On 16 April, the early start in Narimanov region sent the participants to most high-speed track of the race. Mostly 316 km of the great loop which went away to the north of the right bank of the Volga river and then turned to the west, to side of Kalmykia region which showed themselves as fast steppe roads with entering to sandy dune regions and famous sand-drifts with catchy titles as “Big Brother”, “Redsandy”, “Africa”.
At the distance, service zone was waiting all the participants, where according to the bulletin issued by the Organizers they had to take the obligatory pause in 15 minutes, to have a rest and to fill in tanks if it is necessary.
For most people filling-in became apropos: as the sportsmen mentioned the soft dunes after the passed rains forced to use the engine capacity at full-load, that led to the extra fuel consumption. Besides the tasks of Organizers from today’s roadbook along with the poorly visible grassy paths became the reason of the co-pilots faults, which led to extra km length road to find the navigation points. The young co-pilots of the KAMAZ-master team Ivan Malkov and Sergey Krenev, who are undergoing competitive internships in the crews of Andrey Karginov and Airat Mardeev, did not escape such professional blоts either. Today it was important for the KAMAZ-team to find a balance between dynamic art of driving of Andrey and Airat, the speed of dictating and taking decision of the new co-pilots. In spite of the fact, that Belorussian Siarhei Viazovich from MAZ-SPORTauto became the winner of the stage, both Russian crews joined in the opinion that the day was extremely useful for new co-pilots and for working out the interrelation in the crews.
The crew of Sergey Kuprianov carries out his programme in a sustained way – driving positively, growing the speed and keeping up the pace. The truck engine, working on the blend of diesel fuel and methane, demonstrated excellent draft in soft sands today.
Airat Mardeev, pilot of the crew №301:
“It was a tough off-road. Classical Astrakhan - a lot of gullies, traced roads. We got a little lost, but that is normal, because we train young co-pilots. We were a little unlucky, wire was wounded that knocked down the brake pipes. While the tubes were being changed, we lost about fifteen minutes in total with navigation. At the pace, we did not loose almost nothing. There are two more big days ahead. We will accelerate to make a good result.”
Sergey Kuprianov, pilot of the crew №303:
“The rains are over, today it was sunny, Astrakhan, familiar and beloved by us! A combination of fast steppe roads and sandy "directions" with a huge number of hillocks and pits, and sandy massifs. It turned out to roll well in the second half of the special stage, we consider that the day was a success! The car worked well, in heavy sands our gas-diesel engine provides additional opportunities - good draft even from low revs is a big plus in viscous sand”.
Andrey Karginov pilot of the crew №300:
We carry out the assigned tasks, we have new mechanics, new co-pilots. C-pilots have a particularly difficult time, there are many paths, many pits, you need to find the right courses, and the speeds are very high, so it's hard to find solutions quickly. But the guys are learning fast. Nice, interesting day. Most of the stage we went with Siarhei Viazovich, periodically changing with each other. It was interesting for me to compare both the pace and the two cars. Our sports KAMAZ of the K5 family is capable of many things and allows you to drive very quickly and reliably. As for the sand and dunes, on the one hand, the sand is dense after rains, but if you tear off the upper wet top from it, it becomes very viscous and heavy, the truck goes like an icebreaker in the sand and I realized from the fuel consumption that it was not for nothing that we loaded extra from the evening. This states that the load on the motor and units is crazy. The bent bumpers are evidence that if you want to have a good time in the sand, it's important to keep up the pace."
Sergey Krenev, co-pilot o the crew №301:
''This s my first competitive start as a co-pilot. Before we were only at trainings. Yesterday we drove a short prologue and today this is our first long special stage. I tried to catch up the pace of our pilot Airat Mardeev, of course there were mistakes, it was not so simple, I don’t have much experience to get the point and take a right direction. We circled for a while and lost few time. The best training is a race, so we will use the most precious driving hours”.
Ivan Malkov, co-pilot of the crew №300:
“We started the first, it was a serious excitement before the start. I hit the target quite well in the beginning of the special stage, then we lost the track at 15 km distance. So we had to come back, I saw the crew of Vladimir Vasiliev and followed after him according to the legend and drove even-tempered, until short navigation reference points began. I wanted to be quick and exact, but it was difficult to fulfill my co-pilot work as quick as the pilot was driving”.
