Kamaz dominates Dakar

The 2014 Dakar Rally has been run and won, with Russian truck manufacturer Kamaz emerging victorious and claiming four of the top five positions

The dust has finally settled on the 2014 Dakar Rally, which saw a tense struggle in the truck class build to an electrifying finale.

Over 9188km and 13 gruelling stages the 2014 Dakar went right down to the wire, with the all-Russian #506 Kamaz truck of driver Andrey Karginov, co-driver Andrey Mokeev and mechanic Igor Devyatkin eventually rolling across the finish line in Valparaiso, Chile, just 3min 11sec ahead of the #501 Iveco of driver Gerard De Rooy, co-driver Tom Colsoul and mechanic Darek Rodewald.

Another Kamaz rounded out the podium, with the #500 truck of driver Eduard Nikolaev, co-driver Evgeny Yakovlev and mechanic Vladimir Rybakov coming home roughly one-and-a-half hours later.

Karginov’s victory was nearly stolen from him in the final stages of the last day, when a Chinese competitor in the car class became stranded on a tight section of the track, blocking the Kamaz. All up the obstacle cost Karginov around 10 minutes, while another strong performance from De Rooy saw the Dutchman closing in.

However, race officials decided to only deduct 5min 20sec from Karginov, effectively handing the #506 truck the win.

All up, 204 vehicles made it to the finish line of the 2014 Dakar Rally – 78 motorcycles, 15 quad bikes, 61 cars and 50 trucks – or roughly 50 per cent of the field that started out in Rosario, Argentina, on January 5.

Spaniard Marc Coma triumphed in the motorcycle category on his KTM, as did Chile’s Ignacio Casale in the quads on his Yamaha Raptor and Spain’s Nani Roma with Frenchman Michel Perin in the cars with their Mini.

For more information, including final rankings for all classes visit www.dakar.com

For a taste of the truck action in the 2014 Dakar Rally, take a look at the official truck highlights clip below...

Kamaz dominates Dakar

Tags