OREANDA-NEWS. January 17, 2011. The crews of the KAMAZ-master team headed by pilots Vladimir Chagin, Firdaus Kabirov, Eduard Nikolaev, and Ilgizar Mardeev took the first four places among trucks at the Dakar 2011 international off-road rally raid.

January 15, Leg 13, Cordoba – Buenos Aires, total length 826 km, special section 181 km

According to the results of the previous leg, Eduard Nikolaev’s crew started the special section after all other KAMAZ racers and willy-nilly had to play the role of a “sweeper” in the team standing by those ahead. Being 19 minutes behind leading Vladimir Chagin and 9 minutes behind Ilgizar Mardeev ranking third, the crew was able to perform this task. Being two and a half hours ahead of Franz Echter’s crew ranking fifth, the KAMAZ crew had all chances to take third place in the overall ranking. Ilgizar Mardeev’s crew struggled for the fourth place at that stage.

Struggling with Mardeev for the fourth place, Echter drove his MAN at full speed. He won 14 seconds from the KAMAZ driver 20 km before the finish. But the German racer finished several seconds behind Kabirov and Chagin, the winners of the leg and the whole rally. Ilgizar Mardeev was 41 seconds ahead of the MAN crew in the total rating for 4,800 km of the rally.

It’s interesting that Vladimir Chagin won his 63rd victory for his whole history as a Dakar racer, and Firdaus Kabirov won for the 36th time. It totals 99. They will try to win their hundredth victory in 2012.

The fifth KAMAZ truck which represented Kazakhstan ranked 8th at Dakar, and it is a rather good performance for this dйbut.

Today, the capital of Argentina will see a ceremonial finish and celebrations in the winner’s honor.