5 January, Lima
This year, apart from KAMAZ-master, for the title of Dakar champions will pretend recognized leaders of the truck classification IVECO, TATRA, RENAULT, LIAZ, MAZ and others. In total contestants from 61 countries of the world, including 41 crews on race trucks, will toe the starting line of Dakar. Not less than 10 top crews apart from KAMAZ pretend for the Dakar podium in the truck category. A few words about the "heavy artillery" of Dakar-2019. Who are the main rivals of KAMAZ-master Team in the truck classification?
The team of Gerard De Rooy returns to the race in full composition - four crews. First of all, Gerard De Roy himself claims for the gold of Dakar - the winner of Dakar-2012, Dakar-2016, the prize-holder of Dakar-2014, Dakar-2004, Dakar-2009, Silk Way Rally-2009, a representative of the winners’ dynasty of Dakar. The Dutchman missed Dakar last year, making an exception in favor of Africa Eco Race, but generally this year’s race will be his 17th Dakar.
“For my sponsors Iveco and Petronas, it is important to always participate in the most competitive races, and Dakar meets these requests. I liked Africa Eco Race, but in terms of competition it is inferior to Dakar, and therefore I will go back to South America, although I would like Dakar to be held in Africa again,” - commented on his return De Rooy.
Apart from Gerard, the talented Argentinean driver Federico Villagra from IVECO team (the legend of Argentine motor racing nicknamed Coyote seven times won the national championship in the classic rally) will pretend for the highest trophies. In 2018 viewers of the truck category witnessed the unprecedented duel of Villagra-Nikolaev. The situation in the truck classification to the last kept in suspense the Russian fans. Only 2 days before the end of the race, the main rivals of Eduard Nikolaev (KAMAZ-master) and Federico Villagra (IVECO) in the general category after 12 stages of the race were separated by only one second! The outcome came at the penultimate stage of the race San Juan - Cordoba, when, due to a gearbox breakdown, the Argentinean withdrew from the race.
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Considering that De Rooy and Villagra will be backed up by reliable Ton Van Genugten, no one doubts that IVECO will make every effort to win the race. In 2018, he was the eighth in the Dakar truck classification (in 2016 — the third, in 2017 — the fourth). Another significant player appeared as a part of IVECO: one of the trucks would be driven by an experienced Dutchman, Maurik Van Den Heuvel, who by now had tried himself at the wheel of the bonnet Scania.
On all four Iveco trucks are installed Allison automatic gearboxes, which according to De Rooy’s statement, will give a great advantage in the sands and in overcoming dunes. In addition, the engines prepared in the FIAT Powertrain department, have a torque of 5500 Nm, which is definitely achieved using far from standard technologies and materials.
Another Dutch contender for the title of the Dakar winner is Martin Van den Brink on the RENAULT race bonnet truck. Janus van Kasteren will be second pilot in the team of Martin Van Den Brink. Also on the RENAULT truck prepared by MKR stable Mario Kress will go Dutchman Gert Huzink (team RIWALD DAKAR TEAM).
As Silk Way Rally-2018 showed, the bonnet truck Renault CBH 385 of the team leader Martin Van Den Brink is constantly being improved. This is a race bolide, specially created for rally-raids and, perhaps, only the cab borrowed from the Sherpa army truck allows it to carry Renault nameplate on its hood. Composite and light materials are widely used in the truck so that its weight approaches the minimum weight of 8,500 kg permitted on the Dakar (for example, two fuel tanks of the truck with a total volume of 850 liters are made of aluminum). A lot of advanced solutions are used in the truck. For example, except for the leaf springs, the design also uses two coil springs and two special shock-absorbers for each wheel with the ability to adjust the damping.
The Renault engine of the CBH 385 truck is derived from racing ring trucks and is also not serial. In the sports "stable" MKR Adventure in the Czech Republic, it is brought to a power of 1200 hp and 4800 Nm of torque! It works with a very high injection pressure (up to 3000 bar) and a boost pressure of up to 5 bar. The engine is cooled by a huge radiator located in the cargo compartment with 100 liters of the cooling liquid, as well as a number of additional radiators. The enormous power of the Renault engine is transmitted to the wheels through an automatic gearbox, developed with ZF specialists specifically for Dakar. It allows to switch gears instantly without deceleration.
The TATRA INSTAFOREX LOPRAIS TEAM once again succeeded in reaching an agreement with the race organizers for Aleš Loprais to take part in the race on his usual bonnet truck of his own design, the Queen 69, based on TATRA JAMAL. Winner of Silk Way Rally-2011, prize holder of Dakar-2007, Central European Rally, Silk Way Rally-2009, 4th place holder in Dakar-2015, and among other things Karel Loprais' nephew , the six-time Dakar winner, will do his best to improve his own Dakar results. We must pay tribute to the ambitious racer. He is very persistent in keeping the famous Loprais brand, constantly working on his truck, studying the experience of other teams (he tried himself in Dakar on the trucks of IVECO, MAN and TATRA BUGGYRA teams). In Peru, Aleš starts with Spanish co-driver Ferran Marco Alcayna. Immediately after the shipment of vehicles to the ferry to Lima, Aleš went to Dubai, where he spent training in the dunes.
