On 12 February the Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip to Tatarstan visited KAMAZ plant and congratulated employees and veterans of the company with the 40th anniversary of the first KAMAZ vehicle production.
Vladimir Putin made a speech there and said a lot of good words about KAMAZ-master team: “The whole country knows your remarkable KAMAZ-master team, which takes part in the most prestigious competitions, gets first places. It happens not always but they are among winners for many years. It proves good quality of vehicles, who and how makes them, and of course, mastery of your sportsmen. Thanks to them, KAMAZ became famous all over the world.”
After the official part of his visit the Head of the country met with members of KAMAZ-master team. The President was interested in the performance of KAMAZ crews in recent Dakar and Africa Eco Race rallies, which were held in January. KAMAZ-master will have to fight back in new challenges quite soon. Works on engine development, engine brake system, and maximal speed control system are still ahead. In the nearest time the team will have to decide what engine to use in the years ahead, as due to the new Dakar regulations, the allowed engine volume will be 13 litres.
After Dakar-2016 truck category fans are waiting for a kind of rematch on the Silk Way Rally, planned for July this year. The race will be run on the territory of Russia, Kazakhstan and China. World’s leading teams were inspired by the message about the Russian Dakar’s coming back. The diversity of terrain, all kinds of impassibility – sands, mountains, steppes, etc. attract sportsmen and promise challenging and desperate fight on this transcontinental marathon.
The President asked Vladimir Chagin, the team leader and the director of international Silk Way Rally, about preparation for the race on route Moscow - Beijing.
Vladimir Chagin told about the current work, said about high interest to the Silk Way Rally of sportsmen from all over the world, showed new symbol and the route of the competition, told about the project support from the side of China and Kazakhstan. The general partner of the rally is PJSC Gazprom.
The Russian President gave a good appraisal to the Silk Way Rally preparation progress and wished great success in its realization.
