Stanislav Pogzhikh: We completely checked all trucks on the rest day”
10.01.2021
After the difficult first half of the Dakar, the long-awaited rest day came. Immediately after the finish of the Friday stage, KAMAZ-master team began to prepare the sports trucks for the second part of the race. The works continued throughout Saturday. Such a busy schedule is clear - the decisive part of the race is ahead, starting with two marathon stages.
The head of KAMAZ-master workshop Stanislav Pogozhikh told about works, carried out on the rest day, number of people involved, what spare parts the crews took with them to the marathon stages, how the team members work under sanitary requirements and what interest the Chelny trucks arouse among representatives of other teams.
- I would not say that Saturday was a rest day for the pilots. The guys are directly involved in the maintenance process of their trucks, control the work, - says Pogozhikh. - After half of the Dakar, condition of the trucks is good. Here much depends on the race conditions. While the stages were more sandy and relatively soft, the wheels mostly suffered, somewhere the engine was loaded. More hard and rocky surfaces await ahead, which will also be a test for wheels. Vibrations from the track also affect the truck, but in the first week they were not too strong. When off-road and rugged terrain begins, the load on the vehicles will be more serious.
MAINTENANCE WORKS
The group of mechanics divides into several divisions. The group of engine specialists consists of three people and two engineers, one of whom is also a navigator. The team of specialists in electricity-electronics includes three people. Two more people are assigned to each sports truck, they are engaged in the repair of units and aggregates. All of them are qualified professionals.
Each group has its own maintenance works, its own list. The main mechanics, responsible for the repair of units and aggregates, have about 70 work points. This is a check of all units, connections, broaching from the beginning to the end of the truck. Roughly speaking, checking everything that may fail at the next stage. They checked the suspension, replaced the springs.They also installed completely new wheels. For engine specialists, this is the compulsory replacement of turbochargers, filters, belts and drives. Also on Saturday, they opened valve covers, checked the condition of gas distribution mechanism.
After all maintenance works, the trucks were tested and again were completely inspected and checked. We did everything for the crews to have as little work as possible at the finish of the special stage, where they will do only on their own without help of the team's mechanics. For the understanding of team’s fans, KAMAZ-master pilots are former mechanics who drove in crews with Vladimir Chagin and Firdaus Kabirov. They know everything about trucks very well. And the crew mechanics are also experienced people. And navigators are engineers who understand the truck's system. If repairs are needed, the guys will do everything themselves, they have enough experience and qualifications to carry out almost any work in difficult conditions. A remarkable example was last year at the Dakar, when the crew of Eduard Nikolaev changed gasket of the engine head in the desert.
There are a lot of electronic systems in the modern truck and their correct operation greatly affects the time of passing the special stage. Almost every parameter of the truck is controlled – all is in sensors, all is in the electronics. Any breakdown can not only be assessed by looking at telemetry, but also warned with it’s help.
WHAT CANNOT BE CHANGED OURSELVES
Before the race, the engine block, frame, suspension travel limitation belts are sealed. In the latter case, if the seal is broken, the organizers may suspect that the belt was torn off and the suspension travel was increased, respectively, the crew had more comfortable driving. Also, the seal is on the turbine inlet restrictor, that is, a certain volume of air must enter the engine through the section. There is a certain size that is checked and sealed. And this detail cannot be removed without breaking the seal. To ensure the same conditions for all contestants, the same volume of air should flow into the engine.
What if a sealed part needs repair? In order to obtain permission to service such elements of the vehicle, we invite stewards, say that, for example, the turbine needs to be replaced, and ask to remove the seal. We change the entire unit, after which the steward comes again, checks the hole and, if everything complies with the regulations, seals it. The same applies to the suspension travel limitation belts. Anything that is not sealed can be easily repaired.
SPARE PARTS FOR MARATHON STAGES
For each race day there is a list of spare parts that the crews take with them. Of course, for the marathon stages, the list becomes bigger. These are shock absorbers, reduction units, boost air cooling fans, radiators, and so on and so forth. Everything that can get out of order from a falling stone, from any other accident. Unfortunately, you cannot protect yourself from such things in the race. The list of spare parts has been gathered with experience and is updated every year. We are also carrying additional wheels, after all there are two heavy special stages to be held. It is clear that all this adds weight and affects the speed of the truck, but the most important thing is to drive reliably duting these two days. The one who does not stand will get a good result. We hope that today and tomorrow will go well for the guys, as well as the whole race.
MASKS AND RESTRICTIONS
At the current Dakar, there is a mandatory mask regime, which must be observed by all who are on the bivouac and outside of it. The pandemic in Russia began in the spring, and during this time we have become accustomed to working in masks in compliance with all sanitary standards. The working groups were separated in the shop to have a minimum of contacts. At the race we have a small team, in masks that we change every two hours, everyone works. The team area on the bivouac is fenced with ribbons, we do not let anyone into our territory, except for the organizers and officials. Even Russian race contestants come up to us and stop at the border of our zone. And if someone needs to be called from the team, communication goes outside. The team fully complies with all the necessary requirements of the marathon organizers.
We try to minimize going to the canteen. There are common lunch boxes, breakfasts and dinners we get for the whole team and we bring them to the bivouac. This year we took our own chef who prepares delicious dinners for us. Unfortunately, he has no time for breakfasts and dinners, because we are on the way to the next bivouac.
It is no secret that at every race colleagues from other teams come to see some nuances in the trucks. And our guys also walk around, notice something. Now restriction on admission to the territory of the teams does not allow getting close to the vehicles, but anyway, the vehicles leave for the stage, stand at the start of the special stage, and there contestants in the truck category can easily watch and take a photo of separate units and aggregates if they see something interesting. There, at the race, you can't control it.
At the bivouac, we try to prevent the press from taking photos of anything in detail, but today the camera lenses are so good that you can take the right shot and no one will notice anything, and then the photo will appear on the Internet or in magazines. But we still don't have any special secrets, everything is to the fore and all teams know everything about each other. People are always curious to look at KAMAZ trucks, every year our team feels an increased interest. Not only fans and representatives of the truck category come, but also teams of car and bike categories come to visit. They are interested in seeing how the work of the Russian team is organized, how the process is built.
