Russian driver Eduard Nikolaev has won a couple of Dakars for Team Kamaz Master, and as part of the setting-up and tuning process for the 10-tonne, 1000-horsepower racing ‘Terminator’ truck, headed to Murmansk and started clowning around in the snow and ice.
Why that’s a good idea going into a race held in towering sand dunes and stinking-hot desert we don’t know. Maybe that’s why we never made it as pro truck racers.
Nikolaev, 32, gunned his 16-litre diesel monster to around 140kph, hit a snow jump and skied the big girl for over 30 metres, pulling 12G and possibly causing contraction of the Urals.
The truck carried on at maximum speed and, somehow, the sponsors were happy this showed the Kamaz and Nikolaev were kings of the northern desert.
“For our Kamaz-4326, these conditions are very similar to driving on the sands of South America or Africa and for the team this is great training,” said Niko.
Maybe it’s a good thing the ex-mechanic went to truck racing. He clearly didn’t have much of a future in geography.