The ceremonial start of "Dakar-2015" took place on January 3 in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. This year the organizers of "Dakar" race continued the tradition to carry out the ceremony of starting podium separately from the actual sports start of the race. The show which began at 2:30 pm local time was delayed till late evening. It would seem that the audience was already tired by the time of the start of the first trucks. But when the crew of Andrey Karginov appeared, as the winner of the last Dakar he heads the starting list of trucks category under number 500 this year, this gave fans a second wind. An enthusiastic buzz merged with piercing horns signals of trucks and turned into an unimaginable cacophony absorbing Plaza de Mayo square in front of the presidential residence of the Casa Rosada. Guests of a starting ceremony were even allowed to enter inside the palace and could see the interiors still remembering Juan Peron, his famous Evita and other famous guests.
A corridor from spectators, stretching through the streets of Buenos Aires, lively welcomed other KAMAZ crews – the crew of Eduard Nikolaev, Ayrat Mardeev and Dmitry Sotnikov and they act respectively under numbers 502, 507 and 520.
On January 4 race participants have to overcome the first stage towards the Villa Carlos Paz of 838 kilometers long, with rather short 175-kilometer high-speed special stage.
Information. "Dakar" rally in figures.
The route length for the participants in the trucks category is 8181 kilometers (9112 km - for AUTO category and 9308 km - for MOTO category), including 3781 kilometers of high-speed sections (4601 km- for AUTO category and 4759 km – for MOTO category), 13 stages.
665 vehicles at the start: 138 cars/64 trucks/ 164 motorcycles/48 quad bikes,
11 women participating in the race
18 years – the age of the youngest participant (Jorge Lacunza, Argentina, MOTO), 73 years – the age of the most adult participant (Yoshimasa Sugawara, Japan, TRUCKS)
72 participants took part in Dakar rally for the first time
Representatives of 53 countries take part in the race. Nationalities: France – 18%, Holland – 14.8%, Argentina – 12.2%, Spain – 6.2%, Chile – 5.9%
3000 people on each bivouac (including organizers, participants and journalists)
Transport of organizers: 40 jeeps / 10 tow cars / 12 helicopters / 55 trucks / 15 buses.
TV broadcasts in 190 countries
