Hard Silk Way Rally starts in a week
5.7.2016
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The last live testing and then a transfer to Moscow. Members of the MKR Technology racing team have been rather busy lately. It was due to the fact that one of the most difficult rallies of the world starts next week – Russian Silk Way, compared by many with the renowned Dakar. The new special from the North Bohemian technology centre is to be introduced in the racing role for the first time, and its ambitions are far from humble this time.
“We want to make it to the stage,” says Mario Kress, head of the North Bohemian branch of MKR Technology, who is spending his last free days in Czech Rep. together with his team. His entire team is to board a plane to Moscow on Tuesday, to be ready for the festive opening on Friday.
Both racing specials, Renault Trucks – K520 and brand new Sherpa, passed the final testing preparation in a military area in Senica, Slovakia, prior to leaving for the hard mission. Last Wednesday, the trucks moved to the Netherlands, and then on Friday, they left for Helsinki in Finland, where all the machinery boarded a ferry on Saturday and left for St. Petersburg, from where it will go to Moscow. “There is a festive opening on Friday on a starting stage at Red Square. From Saturday on, there will be fifteen demanding stages,” says Mario Kress, project manager of MKR Adventure, who is in charge of a complete construction of both Dakar specials. They will be driven by experienced pilots of the Dutch team Mammoet Rally Sport – with Pascal de Baar in the trambus Renault, and Martin van den Brink in the “nosy” special Sherpa during its racing premiere. He will be accompanied by Daniel Kozlovský, on-board engineer from Roudnice. “We will be testing brand new technologies. The entire suspension system is certainly new. The main aim is to get maximum amount of data and racing kilometres to prepare best for the main goal, which is Dakar. However, it would not be true to say we are going to race without any ambitions. We are confident and we want to make it to the stage after the three weekends,” Mario Kress goes to the race with determination.
The race starts in Moscow on Saturday, 9th July, and it ends on Sunday, 24th July, in Beijing in China. The crews will have one single day off during more than two weeks, and that will be on the 15th July in Kazakhstan. Throughout the mission, they will have to handle three countries – Russia, Kazakhstan and China, cover fifteen stages, and travel more than ten thousand very hard kilometres. In that, there are over four thousand kilometres of measured specials. The competition will be great as well. There will be Kamaz, Maz, and MAN trucks, too. Last year’s winner of Dakar, Mardejev from Russia, will be at the start as well, or two Czech Tatra trucks of the Bonver Dakar Project team with pilots Tomáš Vrátný and Artur Ardavičus, for whom MKR Technology prepares the racing aggregates. Mutual cooperation is therefore plain enough. “Sherpa rides very fast, but we will plan the strategy depending on the development of the race,” adds Mario Kress, head of the North Bohemian
The last live testing and then a transfer to Moscow. Members of the MKR Technology racing team have been rather busy lately. It was due to the fact that one of the most difficult rallies of the world starts next week – Russian Silk Way, compared by many with the renowned Dakar. The new special from the North Bohemian technology centre is to be introduced in the racing role for the first time, and its ambitions are far from humble this time. 
