On Saturday, the Auto Mail.ru Grand Prix, the first stage of the Russian Endurance Racing Series (REC) season, will take place at the Moscow Raceway near Moscow.
The four-hour race starts at 5:30 PM and will feature 29 teams competing in four classes: GT Pro, GT, GT Light and CN Pro.
The GT class will be the most popular. It presents cars from four brands: Mercedes, Porsche, BMW and Toyota. As the season progresses, they will be joined by the Audi LMS.
In the GT Light class, an internal competition is held for participants driving BMW cars – “Cup 330”. The class also includes crews driving the Mazda 3 and Mitsubihi.
There are slightly fewer competitors in the GT Pro class, but not everyone will start the first stage as the sport also suffers from general problems with logistics and spare parts. In addition to the traditional Mercedes AMG GT 3 and Porsche 911 GT3, Marussia GT No. 7 will also participate in this class. But as the season progresses, the number of participants in this category will grow.
Also the popular, powerful Chevrolet Corvette No. 8 goes to REC 2024. The SPORA GT team had five cars entered for the season, including the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO and Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Not all declared supercars will be able to participate in the first race of the season, but this is also part of the ‘game’ in endurance racing – it is necessary to prepare the equipment thoroughly.
The CN Pro class has been supplemented with new entries from teams using the French sports prototypes Ligier and the English Radical. A total of five sports prototypes have been announced for the season today. Organizers claim that more cars will also appear in this category as the season progresses.
REC 2024 will feature the strongest drivers in the country, including those who have already achieved success in recent years, both in this championship and in international series. Rinat Salikhov, Sergey Borisov and Denis Remenyako have extensive experience in marathons and GT racing, both in Russia and abroad.
Michael Belov and Konstantin Tereshchenko are known for their participation in European youth formula series. Marat Khairov, who spent his debut season in the German ADAC GT4 series last year, also returns to REC. And of course everyone is looking forward to endurance racing legend Roman Rusinov at the start.
It is possible that as the season progresses we will see the multiple champion of the prestigious international marathon series and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans not only behind the wheel of a Ligier prototype, but also in a completely new racing car from the Rossa house brand.
Grand Prix Car Schedule Mail.ru
2:30 PM – Opening of the circuit to spectators, start of additional activities
3:00 PM – Pit lane walk
4:45 PM – Departure and placement of cars on the starting grid.
5:00 PM – Admission of spectators to the starting grid, introduction of participants
5:30 PM – Start of the Grand Prix Auto Mail.ru / Phase I of the Moscow Championship
9:30 PM – Finish
10:00 PM – Procedure for awarding winners and runners up on the podium
Ticket programs and additional programs for spectators can be found on the series website www.superrace.ru.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
