Dakar Rally to Be Shorter, Harder
The first major international competition next year will be the Lisbon-Dakar Rally, which begins on January 6 in Lisbon. Russia is exceptionally well represented this year. Usually it is represented only by the truck-class favorite, the KamAZ Master team. The race will last two weeks this year, instead of the traditional three weeks and the route has been shortened from 10,000 km. to just under 9000 km., but it remains in its classical form, passing through Portugal and Spain and then across rocks in Morocco, the sands of the Sahara in Mauritania and the Senegalese bush before reaching its finish at Lac Rose, near Dakar.
New rules restrict the use of GPS navigational systems. Previously they were used to show a team how far it has strayed from the ideal course. Now they will be used only like conventional compasses. The usual jaunt from Mauritania to Mali and back has been cancelled this year after French intelligence reported that there were high chances of attack by Algerian rebels in that area.
Russian KamAZ trucks from Naberezhnye Chelny have been winning in the trucks category of the rally since the mid-1990s. Three racing crews, assisted by three technical crews, will start in Lisbon this time. Odds are again in favor of the Russian team led by five-time Dakar winner Vladimir Chagin that includes experienced navigator Semen Yakubov and mechanic Sergey Savostin, with Ilgizar Mardeev, Aidar Belyaev, Eduard Nikolaev, Sergey Reshetnikov, Andrey Mokeev and Eduard Kupriyanov in backup.
In addition to the KamAZ Master team, five crews in Mitsubishi and Nissan vehicles make up Team Russia. Such experienced racers as Alexey Berkut and Anton Nikolaev, two-time Russia Cup winners who placed in the Top 20 in the 2005 Dakar, are racing on Team Russia. Leonid Novitsky, who came in second among first-timers in the 2006 Dakar, will also be present, as will Russia Cup winners Pavel Loginov and Alexey Kuzmich. That team is likely to place in the Top 20 in the rally.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 29, 2006
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