OREANDA-NEWS. January 10, 2008. After the off-road rally-raid “Lisbon-Dakar” had been cancelled the KAMAZ-master team came home.

The crews including Vladimir Chaguin – Sergey Savostin – Eduard Nikolayev, Firdaus Kabirov – Aydar Beliayev – Andrey Mokeyev and Ilghizar Mardeyev – Viacheslav Miziukayev – Andrey Karginov were to have driven on three vehicles. They were ready for the main competition of the year and had advanced equipment. The team was by right one of the favourites of the rally-raid.

When the organizers had announced their decision about the cancellation of the rally the leaders of the team tried to organize a three-day road-test of new race vehicles KAMAZ-4326 VK on the territory of Marocco – in desert conditions natural for “Dakar”. However, later it became clear that it had been pouring with rain for several days in those regions where it was planned to conduct check tests. The team had to confine themselves to testing in Spain.

These force majeure circumstances ruined the short-range plans of KAMAZ-master, but didn’t influence the calendar of competitions 2008 where one of the main items is participation in the rally-raid “Saint-Petersburg – Beijing” in June this year. It might be supposed that in connection with the cancellation of “Dakar-2008” this race would become the main automobile competition of the year in which many world elite racers will compete.