KAMAZ-master Team announced the list of its crews, applied for the marathon Silk Way Rally-207. Four crews - crews of Eduard Nikolaev, Airat Mardeev, Anton Shibalov and Dmitry Sotnikov - will fight for the main trophy of the race – White Tiger. The crew of Andrey Karginov will miss the race as currently he is on a rehabilitation course after the trauma. These and other news were announced by the team leader Vladimir Chagin on the press-tour of journalists of Russian mass-media that took place on 14-15 June in the team’s sports center in Naberezhnye Chelny city. A rich program included test driving on the race trucks, communication with the crews and even karting-competitions in the kart-club that is under patronage of KAMAZ-master Team.
Guests visited production shop and could see by themselves that it is extremely busy before the race. Just after returning from Dakar a huge program for race truck modifications was planned. One of the novelties is a new truck with a 6-cylinder engine with the volume of 13 liters. It is the first time when such an engine is installed on a cabover truck and is made to comply with the Dakar regulations that will come into force from 2018. Installment of this engine led to great changes as in the truck design so in its appearance. Dmitry Sotnikov is going to be a test-pilot of this truck. Co-pilot of his crew Ruslan Akhmadeev works also as a designing engineer of the engine preparation area. That is why this vehicle was given to them for testing.
The same in-line six-cylinder engine will be installed on the bonnet truck of Eduard Nikolaev. As a reminder last year on the development stage the team rented engine of Buggyra team.
The team leader Vladimir Chagin pointed out that the truck turned out very interesting and shows good driving characteristics. On the upcoming route Moscow-Astana-Xi’an bonnet trucks will be used by Renault, Iveco and Tatra teams. KAMAZ-master will put all his efforts in order to complete finishing works of the bonnet truck by the start of the Silk Way Rally and the truck could take part in the July race.
Airat Mardeev’s crew will also join the test program of the team. His truck will be equipped with an automatic gear box. Answering questions of journalists whether it is too risky to test so many novelties on one race, Vladimir Chagin well quoted a famous classic: “He that doesn’t look forward stays behind”.
On the Silk Way Rally KAMAZ-master has a clear aim – to be on a Xi’an podium. On the Silk Way Rally instead of Vladimir Chagin the eight-time winner of Dakar Sergey Savostin is going to be the team leader of the group participating in the rally. Chagin pointed out that since 2009 there is the same principle: KAMAZ-master know no more information about the route and other details of SWR than all other racers.
The list of sportsmen applied for the truck category in Silk Way Rally-2017 promises a breathtaking battle. On the start in Moscow there is going to be all “cream” of the rally-raid discipline! The Dutch Gerard de Rooy will lead three crews of his team IVECO Petronas De Rooy. Artur Ardavichus and Ton van Genugten will be at the wheel of two other trucks. One more candidate to win is Renault Mammoet Riwald Rally Sport and its pilots Martin van den Brink, Pascal de Baar and Gert. As last year Belorussian sportsmen from MAZ-SPORT-auto enter the race in three crews. Their pilots are Sergey Vyazovich, Aleksey Vishnevsky and Aleksandr Vasilevsky. The Czech brand Tatra will be performed by three teams. Instaforex Loprais Team prepared a truck for Ales Loprais, Tomas Vratny will drive a truck of Team Bonver Dakar Project, and Martin Kolomy will perform under colours of Tatra Buggyra Racing. And everyone of them intends to fight for the win. Miklos Kovacs leader of Team Qualisport DAF from Hungary on the SWR will represent Eastern Europe. And finally Teruhito Sugavara will depart from the Land of the Rising Sun on his truck of Hino plant team.
KAMAZ-master crews – participants of the Silk Way Rally-2017:
Eduard Nikolaev – pilot, Evgeny Yakovlev – navigator, Vladimir Rybakov- mechanic
Airat Mardeev – pilot, Aidar Belyaev – navigator, Dmitry Svistunov – mechanic
Dmitry Sotnikov – pilot, Ruslan Akhmadeev – navigator, Ilnur Mustafin – mechanic
Anton Shibalov – pilot, Andrey Mokeev – navigator, Dmitry Nikitin – mechanic
INFORMATION
The 7th edition of the Silk Way Rally will go in format of transcontinental marathon on the territories of Russia, Kazakhstan and China. The great sport adventure will start on 7 July and finish on 22 July, will go from the west to the south: from Red Square in Moscow, passing Astana and Semey, along Turkestan-Siberian highway, through the Gobi Desert and finish in one of the ancient capitals of China – Xi’an city. The total length of the rout is 9607 km, length special sections is 4088 km.
During previous editions of Silk Way Rally good fortune in general favored the “Blue Armada”. Firdaus Kabirov’s crew - two-time winner of Dakar - won the first race in 2009, its route went through Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
In 2010 when the marathon started in Saint Petersburg and finished in Sochi, the team took the whole podium. Then the winner of the race in the truck category was Eduard Nikolaev’s crew, that only started his sport career. Right after him went crews of Vladimir Chagin and Firdaus Kabirov.
In 2011 KAMAZ-master crews in the lead of Firdaus Kabirov and Andrey Karginov took 2nd and 3rd positions. Then the marathon connected two Olympic capitals – Moscow and Sochi. The winner was Ales Loprais on his Tatra.
In 2012 in the uneasy race on the route Moscow-Gelendzhik the first place was taken by Airat Mardeev (in 3 years he will become a Dakar champion), the third – by Anton Shibalov.
The fifth edition of the marathon that went from Moscow to Astrakhan was successful for Dmitry Sotnikov and Anton Shibalov.
Last year on transcontinental Silk Way Rally-2016 it was Airat Mardeev’s crew who celebrated their victory on the podium in Beijing.
