Trans-Siberia 2004 racers keen on making it into Guinness Book of Records

Participants of the international motor race Trans-Siberia 2004 on Tuesday arrive in Novosibirsk, the largest city in the Asian part of Russia, the Siberian federal district's information center reported.

The second international race started in Gdansk, Poland, on August 4th. The route goes across East Europe, the Urals, the West Siberian lowland, the East and West Sayan Mountains, the south coast of Lake Baikal, Yakutia, and along the Kolyma highway to the port of Magadan in the north part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Then, after a two-day break, the racers will start back, this time across the impassability of Baikal's northern coast.

They mean to cover 30,000 km in 43 days. The race organizers hope to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. The first race, Trans-Siberia 2003, was the longest in the world, with its 13,500 km, which is 4,000 km longer than the Paris-Dakar route.

The race is held under the patronage of Leonid Drachevsky, the Russian President's plenipotentiary in the Siberian federal district, who is sure that the race from the Atlantic to the Pacific will take a worthy place in the world of racing and will promote mutual understanding and cooperation between people of Poland and Russia, the information center reported.

The race was organized by Polish traveler Romuald Koperski who crossed Siberia from the west to east in 2003.