Fort Grozny Circuit, October 7, 2018 — the first weekend in October saw truly eventful and spectacular racing at the Fort Grozny circuit. In addition to the final stage of the SMP RCRS Championship, where our Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT team had its debut and deserved race win in the Super Production class, the AKHMAT RACE 2018 took place at the Fort Grozny circuit on October 7.
Unlike classic races of traditional duration from 15 minutes to 2 hours, endurance marathons imply a longer stay of drivers on the track, where 2-3 racers are required in the same crew to replace each other along the distance. The main factors necessary to win in such races are foresight, careful attitude to the equipment, maintaining a steady race pace throughout the entire distance, and maximum concentration of the drivers.
With a 200-minute duration + 1 lap, the AKHMAT RACE 2018 offered drivers a wide range of options in choosing the class of race cars. Real racing cars, such as the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Mercedes AMG GT4, and more traditional for the SMP RCRS format sports cars of the Touring and National classes were at the start.
Also in 2018, the organizers introduced a new Shortcut class. The Shortcut is a kind of Russian analogue of the legendary Lotus Seven sports car developed by the legendary F1 designer Colin Chapman. The main principle of this Russian-made sports car is the minimum weight and maximum grip. The characteristics of Shortcut are quite impressive. The engine has 184-194 hp and is installed on the car weighing 500 kg. This combination allows accelerating up to 100 km/h in less than 5 seconds and showing the lap times on the level of the race cars prepared according to the requirements of the Super Production class.
For participation in the AKHMAT RACE 2018, the DK Racing GTE RT team chose the Shortcut, fielding a promising crew of Philipp Tuponosov and Mikhail Loboda, who had to drive the sports car over the 200-minute distance + 1 lap.
According to the results of the qualification, the pilots of DK Racing GTE RT took 11th place in the overall classification and 1st place in the Shortcut class, which automatically put them in the category of leaders of the class.
Mikhail Loboda took the start perfectly, and despite some minor mistakes in piloting by the end of his segment Mikhail only increased the advantage of the DK Racing GTE RT team over their rivals in the class.
On lap 41, Mikhail was replaced by Philipp Tuponosov. The main goal of Philipp was to keep the lead of our crew and take care of the equipment until the end of his shift. Having made a routine stop on lap 71 Philipp continued the race. Philipp's shift lasted until lap 88, and Philipp, having fulfilled all his goals and challenges, handed the Shortcut over to Mikhail Loboda.
Realizing that only the final part of the race was ahead, Mikhail tried to push the pace as much as possible, while being exemplary calm and concentrated. On lap 120, after a few hours of intense battles with rivals and equipment, the DK Racing GTE RT crew was the first to see the checkered flag in their class and the sixth in the overall marathon classification, ahead of many distinguished racers in faster cars. The closest rival in the Shortcut class lost more than three laps to the DK Racing GTE RT crew, which confirms the high pace and stability of our drivers throughout the distance of the AKHMAT RACE 2018.
Globaltechexport Ltd. cordially congratulates Philipp and Mikhail on their well-deserved victory and wishes them success in the season 2019.