KAMAZ-master dominates 2020 Dakar Rally on standard Goodyear tires

Extremely tough edition confirms durability of Goodyear carcass-technology

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Last Friday, the KAMAZ-master team came in on 1st and 2nd position after 12 challenging stages and won for the 17th time the famous DAKAR 2020. Another fantastic win on the rich track record of the team and for Goodyear as their official tire partner.

For many years, the Dakar is known as the toughest rally in the world. This year the rally headed for new horizons in Saudi Arabia. With 7500 kms, including 5,000 km of specials of hi-speed and close racing ahead of them, the teams did not know what to expect from this new continent.

From the start in Jeddah on January 5th, this year’s edition had no mercy with the teams. At each stage of the race, the trucks encounter a large variety of challenges from tricky desert tracks with hidden stones to rocky canyons and river beds with sharp objects, … In these conditions, it is capital, to monitor the heat in the tire. The cabin crews make smart choices to keep up the speed and keep the tire in one piece in order to finish the race. At all times, the drivers have to master their driving skills and carefully manage the tire pressure to get a good balance between grip/traction, speed and durability. It turned out, this edition was even tougher than previous years in Latin America.

“On the outside the scenery was magnificent, however inside the truck we had to stay focused every second and work hard” explains Andrey Karginov, driver of the winning crew 511 of KAMAZ-master. “This year’s race included hazardous sandy dune stages and misleading labyrinths covered with sharp stones. We encountered many risky situations, but the Goodyear tires kept on going offering supreme traction driving up the dunes and were extremely robust.” he concludes.

Unbeaten performance

With 17 wins the KAMAZ-master holds the greatest number of wins in Dakar. Over the years, the team build up an incredible amount of technical know-how. Although the environment was entirely new to them, the crews mastered the performance of the KAMAZ trucks in each of the stages. Full throttle up to 140km per hour on the straights, including some spectacular jumps in the desert and tempering speed on risky tracks, they never failed, and the winning team finished the 7500 km race in just 46h 33' 36''. During this 12-day incredible journey, the tires stoot strong to great satisfaction of the team.

“At Goodyear, we design our products to deliver winning performance for our partners. We are extremely proud that once again the victorious KAMAZ-master team could count on exceptional qualities of our standard products proven in probably the toughest race in the world” says Maciej Szymanski, Director Marketing Europe for Commercial Business Unit at Goodyear. “This reconfirms very strong track record of Goodyear OFFROAD ORD tires in durability, traction on rocky and sandy terrain and in very challenging circumstances at hi-speed.”

To be on the podium, the optimum set-up of the truck is key. Therefore, the truck and the tires need to work seamlessly together. Over the past years, the Dakar has been marked by teams finishing less than one hour apart after 12 full days of close racing. Every minute counts and any issue can have an impact and determine if the team is on the podium or not.

Next level product testing and development

For ASO-organizer of the Dakar Rally- it’s mandatory that all truck teams compete on standard tires. These must be developed for normal daily operations and can be bought by any fleet manager in the market. Giving the extreme driving, races like Dakar are the ultimate testbed for the Goodyear OFFROAD ORD. The tires selected by the winning KAMAZ-master team, are normally used to maximize uptime in tough off-road operations such as mines and quarries. Their tread pattern with massive blocks along with the optimized compound provides high resistance to tearing and cutting.

Likewise, the FIA European Truck Racing Championship is enabling the company to take its development process to the next level. Extreme testing conditions stress the carcass to cope with deformation and extreme forces on the tire caused by jumps like in the Dakar as well as cornering at hi-speed in truck racing. Result is the advanced Goodyear carcass technology offering enhanced durability and robustness, ultimately having a positive effect on fuel efficiency across the full portfolio including on-road long-haul and regional haul, mixed-services, off-road as well as bus and coach tires.

Goodyear has a long and successful history in motorsport and is very proud to be selected by leading teams as their official tire partner. These teams participate in the most challenging rallies across the globe and count on the ultimate performance of our standard products. The tires need to be always ready for the unexpected, whether it is a high jump at full speed in a race or on a slippery muddy slope in daily operations. Next challenge coming up with the KAMAZ-master team will be the Silkway Rally in China from July 3 to 16.