OREANDA-NEWS. October 6, 2009. The International Off-Road Rally “Silk Way – 2009” was started in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

The route of the race “Kazan – Ashgabat” 4500 km long was laid on the territories of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. On 6 September the first stage of the rally (Kazan – Buguruslan) was held. On the whole 8 stages were held. The routes of the rally with high-speed sections, sands and dunes which are similar to difficult Dakar stages required the racers’ perfect skills to drive their vehicles under cross-country conditions.

The rally was organized at the suggestion of Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. His idea to hold a real race for motor cars and trucks on the oldest caravan ways named “Gold” and “Silk” was supported by Presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Tatarstan. Dmitry Medvedev, Nursultan Nazarbaev and Mintimer Shaymiev rendered all-out support to hold the rally on a very high level. It became a perfect training before Dakar-2010 which will again be held on the territories of Argentina and Chile.

The best racing drivers from 25 countries were invited to participate in the race. 62 motor cars and jeeps and 21 trucks competed in the race.

The KAMAZ-master team was represented by six racing crews consisting of a driver, a navigator, a mechanic):
Firdaus Kabirov, Andrey Mokeev, Anatoly Tanin;
Vladimir Chaguin, Sergey Savostin, Ildar Shaysultanov;
Rustam Minnikhanov, Aydar Belyaev, Sergey Reshetnikov;
Ilghizar Mardeev, Stanislav Pogozhikh, Andrey Karghinov;
Eduard Nikolaev, Vyacheslav Mizyukaev, Ayrat Israfilov;
Ayrat Mardeev, Robert Amatych, Igor Devyatkin.

By the way, Turkmen KAMAZ vehicles also participated in the race. For the first time in the history of off-road rallies Turkmenistan put forward a full-fledged team consisting of five crews. They include two truck crews which had been trained by the KAMAZ-master team in Naberezhnye Chelny before the race.

The first crew of the KAMAZ-master team (driver Firdaus Kabirov, navigator Andrey Mokeev, mechanic Anatoly Tanin) won in the truck class of “Silk Way Rally 2009”. Volkswagen’s crew (driver Carlos Sainz, co-driver & navigator Lukas Cruz Senra (ESP)) was the best in the class of motor cars, jeeps and buggies.

On 13 September Presidents of Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan met with the racing crews, congratulated them with their great performance and wished them success and new victories on off-road routes. After that meeting the crews passed the last special section 24-km long. The results of this section were considered separately from the overall rally performances. The best in this section among trucks was the KAMAZ-master crew with Eduard Nikolaev, Vyacheslav Mizyukaev and Ayrat Israfilov as its members.