Another representative of another Czech motor sport dynasty, the younger Martin Macik, received an unexpected gift from the organizers of Dakar - he was “seeded” into the race under the honorable 504th starting number. Well deserved - he was the fifth in the results of Dakar-2018, moreover, this year he showed himself perfectly well at the rally in Morocco. Perhaps a great starting position plus an upgraded LIAZ truck equipped with a new, more powerful 1,100 hp engine. (809 kW) will help the young Macik to break his father's record (Martin Macik Sr. was the fourth upon the results of Dakar-2009).
Another Czech team TATRA BUGGYRA RACING will put up two trucks for the race. The union of the Tatra plant and the Buggyra circuit truck team, starting in 2013, has been extended by another contract for another two years. During the cooperation, rally-raid Tatra 815, Tatra Phoenix G2 and Tatra Phoenix G3 saw the light. On the January race, the team announced an evolutionary model Tatra Phoenix, already of the 4th generation. For Martin Kolomy, this is the 10th Dakar. Long and firmly he has an image of an independent player able to present unexpected surprises to his rivals.
The MAZ-SPORTauto Team participates in the Dakar Rally by three crews - Siarhei Vyazovich, Alexander Vasilevski and Aliaksei Vishneuski. Engines on two trucks are prepared by Czechs from BUGGYRA RACING. On Vasilevsky’s truck 18-liter engine of Tutaev plant is still used. In order to comply with the competition regulations (from January 2019, only trucks with engines of no more than 13 liters can participate in Dakar), restrictors (devices that restrict air intake to the turbochargers) are installed on this engine to limit the power. The MAZ-SPORTauto Team is faced with the task to win Dakar-2019. The plans to conquer the first position on the race for the 75th anniversary of JSC "MAZ" were declared by Dmitry Katerinich, General Director of the company.
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As we see, KAMAZ members will have to work hard to retain the title of the Dakar champion in the truck category. But the Russians did not waste time as well. The team has done a lot to withstand the competition from foreign automakers with dignity. In connection with the change in the Dakar regulations and the expiration of the homologation period for trucks with engines of volume of 16.2 liters and a transition to use engines with work volume of 13 liters, four absolutely new trucks were prepared. Externally, they are different from the previous generation of race trucks with a modern aggressive design, chopped and wedge-shaped forms, and a new color to highlight workability of the new KAMAZ race line.
For the truck that received index KAMAZ-43509, as a new base engine with work volume of 13 liters was chosen Cummins ISZ-13 inline six-cylinder engine, having a working volume as close as possible to the maximum allowable and highly reliable. Due to the large number of changes when installing an in-line engine instead of a V-shaped one, taking into account usage of new design solutions and the operating experience of previous trucks, it was decided to manufacture absolutely new trucks instead of refitting the existing ones. The engine boosting works were carried out entirely by the specialists of NP “KAMAZ-Avtosport”, without engaging foreign companies.
Unlike the rivals using derated racing engines from circuit trucks, specialists of KAMAZ-master Team had to use a purely serial engine, and almost double its basic characteristics. The boosting works have been carried out since 2016, achieved power ratings of 1,100 hp and 4,500 Nm at the torque.
Much work has been done on the selection of the turbocharger characteristics and the optimization of the engine control program to improve the dynamic qualities and maintain engine performance at high altitudes.
In connection with the official permission to use automatic gearboxes on vehicles of T4-2 category and considering that the main rivals are already using such transmissions and show a clear advantage in racing, KAMAZ-master also worked in this direction for two years. Based on the positive test results, it was decided to use automatic gearboxes on two trucks (E.Nikolaev, crew No 500 and A. Mardeev, No 502). The other two trucks have manual gear boxes.
During the year, much work was done on optimizing the suspension characteristics. Also a full transition to the wheels of 22.5 inches was implemented, which provide better truck steerability and confident driving at low pressure. Larger diameter wheels also provide better brake cooling.
The electronics engineers of the team have developed new blocks for controlling the brake force distribution of the electronic brake system. This is not a complete list of new technical solutions used in new KAMAZ race trucks.
So, Dakar-2019 begins and everyone who takes the start counts on their own strength and good luck. But, as the head of KAMAZ-master team, Vladimir Chagin, likes to say: “Good luck is the willingness and ability to use the chance.” The upcoming 2 weeks of fierce struggle will show which rival is better prepared than others to use this chance.
