On August 7, a four-hour race was held at the Igora Drive circuit near St. Petersburg – the second leg of the Russian endurance racing series (REC). Fans could see Daniil Kvyat, Vitaly Petrov and Sergey Sirotkin, three Russian Formula 1 drivers, on the podium.
Twenty-three teams started in five car classes: CN Sport Prototype, CN 1.6 Sport Prototype, GT Pro, GT and GT Light. Among the crews were many famous and untitled riders. Here are world champions in endurance racing and winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious marathon in the world, and former Formula 1 drivers and multiple national champions in various motorsport disciplines.
The race took place on the modernized circuit “Igora Drive”, whose lap length increased to 5,183 meters due to the radically rebuilt third sector.
Qualifying was won by the crew of G-Drive Racing No. 26, pilots Roman Rusinov, Daniil Kvyat) on the sports prototype G-Drive G01, with a time of 1.50.474. A whole second (1:51.483) was lost in front of him by the crew of the Yadro Motorsport team (No. 4, pilots Sergey Stolyarov, Rinat Salikhov) in a Mercedes AMG GT3. Crew #13 of the Capital Racing Team, the winner of the general classification of the first stage of the REC, (Denis Remenyako and Adam Cristodulu, driving Mercedes AMG GT3), took third place on the starting grid with a score of 1: 52,806.
In “long” races, the qualifying result is not decisive, unlike the “normal” ring. Here everything is determined by the reliability of equipment, well-coordinated work of the whole team and competent tactics of pit stops.
The race turned out to be very eventful. The start was won by crew No. 13, but they only held the lead for a few laps. Just like two weeks ago, the public’s attention was drawn to the battle between the trio of sports prototypes – the G-Drive Racing and BR Engineering teams (No. 17 and No. 11, the Russian-made sports prototype BR03). During the first part of the distance, they switched positions several times. And behind them was a serious battle between the two Mercedes #13 and #4 of the GT Pro category.
In fact, these five crews became the main contenders for victory in the absolute. Almost every series of pit stops brought changes in the leading group. As a result, 40 minutes before the finish, after the next series of pit stops, came out on top.
Roman Rusinov, a multiple winner of the European endurance racing series, confidently took the race to victory. And the tightness of the battle on the track is evidenced by the fact that the second prize winner, the Yadro Motorsport team (No. 4), lost just over a minute to the winner. It also enabled Sergey Stolyarov and Rinat Salikhov to take first place in the GT Pro class.
The top three overall winners (2nd place in the CN Sport Prototype class) were completed by SMP Racing drivers Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov (No. 11, Sport Prototype BR03, BR Engineering Team).
Crew #83 of the Motor Sharks team (pilots Anton Nemkin, Ivan Lukashevich) won the most massive GT class. In the GT Light category, the battle for position continued until the final laps. But in the end, the strongest crew was No. 53 (Valery Smirnov, Arina Sukhanova, Mazda Karting Academy team).
And finally, in the CN 1.6 sports prototype class, there were no equals for the No. 14 crew of the Medved RT team, which was represented by David Poghosyan, Vasily Vladykin and Mikhail Loboda.
The race was not smooth sailing for everyone. Once again, the Marussia GT (No. 7, IY Engineering team) mechanics had a lot of work to do. At the very end of qualifying, a crumbling poll caused red flags to appear across the track. And on Sunday, Vitaly Larionov and Michael Belov spent nearly half of their time in the pits as their mechanics struggled with technical issues.
The Peugeot of the team Speed Way Rancho has problems with the oil changer. This is all the more disappointing as in qualifying, crew No. 15 was fast and took pole position in its class. In addition, several cars were prevented by flat tires…
As for the renovated track, here the pilots were unanimous in their assessments: after the reconstruction of the ring, Igora Drive can be put on a par with the best race tracks in the world.
Roman Rusinova, G-Drive team, CN Sport Prototype and overall winner: “The track is very steep, with very fast corners! I think this is one of the best songs in the world right now.
We have a very good car, we have given ourselves 100 percent. This allowed us to show an excellent result in the debut race and we were able to win.”
Sergei StolyarovYadro Motorsport team, GT Pro class winner:
“I am very happy with both the track and the race. The job is just great! It’s very interesting to drive a GT3 car on it. We have completed the main task for the race. We are first in class. We were unlucky at the first pit stop. Due to the failure of filling equipment, we lost one and a half to two minutes. Then we just made up for what we lost. But then everything got better and we got where we wanted to go.”
Mikhail Aleshin, BR Engineering team, director of the BR 03 project of the SMP Racing race program: “We had a great race. The car proved to be very competitive. But we miscalculated a bit with the strategy and came in third, even though we were first before that.
As a project manager I am very satisfied with the result. Both teams reached the finish without any problems at full speed. This is an excellent result for the entire SMP Racing program. And this shows that we are on the right track. I want to thank everyone at BR Engineering: everyone is great!”
Anastasia Bendikova, director of sports club ASPAS: “In September, the next REC stage will take place on the Kazan Ringbaan. We invite another Russian F1 driver, Nikita Mazepin, to join our series. Then we almost get a royal flush – all Russian Formula 1 drivers in one race, which their fans will be very happy with.”
Russian Endurance Challenge (REC) is an endurance race type competition, with the distinguishing features being long distance (the race lasts 4 hours or more) and pilot changes during the race. In its current format, endurance races have been held in Russia since 2015.
The winners will be determined both in the general classification and in the classes. This year the number of stages has been expanded to four. There are still two stages to go: at Kazan-Ring (September 24) and Sochi Autodrom (October 23).
General organizer of the series – ANO “SK ASPAS”; stage organizer – ANO “Rosgonki”.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
