The legendary KAMAZ-master team is the pride of the Russian motorsport and car industry. At the Dakar Rally, Silk Way Rally and other world competitions, our Kamaz trucks and our race car drivers have been unmatched for several decades. And one of them is Eduard Nikolaev, four-time leader of the prestigious Dakar Rally, Honored Master of Sports.
Sports childhood
Eduard Valentinovich Nikolaev was born in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny on August 21, 1984. He is a hereditary racer, the son of Valentin Nikolaevich Nikolayev, six-time Russian champion in buggy (these are small light SUVs, the predecessors of ATVs). Valentin, just like his son later, was “sick” of motorsport from childhood, knew the structure of all mechanisms of cars thoroughly and, having completed his sports career, came to work in the KAMAZ-master team as a mechanic. According to his son, the father can disassemble the car in one night and put it back together in the morning in order to get to the start.
The childhood and youth of Eduard Nikolaev were inextricably linked with sports. From 4 to 12 years old, he intensively engaged in artistic gymnastics, achieved significant success and acquired excellent stretching.
In addition, he attended the boxing section. But still, the main hobby of young Nikolaev was karting: he drove these cars almost from infancy, gradually began to take part in competitions of an increasingly higher level.
The beginning of a sports career
Eduard Nikolaev joined the KAMAZ-master team in the early 2000s. Firstly, he often visited his father, a team mechanic, and gradually delved into the specifics of his activities. And when Eduard won the All-Russian karting championship, where the founder of KAMAZ-master Semyon Semyonovich Yakubov was present, he personally invited the young man to work in the team - first as a mechanic, and then as a pilot.
In parallel with his work at KAMAZ-master, Eduard received a professional education: first he studied at an auto-mechanical technical school, and then graduated from the Polytechnic Institute. As a true workaholic, he devoted the first half of the day to studies in a technical school and a university, and then spent time until night in the workshops of the KAMAZ-master. The young mechanic studied the structure of all the units and mechanisms of the cars on which he was to participate in the races. The level of his skill gradually became such that in the event of a breakdown or accident, he could independently eliminate almost any malfunction. This approach to the training of athletes, when each pilot-driver can also be a mechanic and a co-driver, has become one of the leading principles of the team, and as a result - the key to success in world competitions.
Since 2004, Nikolaev began to participate in domestic competitions and the Championships of Russia as a mechanic, and since 2006 - as a pilot, and his crew has always won prizes. And in 2007 Eduard Nikolaev was first included in the crew of Ilgizar Mardeev as a mechanic at the international Dakar Rally; the crew came to the finish line second. In 2009, the same result and in the same capacity was achieved by Nikolaev as part of the crew of Vladimir Chagin. By the way, it was Chagin who became the main mentor, coach and even idol for Nikolaev, together they participated in a large number of different races, and, according to Chagin, Nikolaev even adopted his driving style.
KAMAZ-master pilot career
In 2010, Eduard Nikolaev won a golden victory in the Dakar Rally, but still in the role of a mechanic in the crew of the same Chagin. And in 2011, Nikolaev made his debut as a pilot in the Dakar (before that he had already won the Silk Way race as a pilot), but there he managed to take only third place so far.
2011 was a triumphant year in the biography of the young driver: he finally won the Dakar as a driver. Then there were many more races, where the crew of Nikolaev invariably took different prizes, but the gold result at the Dakar was repeated only in 2017, and then for two more years in a row - in 2018 and 2019.
The competition in races is incredibly high, and the rivals are mainly friends and colleagues from the KAMAZ-master team, since they simply have no equal. At the same time, the team's policy is such that there is no confrontation between the leading riders: everyone is initially on an equal footing, and whoever turns out to be the best and who will be lucky during the race becomes the object of the triumph of the whole team.
In 2020, Nikolaev could not win on the Dakar - his crew had to leave at the sixth stage of the race due to technical problems with the car.
Life and everyday life of the racer
The profession of a racer, especially an international one, is hard both physically and mentally. During the competition, the crews have to overcome several hundred kilometers a day, spending 10 hours or more behind the wheel. You can't stop - it's a waste of time and a loss. But if emergencies and breakdowns occur, all resources are immediately mobilized to fix the car and return to duty. Therefore, riders need physical strength and endurance, strong nerves and iron discipline. Eduard Nikolaev says that sometimes he loses up to ten kilograms of weight during a race. Once, when he returned from the competition, his mother did not recognize her son - he was so emaciated.
But when he returns home, relatives always try to fatten the long-awaited pet. Nikolaev is very fond of rich soups, especially the Tatar tokmach ashy soup made from chicken with noodles. In general, cooking is Edward's second passion after cars. He cooks well himself, is an avid mushroom picker - he collects and prepares. And after the completion of his racing career, Eduard Nikolaev plans to open his restaurant for sports fans and in general everyone.
Personal life
In Naberezhnye Chelny, the beloved family is always waiting for the racer Eduard Nikolaev. Edward is married, his wife's name is Oksana. In 2016, she gave her husband a daughter.
And Nikolaev also devotes time to educating the younger generation: he, together with other pilots, supervises the go-kart track created by the KAMAZ-master team to teach children and adolescents the basics of karting and competitions.
