The international marathon “Silk Way Rally-2019. Russia-Mongolia-China” starts in Irkutsk on July 6. This year KAMAZ-master Team at the international race will be represented by the crews of Andrey Karginov, Anton Shibalov, Airat Mardeev and Sergey Kupriyanov.
KAMAZ-master Team has a tight work schedule with sponsors and partners throughout the year. This is precisely the reason why the champion of Dakar Rally 2019, Eduard Nikolaev, will go to the British International Festival of Speed Goodwood in early July. KAMAZ-master in partnership with Red Bull annually takes part in it. Dmitry Sotnikov, silver medalist of Dakar 2019 in the truck category, will be involved in a new ambitious joint video project of KAMAZ-master and Red Bull, which will be filmed in the mountains of Turkey in July.
Preparation of the team for the July start of the Silk Way Rally is coming to an end. It includes introduction and adjustment of new technical solutions, training of the crews, including testing of new candidates for the positions of navigators and mechanics. On June 27, a caravan of KAMAZ-master race trucks and vehicles will go to Irkutsk. Arrival in the city of the race start is scheduled for the evening of July 3. On July 5 and 6 scruteneering and administrative checks will be held.
Questions about the upcoming race were answered by the Deputy Director of KAMAZ-master Team for production and development, the eight-time winner of the Dakar Rally, Sergey Savostin, who, during the Silk Way Rally-2019 will act as a team manager (Vladimir Chagin during the race will focus on managing the Silk Way Rally project).
- Sergey, what part of the race route seems to be the most interesting for you?
Any rally marathon itself is interesting by definition for a variety of routes, landscapes and surfaces. And this diversity has always been an outstanding feature of the Silk Way Rally. The route along ten diverse special stages, stretching along Russia, crossing Mongolia from north to south, will end in the famous Gobi Desert. The finish will be held on July 16 in the Chinese city of Dunhuang. This will be a journey of 5,000 kilometers in length, more than 2 700 kilometers of which are special stages, laid across territories of the three countries, with an ideal correlation of technical complexity, diversity and natural beauty. From the East-Siberian taiga to endless Mongolian steppes and dunes of the Gobi Desert - “Silk Way Rally-2019” will be remembered not only as the most difficult rally-raid of the year, but also as a unique adventure.
- What technical novelties will be tested?
We continue to explore automatic gear boxes. They are installed on the trucks of Andrey Karginov, Airat Mardeev and Anton Shibalov. The manual gear box will remain only on Sergey Kupriyanov’s truck, where we decided to keep the proven scheme “engine-manual gear box”. His truck runs on a mixture of diesel and gas, allowing to accelerate faster and to reach maximum power at low rpm, which is extremely necessary in sands. In general, the topic of environmentally friendly fuel, the topic of the gas-and-diesel race truck, started already in 2013 with the support of PJSC Gazprom and VTB Bank, we actively support and continue to develop.
There is no limit to perfection in matters of suspension, as well. Here we are always in search of new interesting solutions. We introduce, we test. Some crews drive on springs, some using springs. Every time this is a good experience and practice. We will continue the tests with the cab suspension. Speeds are growing, and the crews are under enormous pressure. Therefore, efficiency and, most significantly - effectiveness of work in this direction are very important.
- Why isn't KAMAZ bonnet truck applied in the race?
We do not make any special bets on the bonnet truck, and it is not the goal in itself to use the bonnet as the team’s main sports truck. We are trying to resist bonnet trucks of rivals, using our KAMAZ vehicles of a traditional composition. And we succeed quite successfully. We have a bonnet truck of our own design, in order to understand who we are fighting with and how this direction is developing. In July our bonnet truck will be involved in the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
-In the absence of the crews of Nikolaev and Sotnikov, who is bet on in the team?
Our team has never had any special tenets for the race regarding the crews that should go to the result and who should assist him in this. Yes, it happened that one of the crews was “assigned” as a fast assistance. But now we use a modular construction for additional loading of tools and spare parts. It is easily reinstalled from truck to truck. And every evening, depending on the situation in the general classification, the decision is made on which truck this construction will be installed and whose truck will be heavier the next day.
Crews of KAMAZ-master Team at the Silk Way Rally-2019:
KARGINOV Andrey - MOKEEV Andrey - MALKOV Ivan
MARDEEV Airat - SVISTUNOV Dmitry - KRENEV Sergey
SHIBALOV Anton - Nikitin Dmitry - TATARINOV Ivan
KUPRIYANOV Sergey - KUPRIYANOV Aleksander - GALYAUTDINOV Akhmet
