REC: Results of the rain race at Moscow Raceway

On September 25, a 4-hour MRW REC endurance race, the third leg of the Russian Endurance Challenge-2022 series, took place at Moscow Raceway near Moscow. Also, as part of the race weekend, a single-stage championship of the Moscow region in “long” races was played.

A total of 25 crews in five classes participated in the third phase of REC-2022 – CN Sport Prototype, CN 1.6 Sport Prototype, GT Pro, GT and GT Light. In total more than 40 crews and 100
pilots.

An additional factor that made it difficult for the teams to enter the competition was the cold weather (that day in the Moscow region it was +8) and the drizzle, which either decreased or intensified.

Qualifying was won by crew No. 26 of the G-Drive Racing team (drivers – Roman Rusinov, Sergey Afanasiev) on the G-Drive G01 sports prototype, with a time of 1:34.723. Less than a second (1:35.577) lost from them the crew No. 48 of the Yadro Motorsport team (drivers Sergey Stolyarov, Rinat Salikhov) on Mercedes AMG GT3. In third place with a score of 1:36.057 is another member of the GT Pro class – Mercedes GT3 with start number 13 (Capital RT team, drivers Denis Remenyako, Mikhail Aleshin).

The start was won by crew 48 of the Yadro Motorsport team. In the early laps he was chased by another Mercedes car – No. 13 of the Capital RT team. But Roman Rusinov took fourth position and even missed the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup No. 23 of the Spora GT team (drivers Alexey Dudukalo, Evgeny Rumyantsev, Sergey Titorenko).

Two events that pre-determined the outcome of the stage took place closer to the middle of the race. By this time, crew No. 23 of the Spora GT team was leading the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, but after the pit stop, Evgeny Rumyantsev, who replaced Alexey Dudukalo at the wheel, flew off the track on cold tires in the conditions of once again intensified rain and the car crashed into a tire barrier.

The second major event of the race was the incident involving the sporting prototype number 26 of the G-Drive Racing team.

Shortly after the pit stop, his left rear wheel came off – it happened at the very beginning of the straight. And although the car returned to the track after the repair, the consequences of this incident did not allow Rusinov and Afanasyev to drive at the pace of the leaders.

Despite this, despite additional forced pit stops, they finished with such important points in their CN Sport Prototype class.

In the GT Pro class, after the retirement of the No. 23 crew, the intrigue was reduced to which of the two Mercedes-powered crews (No. 13 or No. 48) would rise to the first step of the podium in the general standings. At one point the gap between them was 50 seconds – and this is after three hours of racing!

Crew No. 13 (Capital RT team) defeated their rivals mostly tactically, making pit stops later than their main competitor. Mikhail Aleshin moved into the final segment in lead, with just over a minute lead in reserve, and calmly took the race to victory.

Third overall and first in the GT class was completed by crew No. 55, consisting of Renat Ibragimov and Vladimir Dragunov (RScar Motorsport team) in a Porsche Cayman GT4 CS. In their class, they were two laps ahead of their closest competitors – Marat Khairov and Viktor Shaitar, who drove BMW M4 GT4 (No. 126) for the APRTeam team.

In the CN 1.6 sports prototype class, the main battle was between Mitget No. 9 of the Zub&Ko team (Vitaly Zubenko, Evgeny Kulikov, Konstantin Zakharevsky) and Shortcut No. 21 of the Balchug Racing Team (drivers Mikhail Loboda and Kirill Kirakozov). Crew #21 was faster in qualifying and Shortcut was faster in the race, thanks to pit stop tactics and steady speed shown by both crew members.

In the GT Light class, the victory was again taken by crew No. 53, driving Mazda (Mazda Karting Academy team, drivers Valery Smirnov, Arina Sukhanova).

Mikhail Aleshin, Capital RT team, SMP Racing BR03 project director, overall and GT Pro class winner: “The race was great. We had serious rivals in car number 48. But today we were a bit more lucky, we had a little better guessing with the settings, despite the conditions being incredibly difficult.

Rain is always hard, and when it rains and it’s very cold, the tires don’t get hot at all, it’s very hard to drive. And all the flights and accidents today are proof of that.

Renat Ibragimov, RScar Motorsport team, GT class winner: “Weather conditions were very difficult, but we were lucky to have the Porsche Cup here yesterday and we were in even worse conditions. So this time we were ready, we knew how to set the tire pressure, what the tactics should be.

The race itself went smoothly for us, without any force majeure. The only problem is that our car is not very suitable for refueling quickly, so at every pit stop we lost 2 minutes to competitors. But even taking this into account, we were able to get ahead of all the rivals and come in third overall.

It was my first time in “long” races. The impressions of participation are very cool. I drove the first part for 40 hours, the last – 40 minutes. Passed in one breath. The size is what you need!

Igor Ermilinhead of the REC organizing committee: “If we talk about our country, then the prototypes of the CN class (G-Drive G01 and even BR03, specially made for racing in Russia) can currently only participate in REC races and another long race – Achmat Race.

In GT Pro we have powerful, fast Mercedes from the GT3 class, which is about 5 seconds faster than the GT4 that the same teams use in the RCRS. This means more excitement, more emotions, so the battle between the CN and GT3 prototypes is the most spectacular and sharp.

In addition, the prototypes still look unusual and unusual for our country, which makes them attractive in the eyes of the public.”

Race results

Absolute ranking

1. Capital RT – (#13) – 111 laps
2. YADRO Motorsport (#48) – 110 Laps
3. RScar Motorsport (#55) – 104 Laps

GT Pro Class

1. Capital RT (#13) – 111 laps
2. YADRO Motorsport (#48) – 110 Laps
3. IY Engineering & Mospolytech (#7) – 87 laps

GT class

1. (#55) RScar Motorsport (#55) – 104 Laps
2. (#126) APRTeam (#126) – 102 laps
3. (#37) Iskra Motorsport 37 (#37) – 99 Laps

GT Light class

1. Mazda Karting ACADEMY 53 (#53) – 89 laps
2. RK-Sport (no. 8) – 77 laps
3. Otets and Son (#96) – 73 laps

Sports prototype class CN

1. G-Drive Racing (#26) – 76 laps

Sports prototype class CN 1.6

1. BALCHUG Racing Team (№21) – 92 Laps
2. Zub&Ko (#9) + 1:49.624
3. Porsche Club Moscow (No. 18) – 89 laps