OREANDA-NEWS. On July 17, 2007 Semyon Yakubov, the founder, unchallenged leader and navigator of the “KAMAZ-master” team, celebrated his sixtieth anniversary, reported the press-centre of KAMAZ.

On the same day there was founded the “KAMAZ-master” team – a three-fold World Cup holder in off-road rallies, a repeated prize winner and a sevenfold winner of the famous transcontinental Dakar super-marathon.

The solemn ceremony devoted to these two inseparable events took place in the new Sport Center of the famous racing drivers’ team in Naberezhnye Chelny. There were over 500 guests from every corner of Russia, the near and far abroad, the members of the team, the public agents of the federal authority, well-known businessmen, sportsmen, the managers of KAMAZ Inc., the directors general of KAMAZ Inc. in the past Nikolai Bekh and Ivan Kostin.

Semyon Yakubov graduated from the Kurgan Machine Building Institute. Five years of his life were devoted to the work on the KAMAZ engines plant. Then he worked as the chief engineer of the car assembly plant. In 1987 he became the director of the KAMAZ R&D Center. There he indulged in sports seriously. He believed that the automotive plant ought to possess a strong racing team.

Semyon Yakubov put together a sport team of the automotive plant which starts to partake in the races on the international level. Yakubov’s team got silver and bronze already in the first races on the roads of Europe and West Africa. Since its foundation “KAMAZ-master” won 35 first, 12 second and 7 third places in competitions of different levels – from the Russian Championship to the World Cup. The team won seven times in the most prestigious marathon “Paris-Dakar” alone.

“KAMAZ-master” is the only Russian team successfully representing the country in the world auto racing. All sportsmen work at designing and improving sport vehicles.

Semyon Yakubov is a reputable and distinguished person. He is the leader of the sport team “KAMAZ-master”, the adviser of the director general of KAMAZ Inc., the navigator of the battle crew, the Honoured Master of Sports and the Honoured Trainer of Tatarstan, the honorary freeman of Naberezhnye Chelny. Semyon Yakubov has got many government awards for his deeds.

Under his direction there was developed and launched into series production the all-terrain vehicle KAMAZ-4911 Extreme which excels foreign models and is able to compete with them in the most prestigious races in the world. The reliable modern sport equipment bearing the trademark of KAMAZ and mastery of the crew made the “KAMAZ-master” team the leader of the world auto racing and the favourite of the competitions of all ranks.