Smolensk Ring Circuit, June 22-23, 2019 — GTE Racing Team sent two racing cars in S1600 and Super Production classes to compete at Smolensk Ring Circuit well-loved by many pilots.
The main pilot of the team, Philipp Tuponosov, drove LADA Granta FL S1600, specially prepared by Lada Sport for the S1600 class; Andrey Yemelin was replaced by Vasily Vladykin to drive Mazda 3, specially prepared for the Super Production class.
Philipp Tuponosov showed good speed in the qualification for the first race of the S1600 class sufficient to start in 7th place.
At the start of Saturday's race, Philipp Tuponosov made a daring attempt of extremely late braking to the first corner, which enabled him to win back three positions, but because of the tight fight in the peloton, Philipp was not able to accelerate well when coming out of the first corner and fell back to the 7th place, from which he took the start. Thanks to the fast pace, Philipp got right back into the action and within a couple of laps was able to win back a few positions, but when coming out of one of the most difficult corners of the track, the GTE Racing Team main driver made a mistake that dropped him back to the 10th place. The new breakthrough ended with a spectacular collision in the last corner 3 laps before the finish. Sergey Shchegolev, driving Hyundai Solaris, suddenly "slammed the gate" in front of Philipp when the GTE Racing Team driver had already caught up with his rival in the Parabolica corner, which led to a collision at over 100 kilometers per hour. The collision caused Hyundai to spin and hit the safety barrier, and Philipp was able to quickly get back on track and finish 9th in the first race of the weekend. After the race had finished, the SMP RCRS stewards made a detailed analysis of the collision between Sergey and Philipp, which from some angles looked controversial and required drivers' personal explanations. The final verdict put the blame for the collision on the driver of the Hyundai Solaris, who made a dangerous maneuver without being sure of the position of Philipp's car.
Philipp started Sunday's race from the ninth position. After several false starts in the previous stages, the GTE Racing Team main driver paid special attention to practicing the starting procedure which paid off: Philipp started confidently, without losing positions by the first corner. It had rained from the start and by the second half of the race, the track was really slippery, leading to a series of mistakes and accidents in the peloton. Philipp was able to avoid serious mistakes, and even after another frustrating collision with Sergey Shchegolev on the last lap, the GTE Racing Team driver was able to continue the battle and see the checkered flag in 8th place.
After the first three stages, Philipp is 8th in the S1600 class individual classification with 44 points.
In the Super Production class, GTE Racing Team driver Vasily Vladykin finished his first qualification in a good 5th place. Vasily started calmly, no positions were lost by the first corner, but by the end of the first lap, Vasily was 7th in the tail of the tight group, fighting for places from 3rd to 8th. After three laps of continuous wheel-to-wheel battle, Evgeny Meites, the driver of Autoproduct MATCH TV SMP RT optimistically attacked Mazda 3 of GTE Racing Team, drove off the track, lost control of his car, crashed into Vasily at over 100 kilometers per hour, sending Vasily into the barrier at an almost straight angle. As a result of this incident, both drivers went off the race, and Vasily's Mazda 3 was so badly damaged after the impact that its recovery before the start of Sunday's race was impossible.
The fourth stage of the 2019 SMP RCRS Championship will be held on July 13-14 at KazanRing Circuit.