Artur Ardavichus: "A fast and safe race"

January 4 ^th 2018 - 19:21

When he drove for the Kamaz team, the driver from Kazakhstan climbed onto the Dakar podium and also won a special (when finishing 3^rd in 2012). This time, for the first time he is racing in a truck for Team De Rooy, for whom he is the team leader.

After a discrete but efficient climb to the upper echelons of the sport, Artur Ardavichus can now legitimately lay claim to being a pretender for the title. Even though the Kamaz team are the main favourites on the 40^th edition in the truck category, he is one of the rare competitors who can draw inspiration from the Russian’s methods, to which he has since added his own new ingredients: “It’s my tenth participation on the Dakar. From 2009, I was with Kamaz for three years, then I drove a Tatra, then MAN and now it’s my first year and my first Dakar with a Team De Rooy Iveco truck. It’s a top truck. It’s the winning truck driven by Gerard two years ago. It’s the same technically and I know this truck. I haven’t made any upgrades or changes”. After being occasionally involved in skirmishes on the race, the driver from Astana now has a tool that allows him to aim very high, as well as experience that should help him avoid making big mistakes on the tracks: “I’m hoping for a good result in this race. Anyway, I’m very happy to be number 508, the closest starting number I’ve been to the leading positions. I need to show I can drive a good fast race and a safe race also, that’s my objective. I cannot wait for the dunes; I love the dunes. I’m just going to attack, attack and attack”.