Having taken the fourth position at the end of the 11th stage, Andrey Karginov's crew fr om the KAMAZ-master team came first in the category of trucks and won an undoubted victory in the general standings.
Another crew of the team (the pilot is Sergey Kuprianov) took the fourth position.
“I shall be honest with you, we hoped to get a better result, and there were chances for both crews to climb up the finish podium. But sport is a sport. Of course, good luck played its role. Some sportsmen were more lucky than others, but judging by the speed it is vivid that we had a good potential, but we couldn’t bring it into life," said the manager of KAMAZ-master Team Sergey Savostin.
Six thousand kilometers of African impassibility were hard for the contestants of the rally marathon. Not only sportsmen, but also statistics show it. On 31 December 87 contestants started the race, and today on 13 January only 63 of them finished the last stage.
Such sportsmen like Thierry Magnaldi in the car category, the only woman - truck pilot – Elizabeth Jacinto and the Russian biker Dmitry Agoshkov.
The race was challenging, on some stages KAMAZ-master crews faced with misfortune, but despite all the difficulties all KAMAZs finished and the crew of Andrey Karginov – Andrey Mokeev – Dmitry Nikitin became winners of the 9th edition of Africa Eco Race.
The crew of Sergey Kuprianov (co-pilot Aleksandr Kuprianov, mechanic Anatoly Tanin) totally proved the Word “Eco” in the title of the race due to their truck: a unique gas-and-diesel KAMAZ, the project was carried out in the partnership with PJSC Gazprom and VTB bank.
“We drove on the fuel of diesel and methane, that allowed to reduce emissions and improve the quality of fuel burning. So, it has only advantages," told Sergey Kuprianov.
After the finish of the last special, the sportsmen left the territory of Mauritania and entered Senegal, wh ere the most pleasant part will happen: the award ceremony, climbing the finish podium and congratulations from teammates and fans.
Today, on Saturday, 14 January, there will be the last, just formal, ceremonial stage from Saint Louis to Lace Rose/Dakar. The racers will cover 292 km, 22 km of which will be SS. At the same place, on the finish line, the results of the rally-marathon will be summed up, and the winners will receive well-deserved prizes.
Stage Ten T4 Scratch Standings
Position |
Name |
Country |
Mark |
Scratch |
1 |
Jaroslav Valtr Rostislav Pilny |
Czech Republic |
TATRA |
01:47:34 |
2 |
Tomas Tomecek Ladislav Lala |
Czech Republic |
TATRA |
+00:04:57 |
3 |
Sergey Kupriyanov Alexander Kupriyanov Anatoly Tanin |
Russia |
KAMAZ |
+00:09:24 |
4 |
Andrey Karginov Andrey Mokeev Dmitry Nikitin |
Russia |
KAMAZ |
+00:13:01 |
5 |
Miklos Kovacs Peter Czegledi Laszlo Acs |
Hungary |
Scania |
+00:15:53 |
T4 General Standings after 11 Stages
Position |
Name |
Country |
Mark |
Scratch |
1 |
Andrey Karginov Andrey Mokeev Dmitry Nikitin |
Russia |
KAMAZ |
39:52:43 |
2 |
Jaroslav Valtr Rostislav Pilny |
Czech Republic |
TATRA |
+00:57:17 |
3 |
Tomas Tomecek Ladislav Lala |
Czech Republic |
TATRA |
+02:13:23 |
4 |
Sergey Kupriyanov Alexander Kupriyanov Anatoly Tanin |
Russia |
KAMAZ |
+02:53:43 |
5 |
Miklos Kovacs Peter Czegledi Laszlo Acs |
Hungary |
Scania |
+31:35:52 |