On 26 January a joint press-conference of race team KAMAZ-master and PJSC TATNEFT, a fuel partner of the team, was held in IA “Tatar-Inform” in Kazan.
The team-leader Vladimir Chagin, pilots Eduard Nikolaev (the winner of rally Dakar-2017) and Andrey Karginov (the winner of rally Africa Eco Race-2017) told the republic’s journalists how the January races went on two continents. Vladimir Chagin remarked that rally-marathon Dakar was quite tough for the team.
-The race was not easy. Everyone wants to win on Dakar. All our rivals prepare seriously for the race too. 50 trucks in total applied in the truck category, around 15 crews claimed victory. Start of the rally was not very promising, we were in the end of top-10. However, we tried to build correct tactics and strategy to improve the situation and the race finished the way we wanted – 1 and 2 positions in the truck category. Our African group also did their best – crews of Andrey Karginov and Sergey Kuprianov took 1st and 4th places respectively.
Chagin also told that Tatarstan and KAMAZ in particular are well known abroad. In early 1990s when race trucks KAMAZ crossed Spanish border, customs inspectors registered them as “Russian trucks” as they couldn’t identify the brand. But since that time the situation has changed, noticed Chagin.
- We are proud that we are from Tatarstan. We are proud that in terms of sports, both amateur and professional, Tatarstan is one of the most successful regions in Russia. You saw shots of Dakar and Africa Eco Race. When we take podium places, on Dakar and other competitions of the same level, traditionally the vehicle-winner climbs up a podium with a flag of its country. We put flags of Russia and Tatarstan on our truck.
The representative of PJSC TATNEFT Marat Badrutdinov admitted that he had attentively followed the course of Dakar.
- On behalf of all our collective of PJSC TATNEFT I would like to congratulate our legendary KAMAZ-master team. Our colleagues love sports, have good knowledge of sports, every year they support, root for our neighbors from Naberezhnye Chelny, but this year the number of fans increased several times. There are two reasons. The first is that our company appeared as a fuel partner of KAMAZ-master Team. Second is that this year our colleague Ravil Maganov took part in Dakar. It was his debut and he could take third place in the UTV category. TATNEFT traditionally supports the sport development - professional, mass, children’s. It is an absolutely new position of the company and, certainly, PJSC TATNEFT couldn’t stay aside when question came on this partnership. For TATNEFT it is prestigious and great when sport bolides, our beautiful KAMAZ trucks fly on the screens and there is a logo of PJSC TATNEFT on them. It is really breathtaking, it’s very pleasant! And certainly we are happy that our input, input of PJSC TATNEFT company played a role in this victory. “Taneco” fuel is one of the best in the country – it is fuel for champions!
The teamleader Vladimir Chagin, pilots of the team Eduard Nikolaev and Andrey Karginov on behalf of the sportsmen thanked PJSC TATNEFT for cooperative preparation to rallies Dakar and Africa Eco Race; “Taneco” fuel was used in the training process and tests, it showed excellent characteristics and proved the image of the fuel partner of the team as the leader of industry with reputation of reliable manufacturer of high-quality and competitive products.
