The victory of the representative of the KAMAZ-master team of Eduard Nikolaev’s crew ended in the Astrakhan region the second stage of the Russian rally-RAID championship "The Gold of Kagan-2019".
290-kilometer special stage of the third final day of the competition determined the winners of the race "The Gold of Kagan-2019". Barkhan "Big brother" became the first sandy test of today. However, tight after snowmelt sands is practically not delivered drivers problem. After “Big brother”, the second big sandbox was “The dunes of Africa”, which were to be reached by fast steppe roads. But some parts of the track were laid in courses on a rugged places, the movement which is always challenging for trucks, not to mention sports technique a smaller size. But still the main distance of this special stage were fast and taxiing steppe roads with throws and gullies. Acceleration alternated with constant braking. This configuration of the track required good acceleration dynamics from the motors. KAMAZ-master pilots, whose actions were not subject to any strict command tactics, and each of them had a full carte Blanche at the stage, could show everything they were capable of.
Sergey Kupriyanov, pilot of KAMAZ sports’ car, working on a mixture of gas and diesel oil, said that thanks to high-torque engine, the car can easily cope with a chaotic Astrakhan dunatai and just as easy to overclock on the fast straights. Anton Shibalov's crew had problems with the high-pressure fuel pump. Luckily, the damage happened to the area of service (located at 175 km sports route). Stopping on the route and then replacing the pump in the service area in total led to a loss of one and a half hours of time. Other breakdowns, except for the broken springs on cars of Eduard Nikolaev, Andrey Karginov and Anton Shibalov, weren't.
The best time at the stage was shown by the crew of Dmitry Sotnikov (3 hours 37 minutes 57 seconds). Eduard Nikolaev was able to play a minute with a little in the lead before in the General classification of Ayrat Mardeev. At the end of the race the Nikolaev’s crew became the best in the trucks category. The second result of the crew of Dmitry Sotnikov. The heat of the fight is evidenced by the lag from the leader by only 12 seconds. It should be noted that in overall the conversation skipped forward only the crew of the winner of the competition of the automobile of Vladimir Vasiliev, acting on the sporty Mini Cooper.
As a result, in the Top 10 results of the race were four representatives of KAMAZ-master (E. Nikolaev – 2nd place, D. Sotnikov – 3rd place, A. Mardeev – 4th place, A. karginov – 7th place). It should be noted that the first place in the SSV category (and ninth place in the absolute standings of the race) showed another crew from Naberezhnye Chelny Igor Chagin – Ivan Bezdenezhnyh, acting in the passenger car on the buggy MAVERICK X3.
Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of the crew №300: "The Gold of Kagan-2019" for us, in fact, is the starting point in the annual calendar of the competition. This visit is important from the point of view of working out the technical innovations dictated by the January Dakar. The past three days have shown that three months after South America were not in vain. Engineers and mechanics did a great job. We are happy with the trials. Our crew, also, rejoices in the victory, even such a seemingly local. All the crews of our team are still the top level of rally RAID discipline. And we were pleased to show a good result."
Dmitry Sotnikov, the pilot of the crew №302: "All the leaders of the absolute after the start were ahead, and it was an advantage for us to see what the fight is before us. Started in two minutes behind Eduard Nikolaev's crew and the whole day behind it went. Understand that approximately in the same mode we go. We decided that it is better to drive closer and keep right behind him, but in the end caught up with the hood and Ayrat Mardeev. Here we became even more interesting. The ending, fifty kilometers, was held in a direct fight with Ayrat and with Edik. In the General classification 12 seconds were not enough to compete for the first place".
Sergei Uspensky, the pilot of the crew №306: "We moved confidently and without stopping. I am very happy and grateful to the entire KAMAZ-master team, everyone – from the head to the mechanics – for the opportunity to be a part of it and participate in the test of the units. We are preparing for the “Silk road rally”, collecting, as they say, all the iron in a pile. I hope everything will work out."
Sergei Kupriyanov, the pilot of the crew №305: "We went as usual, so fast to avoid any serious mistakes. We always try to go that way. Navigator and mechanic has never screamed during the rally, then everything was fine. Today, the whole stage went on the gas, nothing does not smoke, pulls well, everything is fine".