The Taklimakan 2026 International Rally has come to an end. Today, on June 1, the crews went to the start of the final stage of the race to determine the winners and prize-winners of the competition, the press service of the KAMAZ-master team reports.
The organizers of the rally had no sympathy for the sports crews, having prepared the extremely difficult route of the 13th special stage in the picturesque area of the Grand Canyon of Wensu. The killer 159 kilometers of the final special stage could easily have shuffled the podium, so the racers, having learned about the mapping of the stage, did not even think about an early victory. Getting to the finish line without breakdowns and accidents is the main goal for today. They really had to worry about the final result. Fr om the start, the race track went into the riverbed, which was seriously damaged by flooding and landslides. The pre-existing roads became completely unusable, so the pilots had to try to overcome this section without losses. A deep gorge, huge boulders and ravines with water – there were enough dangerous places in the mountainous regions of the Tien Shan that were marked with safety flags in advance.
For the KAMAZ-master crews of Bogdan Karimov and Almaz Akhmedov, the rally course ended without any stops or incidents. At the finish of the special stage, the racers were greeted with flowers and congratulations fr om numerous spectators. Almost 3,500 high-speed kilometers at the Taklimakan-2026 rally were left behind. Ahead is a festive ceremony at the finish podium and the presentation of well–deserved awards.
The debut Taklimakan rally was an important milestone in the history of the KAMAZ-master sports team. Four years later, the Blue Armada returned to the start of the major international competition and demonstrated excellent results, confirming the status of the strongest rally raid team in the world. In China, Crew 502 consisting of Bogdan Karimov, Dmitry Nikitin and Ilgiz Akhmetzyanov rose to the highest step of the podium, Crew 501 consisting of Almaz Akhmedov, Ivan Malkov and Anton Shibalov finished the race in second place. The third prize-winner was the crew of Yuri Nayman from the URAL MOTORSPORT team.
Eduard Nikolaev, head of the KAMAZ-master team: "Congratulations to the whole team on the successful completion of the race! We have completed all the tasks set to the maximum. Harsh climate and sands, off–road - vehicles and crews withstood these difficult racing conditions and reached the finish line. The guys showed excellent results and confirmed that we had composed our crews quite right. Thanks to the whole team for supporting us. We proved at the race that we are taking the right steps.
Our youth coped with difficult special stages and gained experience. I am sure that the Taklimakan rally will help them in their sports career. The guys and the KAMAZ-master team have many international competitions ahead of them, wh ere it is important to proudly carry the flag of our country, republic and native KAMAZ.
Thanks to everyone: the assistance team, the mechanics who worked almost without sleep throughout the rally. We have a lot of young guys in our team, they learn from the older generations of mechanics and gain valuable experience. They had a very heavy workload, and they coped with it, did everything to ensure that our trucks were at the finish line of the race.
Congratulations to everyone on the finish line and thanks to everyone who was with us, who followed the race, cheered and worried about us. Many thanks to our partners for their support during this difficult time. We won the Taklimakan rally and confirmed that KAMAZ trucks remain the most reliable and fastest in the world."
Bogdan Karimov, pilot of Crew 502: "Congratulations to everyone on the victory! From the first days, the stages were straight, we thought it wouldn't be very interesting, but somewhere from the third or fourth special stage it became more and more difficult, and sand appeared. In this race, we were digging in the dunes, wasting time. All this helped to gain experience. I think we drove the race well, and we showed our trucks at the international rally in China, wh ere we were very warmly welcomed.
I really enjoyed the rally, it was interesting. Thanks to the team management for trusting the young crews with representing KAMAZ-master at such a major competition. We did our best, we didn't let you down, we won the race. During all the days, our crew did not have any special technical problems, we drove the race smoothly and steadily. And the most important thing is that we kept the car and crew safe until the finish."
Almaz Akhmedov, pilot of Crew 501: "We are at the finish line! It was very difficult throughout the race, we rode on sand, dunes, rocks and canyons. We have gained a lot of experience in these weeks. We are very happy with these competitions. A little bit mixed feelings after the race. On the one hand, I'm glad that we finished second; on the other, I'm a little sad that we ran into technical difficulties on the special stages and could have shown a better result. Anyway, it's nice to be at the end point of the rally."