The crews of the KAMAZ-master team piloted by Andrey Karginov and Sergey Kupriyanov will take part in the rally-marathon Africa Eco Race 2017. The race will be held from 2 to 14 January, 2017.
Starting in Monaco and finishing at Lake Rose in Dakar, Africa Eco Race passes along the previous "Dakar" rally route. Combining traditions of classical "Paris-Dakar", the organizers of Africa Eco Race continue to open new, yet unexplored tracks in Morocco and Mauritania, while maintaining a symbolic finish at Lake Rose in the capital of Senegal - Dakar.
One of the intrigues of the marathon this year will be changes in the membership of the crews of the KAMAZ-master team going to the African continent. Traditionally, the number of participants includes Sergey Kupriyanov's crew (co-driver Alexander Kupriyanov, mechanic Anatoly Tanin), who will drive the gas version of the KAMAZ racing truck. The crew of Anton Shibalov, three-time winner of Africa Eco Race, will be replaced by the triple headed by the winner of the Dakar 2014 - pilot Andrey Karginov (navigator Andrey Mokeev, mechanic Dmitri Nikitin).
As the replacements were explained by Vladimir Chagin, Head of KAMAZ-master, it's useful for the team to rotate crews at rallies.
"All our members are equally well prepared, so we have the opportunity to rotate crews from time to time in order to give all pilots the opportunity to show themselves on different routes," said Chagin.
It should be recalled that Africa Eco Race is a key platform for testing technologies of the use of natural gas as a motor fuel.
The gas-powered KAMAZ which will be piloted by Sergey Kupriyanov is a special model of a racing truck running on compressed natural gas as a motor fuel. The truck created by the KAMAZ-master team with the assistance of PJSC Gazprom and VTB Bank in 2013 participates in the race for the third time.
According to Sergey Kupriyanov, Press Secretary of Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom, he started to participate in rally-raids by accident, but got addicted to them very quickly. "Such a chance comes not only once in a life, but also for one of 6 billion people. Since then I've received many proves that it was an extraordinary stroke of luck to join the ranks of the" blue armada", and I thank destiny for this opportunity," he said.
This version of the racing truck is designed to increase the popularity of gas vehicles by demonstrating the advantages of using natural gas directly during a difficult race. The use of natural gas as a motor fuel can significantly reduce the volume of release of toxic substances into the environment. In addition, fuel costs are reduced due to its low cost.