Administrative checks and scrutineering have passed, showing the readiness of machines and crews to four days tests.
The sports team “KAMAZ-master” is presented at the rally of three crews:
№300 KARGINOV ANDREY,.MALKOV IVAN. TELEPOV DANIL
№301 MARDEEV AIRAT, KRENEV SERGEY, SITDIKOV ELMIR
№303 KUPRIANOV SERGEY, KUPRIANOV ALEXANDER, TATARINOV IVAN
On April 15 on the square of Lenin, right near the walls of the magnificent Astrakhan Kremlin the official ceremony was organized. By the way, motocross “The Caspian Sea is the sea of friendship” finished, where the column headed by Igor Babushkin traveled around all Caspian countries. The route in 5000 km took 11 days. During this time the delegation visited the Republic of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan and via Republic of Dagestan returned to the Astrakhan region. Motocross has become the unique project, which is aimed to strengthen the friendship relationship with the Caspian countries. Igor Babushkin held the official meetings and signed partnership agreements. The participants of “Zoloto Kagana” listened to the welcoming speech of the governor with interest and sports envy, along as they are looking for four day sports adventure and breath-taking sports contest at lands of Astrakhan. 20 km special stage of prologue demonstrated the serious intentions of participants in all categories. 43 crews in motorsports and 8 crews in motocross category. The best result in motorsports (the Organizers made the summary list for car and truck categories) showed the crew of the Belarusian Siarhei Viazovich from the MAZ-SPORTauto (13 minutes), the second result has got Vladimir Vasiliev at BMW X5 (00:13:13),
then the crews of the KAMAZ-master team Andrey Karginov (00:13:45) and Airat Mardeev (00:13:50). The crew of Siarhei Viazovich showed the 12th result in general standings (00:14:57).
Vladimir Chagin is the head of KAMAZ-master team:
“The excellent atmosphere of sports. Many sportsmen have not seen each other for a long time and competitions are good opportunity to see each other. It is nice, that new faces appear at rally-raid as Roman Rusinov famous in its category. Last year Nikita Mazepin performed successfully at the Silk Way Rally. The sportsmen, who we used to see at smooth asphalt routes, show themselves successfully at off-roads. We would like to wish good luck at the finish!”
Airat Mardeev, the pilot of KAMAZ-master team (crew №301):
"Race track is interesting, typical for Astrakhan, with familiar bumps and pitfalls. It is slippery partly after the rains, you have to be especially attentive. After the winter break we are glad to return to the sports atmosphere. Yesterday we had tests and it was not bad. This time the crew is new: Sergey Krenev is a new co-pilot and it will be one of the first rallies. Also mechanic Elmir Sitdikov participates for the first time. We capture the beginners. The main aim at the race is to show the excellent result, to hold the comparison tests of two trucks “bonnet” and K5. Also it is always interesting to compete with MAZ-SPORTauto team, with Siarhei Viazovich in order to compare his and our speed and also two our trucks of bonnet modification. Regarding the truck that I will drive, we will work out reliability on it. The truck is new, absolutely another and significantly differs from the classic truck. Many things have to be changed during the last season. We have worked at the reliability, we constantly set the suspension, springs and their characteristics. As it is said, there is no limits of perfection. We find any ways, how to win the valuable minutes. We adore sand and dunes, in spite of that there is no such sands as it was in the South America or in the Saudi Arabia, Astrakhan is the best variant for trainings. There are complicated off-roads, the route is one of the most difficult in the world. Believe me, we have performed a lot, but Astrakhan off-road is not simple and if the crew and the truck sustain Astrakhan, so they will drive wherever they occur”.
Andrey Karginov, the pilot of KAMAZ-master team (crew №300):
"After the obliged necessity of missing of the Dakar rally – turning out in Astrakhan is very necessary race. Rolling in competitive mode is very important for us. It's good that it turned out to come here to participate in the race, even if with a small staff, not with all the crews. In addition, we do not stand still, we build new equipment, develop, improve machines. Only on the sports track you can check how successful our innovative technical solutions are. We also need to check the new guys in our crew.
In the prologue, it was important not to overestimate our capabilities. We went first, "stepped" our mark. This is how it is in the truck classification - we are not “sitting” in a rut, we are looking for our own way. This is the beginning of a multi-day race - so we start to slowly fight.”
Sergey Kuprianov, the pilot of KAMAZ-master team (crew №303):
"Excellent mood. Astrakhan is always expectancy of the beginning of the season, big plans, big hopes. A little exciting, but very interesting. We did not start first, so there were already traces, but it was necessary to understand which of them were correct. In general, we went well. But prologue has never really been my strong suit. It is difficult to join the race right away. We will do it gradually."
Siarhei Viazovich the pilot of MAZ-SPORTauto (crew №302):
"We started carefully, because it is a new special stage, though the start was in unusual place. Then we began to speed up and saw Airat Mardeev, it was orientation cue and in the end we accelerated. There are many tasks before the team. We have prepared one truck to this race, it has many modifications regarding the suspension. Astrakhan is the best place to test it. And this is the main anxiety about the result. Regarding the tests, the truck performs well. It is the question of durability and innovations. This is the task to test them here in Astrakhan".
