DAKAR 2017: MAZ-SPORTAVTO TEAM RECORDS

The Belarusian team "Maz-Sportavto" at the current Dakar showed the best results for all years of performance, rising to the sixth place of the final position among trucks.

The crew # 522 under the control of Alexander Vasilevsky broke the previous record of the team: in 2015, his crew took 10th place at the Dakar.

The 12th stage practically did not affect the balance of power in the race – only 64 kilometers, which led the teams to Buenos Aires, where the solemn podium ceremony was held in the evening.

This year, the fastest was again the Kamaz-master team and the crew under the control of Eduard Nikolaev. "Maz" Alexander Vasilevsky, taking the sixth place in the list of" marathon runners", lost to the leader for about 2 hours 35 minutes. In second place was Russian Dmitry Sotnikov, and the Dutchman Gerard de Rooy closed the top three at Iveco.

Sergey Vyazovich, 511 Crew Pilot, team leader:

"The sixth Dakar finished. We have the sixth result in the cargo standings! The marathon became a collection of various kinds of records: we brought to the start the youngest truck pilot in the history of Dakar – Alexey Vishnevsky, and the results shown by the team - Alexander Vasilevsky's finish in 6th place in the absolute standings and getting all three Mazs into the top 10 at Stage 5, as well as the Daily finish of one of the Mazs in the "top ten". Dakar went well for us and I am very pleased with the results that have been achieved by training during the year, as well as the change in tactics. Alexander was driving an old type of car, I was driving a new type of car. My task is speed, getting into the top 5, Top 10. Alexander rode on reliability, which brought him to sixth place. At many stages, we had good results thanks to both our navigators, who coped well with navigation, and thanks to our mechanics – with their help every morning we received serviceable machines. For us, this Dakar is a record – all our crews work for results, have potential and can replace each other at any time. It is important that all three crews are competitive. Our plans next – Silk Road 2017".

It is difficult not to notice the team's personal records: the Belarusians at the race that just ended finished in the top 10 at the stages twelve times-Sergey Vyazovich especially distinguished himself (seven such finishes, including third place at yesterday's special stage). Secondly, Alexander Vasilevsky finished the race sixth – a new record of the Belarusian team! The crew under the control of Sergey Vyazovich in the overall standings took the 13th position. The crew of Alexei Vishnevsky finished the rally raid in 21st place.

Alexander Vasilevsky, the pilot of the 522 crew, shared his impressions of the final stages :"The stage went well – we coped with the task and were sixth in the truck standings. At first we drove carefully, there was a Rocky Mountain Road. We tried not to damage the wheels, because replacing the wheel is a loss of 10-15 minutes of time. The second half of the special stage was high-speed, a lot of dust, dodging ATVs in one place, driving around them and braking at high speed. This year Dakar seemed to me less interesting, the first half was high-speed and rally, the second-continuous cancellations. I liked yesterday and today with a real Dakar road-killer, heavy, with difficult navigation, dust, mixed start. The first years in South America, when Dakar just moved, there were interesting tracks – and there was enough sand, and high-speed sections, and mountain. There were marathon stages, and now all lined up, "locomotive", drove and all. You come here to overcome the marathon distance, to drive the track with a large mileage, not a hundred kilometers. At a great distance, tactics and calculation of forces are already playing".

Minsk automobile plant participated in the Dakar marathon for the sixth time. The rally-raid passed through the territories of three countries at once-Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. The length of the route was about 9 thousand kilometers. In the truck class, 50 crews took part in the rally, and 42 "combat" vehicles reached the finish line.

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