KAMAZ-master: First and Second Places at Dakar Rally!

15 January 2017

The KAMAZ-master team won 1st and 2nd place in the category of trucks at the Dakar-2017 rally-marathon to become the fourteen-time winner of the legendary race.

The Dakar-2017 was finished on the second of January in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. The crew Eduard Nikolaev, Evgeny Yakovlev, Vladimir Rybakov finished first, the crew Dmitry Sotnikov, Ruslan Akhmadeev, Igor Leonov took second place. Third place in a close competition was conquered by Dutchman Gerard de Rooy on IVECO.

Winner of the Dakar-2017 among trucks Eduard Nikolaev from the KAMAZ-master team shared his emotions after the finish. "These two weeks were very hard. The Dakar is a marathon and we have no choice but to dose our energy throughout the stages. We managed to get stronger and stronger, whereas other teams started losing time. Our team's management is outstanding. Vladimir Chagin taught us to be so fast," Nikolayev told in an interview to the Dakar press service. 

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov sent a telegram with greetings to Director General of KAMAZ PTC Sergey Kogogin, Head of KAMAZ-master team Vladimir Chagin and also KAMAZ-master members on the occasion of their victory at Dakar-2017. “Congratulations on your bright victory at Dakar-2017! Your victories have become traditional and no less important and deserved. Dakar is always a competition wh ere the best and the strongest win. I would like to thank everyone who made contribution to this outstanding achievement, for their hard work and best professional skills. I wish you effective work, good luck and new achievements in sport and life," wrote Rustam Minnikhanov.

Deputy Prime Minister of the RF Vitaly Mutko congratulated KAMAZ-master also congratulated on the victory at the Dakar. "The KAMAZ-master team for many years has been a leader, although there were generational change," TASS quoted Mutko. "Today is a real team, they confirmed their level of skill, technical thought. We recently read an interview with the Director General that the organizers introduced a number of technical requirements, but we are able to overcome all. Of course, the economic situation is not the best, but the team cope with the tasks. I wish that all sports requirements were the same for all, and changes have been made in advance, so that you can respond to them. I congratulate Nikolayev and other crews, as well as team leader Vladimir Chagin. We waited for this victory and were confident in it. "

The way of KAMAZ-master to the top of the general standings was not simple. There was only a few-minute gap between rivals in the top-three after almost 7000 km. The race results were pretty much determined on its last stages. As trucks and pilots had almost the same level of preparation, the main factor became navigation skills. And Russian specialists were successful in it. On the 10th stage good navigation skills of the co-pilots Evgeny Yakovlev and Dmitry Sotnikov helped to increase the gap from the nearest rivals to 19 and 23 minutes respectively.

DAKAR-2017. GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE TRUCK CATEGORY

Pos.

Nom

Temps

écart

1

505  

27:58:24  

-

2

513

28:17:22

00:18:58

3

500

28:39:43

00:41:19

4

502

28:58:28

01:00:04

5

501

30:25:14

02:26:50

6

522

30:33:21

02:34:57

7

503

31:05:20

03:06:56

8

516

31:17:00

03:18:36

9

504

31:43:20

03:44:56

10

518

31:53:04

03:54:40

11

509

32:53:47

04:55:23

12

521

33:07:24

05:09:00

13

511

33:08:45

05:10:21

14

520

34:11:32

06:13:08

15

508

34:38:43

06:40:19

16

507

34:56:27

06:58:03

17

525

36:18:12

08:19:48

18

536

37:05:15

09:06:51

19

515

37:40:55

09:42:31

20

510

39:45:37

11:47:13

Top