lineup (450hp) and one of the most powerful wheeled tractors in the world.

New BELARUS tractors, off-the-road races, a ‘tractor football match’ and a stunning show in our photo gallery from Belarus’ Parizh…