MAZ race team on the way to success at Dakar 2015

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Press Release / November 25, 2014

Belarus-based truckmaker MAZ (Minsk Automobile Plant) held a press conference on November 17, 2014 devoted to the truckmaker's upcoming participation in the 2015 Dakar Rally.

The companies race trucks and support vehicles were present for journalists, just ahead of their shipment to Latin America via the French port of Le Havre. The race team members will leave for Buenos Aires at the end of December.

MAZ President Valery Ivankovich, team PR director Dmitry Korotkevich, team chief Valery Kozlowski and race drivers Sergey Vyazovich, Alexander Vasilevsky and Alexander Polishchuk took questions from the media and explained the 2015 race truck's new lightweight designs, as well as their expectations concerning the forthcoming race.

The company also expressed its gratitude to its long list of sponsors (shown below).

The DAKAR 2015 rally will take start on January 4, 2015 in Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

This time the Belarusian team will be presented by three crews:

Crew no. 1:

pilot– Alexander Vasilevsky;

navigator – Valery Kozlowsky ;

mechanic– Anton Zaporoshchenko.

Crew no. 2:

pilot– Sergey Vyazovich;

navigator – Pavel Garanin;

mechanic– Andrey Zhigulin

Crew no.3:

pilot – Alexander Polischchuk;

navigator– Dmitry Vihrenko;

mechanic – Alexey Neverovich.

The MAZ race team will be facing opponents from other major global truckmakers including DAF, GINAF, Hino, Iveco, Кamaz, LIAZ, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Scania and Tatra.

A major focus of the new truck's engineering was weight reduction, resulting in a 100 kilogram decrease. Changes were made to the driving lamp mounting arrangement, aluminum fuel tank, front spring bracket configuration and front fenders. A lightweight carbon fiber driveshaft was also utilized.

As a result of a new mounting configuration for the truck's transfer case, it can now be changed in just a few hours. In addition, all of the truck's special racing shock absorbers are now interchangeable.

MAZ Group's powertrain partner, YaMZ (Yaroslavl Motor Plant) has gone to great lengths to fine tune the V-8 engines, which are race-rated at 920 horsepower.

The 2015 Dakar rally will be the fourth that MAZ has participated in.

“We are confident in ourselves and in our trucks. The experience we gained from past Dakar rallies has allowed us to hone our skills for higher results“, said team leader Valery Kozlowski .

Note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar_Rally

For additional information about the MAZ 2015 Dakar race team, e-mail pr@maz.by.

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