Incredibly beautiful sky of this summer didn’t disappoint that day as well, rain was changed by the sun… The greater and more aggressive two lines of vehicles, ready for starting ceremony, were on that background.
Notwithstanding the fact that the first car appeared on the stage only at 6 p.m., it was lively on the Red Square from the early morning. The General Director of GAZPROM Aleksey Miller came today to congratulate with the rally start and wish good luck to the team. Together with the Head of the Silk Way Rally Project Vladimir Chagin he went around the whole ferme on the Vasilyevsky descent and warmly greeted KAMAZ-master Team.
While mechanics and navigators were on the briefing in Luzhniki, pilots stayed on the Red Square for an autograph session. Every year our fans and friends come to wish the sportsmen good luck in the race and just make a photo with pilots of the team, famous for their brilliant wins all over the world.
Some people are very superstitious about wishing good luck on a race. For example, The Marketing Manager of ESAB company Elena Gulyuina first asked how it is better to wish the team good luck and not to frighten it away. As for the members of their families, they already have their own small traditons: somedody doesn’t shave, somebody gets a toy present and put into the cab for good luck. In the family of Vladimir Rybakov, a mechanic in Eduard Nikolaev’s crew, there is a tradition to sit for a while before the race.
In the end of the evening the first truck appeared on the podium – it was the truck of Airat Mardeev’s crew, two-time winner of the SWR. After him went his rivals – the Dutch Martin van den Brink at the wheel of Renault of Mammoet Rallysport and Gerard de Rooy on his new Iveco truck. The fourth who came to the start was Dmitry Sotnikov, his new truck was met by a great tornado of applause. Eduard Nikolaev and Anton Shibalov drove to the podium a bit later and could make people who missed first KAMAZ trucks on the podium happy.
During two weeks of the marathon the participants will have to overcome 9 599 km, 4 094 km of which are special sections, visit 14 towns and cities, pass ranges of Tien Shan and hot Gobi Desert. The first special is already waiting for the sportsmen on 8 July – 60 km of ground tracks from Moscow to Cheboksary will become a good warming-up for the sportsmen.
