OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2009. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov – President of Turkmenistan received Semyon Yakubov – the leader of the KAMAZ-master team in Ashgabat.

The head of Turkmen state congratulated the KAMAZ-master team and its captain upon the victory at the Dakar-2009 off-road rally raid which was held in South America for the first time. Then Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Semyon Yakubov discussed the issues of preparation for the motor rally on the Kazan-Ashgabat route which was named “Silk Road”.

It should be recalled that it was Turkmen President who in his time suggested holding a rally raid on the territory of three friendly states – Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in September. Dmitry Medvedev – President of the Russian Federation and Nursultan Nazarbaev – President of Kazakhstan supported this idea.

It is supposed that the total length of the rally will make 4.5 thousand kilometers and go through the territories of Central Russia and South Ural, steppes of Kazakhstan and the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. As predicted, about one hundred vehicles will participate in the race (half of them will be trucks). The KAMAZ-master team plans to perform on ten trucks. Its main competitors by Dakar-2009 rally, and also crews from Europe, Arabic countries and other regions of the world are going to participate in the race.

The world mass media showed a great interest in Turkmenistan President’s initiative. A press conference devoted to the forthcoming motor race took place in Moscow. Its organizers informed that the Silk Road-2009 rally raid had been already included in the formal calendar of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Not long ago the head of Turkmenistan personally drove the racing KAMAZ he had been presented with during his visit to Tatarstan through the Turkmen section of the expected track of the motor race. The final reconnaissance of the track is planned for June 2009 after which the official presentations of the project will be held in Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and a number of European countries.