Friday, 21 December 2012 22:46
Alexey KUZMICH - co-driver
Master of sports of international level;
Prize winner (silver) of the World Cup for rally-raids 2008;
Winner of the World Cup for rally-raids in the teams' classification (2012);
Winner of international races Tunisie 2008 (Т2 classification), Hungarian Baja 2012 (overall)
Participant of Dakar marathons in 2007, 2009 and 2012 (2012 – 3rd place in trucks);
Participant of SilkWay marathons in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (2009 – 3rd place Т1.2, 2010 – winner in Т1.1);
Winner of the Russian Cup for rally-raids 2006;
Russian rally-raid vice-champion in 2008 and 2010;
Multiple participant and prize winner of events in the Russian rally and rally-raid championships and cup.
Alexey Kuzmich was born in Khar'kov in 1974. He obtained higher education in psychology at the Moscow State University of liberal arts. Presently he is a post-graduate at the High school of physical arts and tourism. Besides taking part in races, he is involved in organization of public events and competitions in karate and motorsport, conducts master-classes on co-driving skills, civil and sports driving, he is an experienced motorsport steward. Alexey is a truly all-round sportsman: he possesses the first dan rank (black belt) in kyukushin karate, third degree in sky-jumping and target shooting.
Alexey began his career in autosport in 1999 with marshalling at amateur rallies and go-karts. Then he used to be a steward at rally-raid events, rallies, circuit races, he would often take part in races as a mechanic. In 2003 he decided to check if he could do co-driving in rallying, and three years later tested similar skills in rally-raids.
Already in his first season (in pair with Pavel Loginov) he won the overall classification of the Russian rally-raid Cup, and at the beginning of the following year he navigated his crew to the finish of Dakar, the last time the marathon was held in Africa. His co-driving career successfully continued into 2008 as he took silver in the Production category of the World Cup (together with Andrey Ivanov). It was also that year when he began his coaching work with rookie co-drivers and drivers, and his efforts yielded great results: just three years later several of his students passed standards for the master of sports degree, and two of them became Russian rally champions. Kuzmich is one of few sportsmen who took part in every edition of the SilkWay marathon, the history of which began in 2009. In 2010 the crew of Benjamin Dzhepaev and Alexey Kuzmich driving an UAZ car not only won in their category, but also became the highest-placed Russian participants of that marathon.
For the 2012 season he was invited to join the ranks of G-Force Motorsport, where in crew with Boris Gadasin he twice finished on the podium of the World Cup's rounds and contributed much to obtaining important points which allowed the Russian team to take first place in the series' final classification.
Alexey participated in the Dakar marathon three times, and his crews successfully reached the finish on each occasion. In 2009 Alexey completed the world's most difficult rally route together with Viktor Volikov and in 2012 he was a co-driver in the KamAZ truck (driver – Artur Ardavitchus) that finished third.