On Wednesday, the day before the start of the twelfth edition of the international Silk Way Rally, KAMAZ-master team successfully passed administrative checks and scruteneering.
Astrakhan is well known to the Silk Way Rally contestants. Previously, the city hosted one of the most difficult races in the world four times, and KAMAZ-master drivers won in the truck classification three times. In 2010, Eduard Nikolaev became the strongest rider, in 2011 it was the Czech Ales Loprais, in 2013 - Anton Shibalov, and in 2018 - Andrey Karginov.
This summer, to the start of the competition sports trucks from Naberezhnye Chelny will bring the current rally winner Dmitry Sotnikov (truck No 300), Eduard Nikolaev (No 302), Andrey Karginov (No 303) and Sergey Kupriyanov (No. 305).
Already by eight in the morning members of the team gathered in the building of the Astrakhan State Opera and Ballet Theater. The procedure for passing administrative checks, that have been worked out over the years, allowed all racers to get allowance to the rally very quickly. Later, four sports trucks also received a conclusion about full readiness for the race.
“There were no difficulties during the inspection. Our trucks fully comply with technical requirements. Of course, there are some remarks and nuances, and we have eliminated them in Naberezhnye Chelny. What life hacks can save time when passing checks? We filled out papers for administrative checks and scruteneering in advance, homologation numbers were also included in the list. This approach facilitates the work of the technical commissioners and us. The procedure for passing inspections has been worked out for years, it does not change. And today we all went quickly,” said Andrey Karginov.
Four crews of KAMAZ-master team will take part in the truck classification of the rally:
Crew No 300: Dmitry Sotnikov (driver) - Ruslan Akhmadeev (co-driver) - Ilgiz Akhmetzyanov (mechanic);
Crew No 302: Eduard Nikolaev - Evgenii Iakovlev - Bogdan Karimov;
Crew No 303: Andrey Karginov - Andrey Mokeev - Ivan Malkov;
Crew No 305: Sergey Kuprianov - Aleksander Kuprianov - Sergey Krenev.
Recall that Eduard Nikolaev and Dmitry Sotnikov will drive new KAMAZ-435091 trucks of the K5 family. The crew of Andrey Karginov will perform on the time-tested KAMAZ-43509. Also, the off-road challenge will be thrown by the crew of Sergey Kuprianov, who will drive a new KAMAZ gas-diesel truck.
Representatives of the Belarusian team MAZ-SPORTauto and the Russian team GAZ Raid Sport will compete with KAMAZ-master for the victory in the truck classification. In total, about 80 participants in various categories will start the Silk Way Rally - from bike classification to the category of the Grand Tour "Following Peter the Great". The latter will also be attended by Chinese-Russian and Mongolian-Russian crews - they will compete on modern KAMAZ sports trucks.
The route of the Silk Way Rally 2022 consists of ten stages and is laid across the territory of Russia with a start in Astrakhan and a finish in Moscow. For the first time in the race history, the rally participants will be hosted by the Republic of Dagestan and the Chechen Republic. The total length of the competition route will be 4 500 kilometers, 2 800 of which are sports special sections.
Start of the first special stage with a length of almost 6 kilometers is scheduled for Thursday at 12:00 Moscow time. In the evening, the starting ceremony of the race will take place on the square near the Opera and Ballet Theatre.
