KAMAZ-master Team showed good teamwork on administrative checks and scruteneering, members of the crews and vehicles passed them without any problems. This year KAMAZ-master performs two main novelties: an absolutely new truck of Dmitry Sotnikov and a new automatic gearbox on Airat Mardeev’s truck.
“The main novelty for us is Dmitry Sotnikov’s truck, - says Vladimir Guba, Technical Director of KAMAZ-master Team – it is made in accordance with the regulations that come in force on Dakar since 2018, the main peculiarity of which is L6 with 13-liter engine, an absolutely new truck was made with new design, that allows to use all advantages, that gives this engine, and use developments that we have today. Silk Way Rally is the first serious test for the new truck; of course we did bench, site tests, but the race gives a real assessment of our achievements, which you cannot imitate in usual tests conditions. This race for us will be as an exam, because this truck is future of the team.
Even appearance of this truck is different from the others, as Dmitry Sotnikov noticed – it looks more aggressive, as its cab is shifted a bit forward and the total wheel is seen, a kind of “off-road truck”.
“The second novelty is automatic gearbox on Airat Mardeev’s truck, technical regulations officially allowed to use it as it makes driving more comfortable and also gives advantage in sands and allows pilot to concentrate more on the route conditions and not to get distracted to shifting gears. For this Silk Way Rally-2017 is going to be a serious test”, - told Vladimir Guba.
In his turn Airat Mardeev is satisfied with his preliminary tests of his new gearbox and is going to test the new box in the race conditions. By the way one of the main rival of the team Gerard de Rooy has also changed his gearbox to the automatic one. He also plans to test his new truck on the Silk Way Rally and is more than optimistic about it.
The list of participants applied for the race in the truck category of the Silk Way Rally-2017 promises a breathtaking fight. The Dutch Gerard de Rooy applied three IVECO trucks. At the wheels of the two other trucks will be Artur Ardavichus and Ton van Genugten. One more Dutch сandidate to win will be Renault Mammoet Riwald Rally Sport and its pilots Martin Van Den Brink, Pascal de Baar and Gerrt Huzink. Three crews will perform from “MAZ-SPORT auto”. Pilots: Sergey Vyazovich, Aleksey Vishnevsky and Aleksandr Vasilevski. 3 crews will represent Tatra. Instaforex Loprais Team prepared a truck for Ales Loprais, Tomacs Vratny will go on truck of Team Bonver Dakar Project, and Martin Kolomy will perform in colors of Tatra Buggyra Racing. The Eastern Europe will be represented by Miklos Covacs from Hungary, leader of Team Qualisport DAF. Finally, Teruhito Sugavara from the land of the rising sun will start to the rally on the Hino truck.
Eduard Nikolaev who debuted first on the Silk Way Rally-2016 on his new bonnet truck this year performs on a cab-over truck-winner of Dakar-2017. “As the team had a huge amount of work this year and the priority was new Dmitry Sotnikov’s truck, the participation of the bonnet truck on such a challenging race was put aside. Notwithstanding that straight after their return the team will continue to test the bonnet truck, we know that it is perspective, more interesting, faster and will benefit the team”, - says Eduard Nikolaev.
KAMAZ-master Team performs on the SWR-2017 in a reduced team. Russian fields, Kazakhstan steppes and Сhinese sands will be conquered by crews of Airat Mardeev, Dmitry Sotnikov, Anton Shibalov and Eduard Nikolaev. The crew of Andrey Karginov can’t tke part in the race because he takes a rehabilitation course after his trauma.
This year the crews will have to overpass 9610 km, 4094 of which are special sections.
