MINSK, 26 January (BelTA) –MAZ-SPORTavto racers achieved the best result possible at the prestigious Dakar Rally, head of the Belarusian team Sergei Vyazovich told a press conference in the BelTA press center on 25 September.
Yesterday the team came back home from South America where the 2018 Dakar edition took place. The racers were welcomed home by fans and MAZ top executives and employees at Minsk National Airport. “All the guys were touched by such a welcome. We understand that we did a big job for the plant and the country. As noted by MAZ Director General Dmitry Katerinich, this is the best advertisement for the plant. We do realize this. I want to say on behalf of the whole team that MAZ-SPORTavto racers produced the best result possible. This is our maiden Dakar podium. We beat very strong rivals to take second place,” Sergei Vyazovich said.
“We should remember that such a tough race is a sort of a lottery. Our crews were making it to the top 3 by turns after Stage 3. We employed good racing tactics. It was not without some luck, but we were cold-blooded and we worked a lot on tactics,” the driver added.
The crew led by Sergei Vyazovich, navigator Pavel Garanin, and mechanic Andrei Zhigulin were second overall at the 2018 Dakar Rally in the truck category, ahead of the experienced teams of such automobile giants as MAN, Tatra, and Iveco. MAZ racers Alexander Vasilevsky and Aleksei Vishnevsky were 13th and 14th, respectively.
The 2018 Dakar edition was the seventh for the Belarusian team. The owner of MAZ-SPORTavto is Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ trademark), the technical partner is velcom. This year, Dakar Rally was running through Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. The race featured 3,500 kilometers of high-speed sections, with most of the route running in the highlands.
