OREANDA-NEWS Yesterday, a day before the start of the twelfth edition of the International Rally Silk Way, the KAMAZ-master team successfully passed administrative checks and scrutineering, Press Attach? of the KAMAZ-master team Erik Khayrullin said.

The participants of the Silk Way rally know Astrakhan very well. The city earlier hosted one of the world’s toughest races four times, and KAMAZ-master pilots won a victory among trucks three times. The strongest racers are Eduard Nikolaev (won in 2010), Czech Ales Loprais (2011), Anton Shibalov (2013), and Andrey Karginov (2018).

This summer, the start line of the competition will welcome racing trucks from Naberezhnye Chelny driven by reigning Silk Way winner Dmitry Sotnikov (his truck is numbered 300), Eduard Nikolaev (No. 302), Andrey Karginov (No. 303), and Sergey Kupriyanov (No. 305).

It was eight o’clock in the morning when the members of the team gathered in front of Astrakhan State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. All racers got access to rally rather quickly because the procedure of administrative checks and scrutineering had been tried and tested for years. Later, four racing trucks were received a statement on their full readiness for the race too.

“No difficulties arose during checks. Our trucks are fully compliant with technical standards. There were, of course, several minor faults we had eliminated already in Naberezhnye Chelny. What are life hacks saving time when undergoing checks? We filled out the paperwork for administrative checks and scrutineering well in advance, and also entered homologation numbers of our vehicles. This approach lightens the work for technical commissaires and us. The check procedure has been tested for years, it hasn’t changed. So, we have done everything quickly,” said Andrey Karginov.

Four crews of the KAMAZ-master team will take part in the rally in the truck category:

Crew No. 300: Dmitry Sotnikov (pilot) – Ruslan Akhmadeev (co-pilot) – Ilgiz Akhmetzyanov (mechanic);

Crew No. 302: Eduard Nikolaev – Evgeny Yakovlev – Bogdan Karimov;

Crew No. 303: Andrey Karginov – Andrey Mokeev – Ivan Malkov;

Crew No. 305: Sergey Kupriyanov – Aleksandr Kupriyanov – Sergey Krenev.

It should be recalled that Eduard Nikolaev and Dmitry Sotnikov will pilot new race trucks KAMAZ-435091 of the K5 family. Andrey Karginov’s crew will drive the time-tested model KAMAZ-43509. Sergey Kupriyanov’s crew will also challenge the off road on a new gas and diesel KAMAZ.

KAMAZ-master’s rivals in the truck category are MAZ-SPORTavto (Belarus) and GAZ Raid Sport (Russia). In all, about 80 participants in various categories, from motorbikes to “Following Peter the Great” Grand Tour, will run to the starting line. Among others, a Chinese-Russian and a Mongolian-Russian crew will participate in the Grand Tour category. They will compete on advanced KAMAZ race trucks.

The start of the first special almost six kilometers long is scheduled for Thursday at noon Moscow time. In the evening, the race will be solemnly started in the square near the Theatre of Opera and Ballet.