Press releases

MINSK, 24 July (BelTA) – All crews of MAZ-Sport Auto Team finished the transcontinental race 2016 Silk Way Rally in the top ten, BelTA learned from the Belarusian team.

The crew of Sergei Vyazovich, Pavel Garanin and Andrei Zhigulin demonstrated the best result among the three MAZ trucks clocking 42h50m59s after fourteen extremely difficult stages of the rally and placing sixth overall, 3h27m41s behind the winner, Russian KAMAZ pilot Airat Mardeev. The runner-up position is taken by another KAMAZ driver with a Renault truck rounding up the podium.

Belarus’ Alexander Vasilevsky finished the rally in ninth, 6h40m off the winner. The MAZ crew of Aleksei Vishnevsky placed tenth overall.

In the fifteenth stage of the rally on 24 July, the drivers ran a liaison section that brought them to the final destination, Beijing.

Sergei Vyazovich noted: “In general, the Silk Way Rally was a challenging test. At some stages it was even more difficult than Dakar. Nevertheless, the Belarusian racers and the MAZ vehicles passed this test successfully.”

For the first time, the route of the Silk Way Rally passed through the steppes, canyons and sand dunes of three countries, Russia, Kazakhstan and China. The trucks ran a total of some 10,700km. The marathon crossed 15 cities, the Gobi Desert, and Tien Shan mountain ranges. One of the stages brought the trucks to Balkhash Lake.

During the rally, MAZ-Sport Auto Team tested two new trucks equipped with 12.5-liter engines designed by the Czech team Buggyra, based on Caterpillar. The Belarusian team will use these trucks in future international rallies.