Crews of Airat Mardeev #306 (1 place) and Dmitry Sotnikov #300 (2 place) got long-desired trophies for their win in the race. Now two bronze white tigers will join the collection of “Blue Armada”. The symbol for the race has a reason behind it. You can meet white tiger in Russia and in China as well. The tiger symbolizes bravery and strong spirit. This symbol inspired and protected sportsmen during the whole adventure.
The awarding ceremony was held in Beijing Olympic Park with the stadium on the background, well-known as a “nest”. The weather forecast promised storm that day, therefore the race organizers wanted to congratulate all winners and contestants as soon as possible. But the ceremony lasted more than 3 hours.
Traditionally, when crews of Airat Mardeev (navigator Aidar Belyaev, mechanic Dmitry Svistunov) and Dmitry Sotnikov (navigator Ruslan Akhmadeev, mechanic Ivan Romanov) were awarded on the podium, the whole team joined them to congratulate and get a photo taken. A lot of was done to become leaders of the marathon.
-It was a hard race for everyone – for crews and mechanics as well, - says the manager of the team Sergey Savostin. – We made mistakes but in general the teamwork was good. Mechanics did a great job. Long liasons didn’t give us an opportunity to sleep – we slept only for 3-4 hours. The guys were tired but worked hard. Our trucks overturned during the race but they were repaired for a night so that the crews could start a new stage in the morning.
It was a hard fight for the podium between KAMAZ-master and Martin van den Brink who tested a new bonnet truck Renault. Of course, this rivalry was telling on the mood of the Russian team.
-Brink is on the third position and it means that our rival is very strong, - says Savostin. – He is very well prepared, he has an excellent truck. An automatic gear box and new transmission are installed in his vehicle - nobody drove in a vehicle with automatic gear box before. But he could do it. When there are such rivals, it intrigues and there’s a desire to scale new heights.
During the Silk Way Rally KAMAZ-master team also tested a bonnet truck. Eduard Nikolaev #310 drove a black ‘nosy’ vehicle. Despite podium, he completed his main task successfully - to test the vehicle in hard conditions.
-We tested it before but not in such extreme conditions, - says Sergey Savostin. – We wanted to see its strengths and weaknesses, compare it with our trucks. It is too early now to draw final conclusions, but one thing is for sure – we need learn to drive it. Eduard tells he feels uncomfortable in the dunes because of the absence of view. We will have to develop skills and I’m sure that we will forget about this drawback very soon.
However, the rally didn’t shape well for the crews of Anton Shibalov #303 (navigator Robert Amatych, mechanic Almaz Khisamiev) and Andrey Karginov #314 (navigator Alexander Kuprianov, mechanic Igor Leonov). Shibalov finished the race on the 8th position and Karginov – on the 16th.
On the last stage Andrey Karginov was last among the team. After helping Eduard Nikolaev with the truck repair, his own truck was broken. But it wasn’t all. He saw truck of Anton Shibalov and helped to right the overturned vehicle.
-The crew of Shibalov drove a new truck. He had breakdowns that led him to the 8th position, - says the manager of the team. – After turnover Andrey Karginov had a mission to help organizers with hauling out jeeps stuck in dunes. Notwithstading the fact that it affected his time negatively, Andrey helped sportsmen. Then he joined the race when rally authorities allowed him to do it, charging a big penalty. Despite the results neither Anton Shibalov nor Andrey Karginov left the race, they had strength and bravery to finish it. It was a great experience for our guys.
