Kamaz factory team double winner of this year’s Dakar Rally!
Held in South America, the Dakar Rally is considered one of the toughest events in the world of off-road vehicles, tougher even than the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally, held in the 1980s.
Last century.
As a result, achieving victory in it should be considered a huge success. And such was the success of Kamaz’s factory Kamaz-master team this year, after a break triumphantly returning to this murderous road game – a rally-marathon competition, thoroughly testing both the toughness and reliability of the equipment, as well as the endurance and fortitude of the people taking part.
The success is all the greater because Russian vehicles took the first two places in the truck category in this extremely demanding competition.
A total of four Kamaz from the factory team took part in this year’s rally: №501, driver A.Mardeev; pilot A.Belyaev; mechanic D.Svistunov.
№505, driver E.Nikolaev; pilot E.Yakovlev; mechanic V.Rybakov.
№513, driver D.Sotnikov; pilot R.Akhmadeev; mechanic I.Leonov.
№515, driver A.Shibalov; pilot R.Amatych; mechanic I.Romanov.
The road of the KAMAZ-master team to the top places, including victory in the general classification, was by no means an easy one.
The Dakar is a place of competition for many strong crews, teams and design engineers.
During the 12 stages of struggle and the 8800 km route through the valleys, mountains and deserts of Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia, the KAMAZ-master team had to fend off attacks from extremely strong rivals.
Overall, 50 trucks of the following brands appeared on the starting line: MAN – 14, DAF – 6, IVECO – 6, Tatra – 3, Kamaz – 4, Renault – 3, Ginaf – 3, MAZ – 3, Hino – 2, Liaz -1, Scania – 2, Mercedes – 3.
KAMAZ-master’s rivals – IVECO, MAN, Tatra, Renault and other teams have genuinely prepared very well for this competition.
They hired good – strong pilots, modernized trucks.
Already in the first phase of the competition their technological innovations were noticeable.
The competitors’ trucks were well-adapted to cope with the hardships of the classic rally-style sections, and many of them participated in the struggle in the first stages of the Dakar.
These trucks were equipped with 6-cylinder inline engines, modern brakes and cut-off max speed systems (electronic systems that allow the driver to constantly – permanently drive at speeds close to the legal speed limit of 140 km/h).
As a result, they showed an advantage in sections during which rapid acceleration and braking played an important role.
At the same time, Russian KAMAZ cars always succeeded on the more traditional, extreme sections of the Dakar, when it was necessary to operate in difficult terrain, on sandy surfaces with hard-passable sand or rocky surfaces.
Then off-road driving according to the mapped route becomes much more challenging, when the suspension travel and torque of the forked drive units already play a much more important role.
Leaving the above aside, drivers such as Peter Versluis (MAN), Hans Stacey (MAN), Gerard De Rooy (IVECO), Federico Villagra (IVECO), Martin Kolomy (Tatra) have powerful experience in competing in classic rally competition.
Nevertheless, with all these factors taken into account, during the first stages the Kamaz crews were able to minimize time gaps with respect to the leading crews driving Renault, MAN and IVECO cars.
The route proved to be particularly difficult in the face of engine problems in low-oxygen conditions in the air. This was exceptionally experienced in Bolivia, where the KAMAZ-master team crews began to catch up with their rivals.
With the impassability of the Altiplano, despite the fact that the engines reached high temperatures due to cooling problems following the lack of oxygen, the Russian crews began to fight hard to regain the title of Dakar Rally Winner.
All the more so because the situation for the assisting teams – the support and technical teams became much more difficult due to the continuous and unprecedented rainfall in the area – many bivouacs were even flooded with water.
After the second part of the struggle, before the rest day, the first position in the truck category was held by Dakar champion Dutchman Gerard De Rooy (IVECO).
With small losses, the Kamaz crews of Eduard Nikolaev, Dmitry Sotnikov and Airat Mardeev occupied the next three places – second, third and fourth – in order.
Anton Shibalov’s support-quick car placed seventh.
Extremely dramatic was the marathon stage that lasted two days, during which the crews were cut off from the help – support teams and could only rely on themselves in case of any malfunction.
Fortunately, the Russian vehicles recorded no problems during these difficult days.
Nevertheless, one of the river’s dangerous bearings became the cause of Airat Mardeev’s stoppage.
The car simply buried itself in the soft, fine and wet sand.
First aid Anton Shibalov stopped to pull out the bogged down truck.
Several ropes were torn before it was pulled out with great effort.
However, about two hours were lost.
During this operation, the broken escape rope hit the rear of Anton’s car and destroyed the batteries.
Despite this, they managed to cross the finish line riding solely on the alternator.
The situation up to stage 10 at the head of the pile indicated a hard-fought battle that was unprecedented – unusual even in the category of faster passenger cars.
Only a few minutes separated the rivals of the leading three after covering almost 7,000 km of the route – as in the end only those few minutes’ differences between the crews of the top three were recorded.
The results of the rally thus turned out to be largely marked by the events and behavior of individual crews in the final stages.
Since both trucks and competitors – drivers and pilots – showed almost the same level of determination and preparation, the main factor behind success turned out to be navigational ability.
And – as life showed – all the Russian specialists were masters at this craft, achieving undeniable success here.
During stage 10, the good navigational skills of copilots Evgeniy Yakovlev and Dmitry Sotnikov helped them gain a greater time advantage over their closest rivals by 19 and 23 minutes, respectively.
As a result, in the final stages the Kamaz crews fought only to maintain their lead and managed to do so.
In the end, the Eduard Nikolaev-Evgeny Yakovlev-Vladimir Rybakov crew took first place, covering themselves with gold.
The crew of Dmitry Sotnikov-Ruslan Akhmadeev-Igor Leonov took second place, winning silver.
In third place was Gerard De Rooy in an IVECO, who – in order to finish the competition this way – had to fight an uneasy battle. Thus, the KAMAZ-master team became the fourteenth winner of the Dakar Rally.
In addition, Airat Mardeev’s crew placed fifth overall.
On the other hand, Anton Shibalov’s aid car finished nineteenth.
On many occasions he helped Russian athletes – competitors, not only from the KAMAZ-master team.
For example, on the penultimate stage he towed the crew of Ravil Maganov (UTV, №378) all the way to the finish line.
As a result, this crew won bronze in its class.
To continue to hold the title of Winner-Champion, the KAMAZ-master team must work hard.
It must prepare – develop a new vehicle with a classic cab, designed and built at the KAMAZ-master sports-center (sports-center).
Also in the near future, it must decide on the engine issue – which engine to use in a truck with a classic cab and in a truck in the now traditional cab-over-engine (COE) wagon layout.
The need to make this choice follows the new Dakar Rally regulations, effective from 2018.
According to them, the allowable capacity of truck engines will be reduced to 13 liters.
A kind of rematch the Russian team’s rivals intend to take during the Silk Way Rally-2017, scheduled for July this year.
This rally will run on the territory of Russia, Kazakhstan and China.
The great variety and variability of roads, all impassable – impassable – sands, mountains, steppes, etc.
– are a huge incentive for athletes and promise an interesting and tough battle in this transcontinental marathon