MAZ-SPORTauto team to take part in 2024 Kagan Gold rally raid
The MAZ-SPORTauto sports team of the Minsk Automobile Works is leaving for Astrakhan, where the first stage of the 2024 Kagan Gold Russian rally-raid championship will be held, the MAZ JSC media centre reports
“At this stage, the team will be represented by one crew: operator Sergei Vyazovich, navigator Pavel Garanin, and mechanic Sergei Sachuk on a MAZ-6440RR truck,” the company informed.
The competition will be held from April 19th to 23rd in the Astrakhan Region.
“We have certainly learnt from the experience of 2023 during this time, we do not feel any euphoria, and we understand how strong our rival is and how great the thirst is to prove ourselves, to get back for 2023, so to speak. Therefore, this season we are set for a serious fight and an even more serious confrontation in the face of our rivals,” the head of the sports team, Sergei Vyazovich, noted.
The enterprise also recalled that this year Belarusian athletes became full-fledged participants of the Russian championship with a set of points, “We are sure that it will brighten up the fight.”
In 2024, for the first time, the Kagan Gold rally raid will begin its journey not from the central square of Astrakhan, but on the Petrovskaya embankment of the Volga.
“The new starting location was not chosen by chance. Firstly, it is in front of the Petrovsky light and music fountain, where all the most significant festive events have been held in recent years, and Astrakhan residents are happy to combine their visit with a promenade along the spacious Volga embankment. Secondly, since 2008, the embankment itself has been associated by most citizens with Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan LLC, which supervised the reconstruction of this facility for the Caspian capital's anniversary on behalf of Gazprom. By the way, the gas production company has been the general partner of Kagan Gold for 13 years. And thirdly, the start at Maksim Gorky Street will make it possible to avoid long-term blocking of Lenin Street, one of the main transport arteries of Astrakhan,” the organisers explained.
MAZ-SPORTauto is a professional racing team of the Minsk Automobile Works, participating in rally raids. Its story began with the participation in the 2010 Silk Way International rally-raid. Initially, the team was conceived as an advertising project for the worldwide recognition of the MAZ brand, but time has shown that equipment and athletes are internationally competitive. In 2023, the MAZ-SPORTauto team won the Silk Way rally-raid for the first time. At the end of the season, the team stated that in 2024 they intend to fight only for victories.
