2 January, Buenos-Aires. Russian “KAMAZ-master” team started on Dakar Rally 2016 in Buenos-Aires on 2 January. The start ceremony took place on the territory of a specialized exhibition “Technopolis” near the capital of Argentina.
The first participant started at 11:45 local time (the time difference with Moscow is minus 6 hours). The race began with quads and motorbikes in direction to Rosario, the first bivouac. Then start was given to jeeps and, finally, to trucks. The first truck driven by the winner of the last Dakar Airat Mardeev started at 15:30. On the streets spectators gave a warm greeting to KAMAZ crews of Airat Mardeev, Eduard Nikolaev, Andrey Karginov and Dmitry Sotnikov. They perform under numbers 500, 502, 504 and 508.
The sportsmen had to pass the stage of 335 km long to the north-west. In the neighborhood of Rosario a special section of 11 km long was organized, which, in terms of rally-raids, was more exercise rather than sport.
Unfortunately an incident has happened during the prologue. The crew of a car #360 lost control of the jeep on the 6th km on the turn and hit spectators standing along the route. According to AFR agency 3 people are severely injured. The racer Guo Meiling was at the wheel. The rally organizers deployed 4 helicopters, medical teams in order to provide emergent medical assistance and take to hospitals. The prologue was canceled because of the accident.
Information. Dakar Rally 2016 in numbers.
The length of the route is more than 9000 km long, including 4300 km of special sections, 13 stages.
354 vehicles are starting: 110 cars/ 55 trucks, 143 motorbikes/ 46 quads from 60 countries
There are 2800 in each bivouac
56 sportsmen participate the first time in Dakar Rally
There is TV-broadcasting in 190 countries
The youngest participant Sheldon Creed is 18 years old, the oldest contestant Yoshimasa Sugavara is 74 years old.
