Fort Grozny Circuit, April 20-21, 2019 — after the successful 2018 season, the GTE Racing Team had a busy winter and as a result of thorough and intense preparation sent three cars in three different classes at once, S1600, Super Production, and Formula 4, to start the first stage of the 2019 SMP RCRS Championship.
In the 2019 season, the main driver of the GTE Racing Team, Philipp Tuponosov, moved to the most popular and spectacular class of the SMP RCRS Championship — S1600, which offers drivers specially prepared race cars up to 170 hp.
After the first season qualification, Philipp started LADA Granta FL S1600 from the 11th position on the starting grid.
The start of the first race in S1600 class turned out to be very difficult for the whole peloton, as it was raining heavily on the Fort Grozny circuit. During the spurt to the first corner, the audience witnessed some spectacular accidents and mistakes of the leaders and the middle group. Philipp tried to be as careful as possible not to damage his car on the first lap and immediately rushed to chase his rivals after its end. The race, lasting 17 laps to the finish, was full of flashy collisions, mistakes, and overtaking caused by the wet asphalt and low tyre temperature, which all drives fought with to the finish. Philipp made five overtakes, including a constant wheel-to-wheel fight, a few laps before the finish he achieved 6th place, but a minor mistake in the last sector dropped Philipp to the 8th place, where he saw the checkered flag.
By Sunday's race, the weather in Grozny had improved and the rain had stopped. Philipp Tuponosov started from the 3rd position, taking the lead by the first corner. Unfortunately, the stewards later recorded a small false start of Philipp, which led to a drive-through pit lane penalty and the loss of all the positions won. Before the finish, Philipp could only slightly compensate for his losses, and after several successful overtakes, the 10th place was added to the GTE Racing Team collection at the finish of Sunday's race. Following the results of two races, Philipp brought his GTE Racing Team 14 points.
In the Super Production class, GTE Racing Team put on the start a specially prepared Mazda 3 driven by Andrey Yemelin.
Due to technical issues during the qualification, Andrey had to start with a famous racer Alexander Garmash from the pit lane in the first race. The start, as in S1600 class, brought many surprises to the drivers because of the weather conditions, giving the spectators a lot of overtaking and accidents. Unfortunately, after the finish Andrey was disqualified for technical reasons, hoping to win back in Sunday's race.
Andrey Yemelin started the second race in 9th place. After a good start, Andrey kept a high pace and managed to overtake several competitors, eventually finishing sixth, bringing his team its first 10 points in the new season.
In the Formula 4 class of the Chechen Republic Cup, the GTE Racing Team fielded 2 cars at once driven by Mikhail and Yuri Loboda. Mikhail immediately took the bull by the horns and showed the best time in the qualification; Yuri took fifth place on the starting grid. The start of the race turned out to be crumpled, as 2 drivers remained on the starting grid without even starting to move.
Caused by this accident and the accident on the first laps, almost the entire first half of the race followed the safety car. After the resumption of the race, Mikhail and Yuri, unfortunately, could not warm up the tyres enough and maintain their outstanding pace shown in the qualification. Yuri finished the race in 6th place, and Mikhail was seventh, just after Yuri.
Stage 2 of the 2019 SMP RCRS Championship will be held on May 18-19 at NRing Circuit.