SOCHI, February 5 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Tuesday with members of the racing team KAMAZ-Master, which won all three medal places at the annual international motor race Dakar-2013, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The victory of the KAMAZ team at the motor race became the eleventh one in their sport career. The motor race ended on January 19. In the 34th Dakar motor race, which was running through Peru, Argentina and Chile, the KAMAZ crews of Eduard Nikolayev, Airat Mardeyev and Andrei Karginov won all three medal places in the competition of trucks.
The KAMAZ-Master team wins all three medal places already not for the first time. Meanwhile, KAMAZ racer Vladimir Chagin is the only seven-time winner of the motor race Dakar for its history of 35 years. Russia is leading with 11 victories in the truck class at the motor race Dakar. All other countries are falling behind Russia in the number of victories, despite the fact that such well-known truck producers as MAN, DAF, Tatra, Mercedes Benz and Renault.
The motor race, which was earlier called Paris-Dakar by the name of the starting point and the destination point of the race, is held every year since 1978. Only once in 2008 the motor race was cancelled over a volatile political situation on the route of the motor race and the threat to the safety of the racers. In the last five years the motor race is running across the countries of South America, but retains its brand name by the name of the Senegalese capital.
The distance of the latest motor race Dakar reached 8,500 kilometres, which the racers passed on January 5-19. The racers usually compete in several categories, particularly, motorbikes, jeeps and trucks. Apart from this category of trucks the Russian team competes in the class of jeeps. This year Russian pilot Leonid Novitsky won the bronze medal in his MINI racing car.