KazanRing Canyon Circuit, July 13-14, 2019. GTE Racing Team sent two race cars in S1600 and Super Production classes to compete on the short and skill-requiring KazanRing Canyon track.
The main pilot of the team, Philipp Tuponosov, drove LADA Granta FL S1600, specially prepared by Lada Sport for the S1600 class, Vasily Vladykin after a serious accident in the last race, tried himself again at the wheel of the Mazda 3, specially prepared for the Super Production class.
KazanRing Canyon is one of the most modern tracks in Russia and, according to the drivers, races here are always really spectacular, and the track itself with its significant height differences of about 30 meters and amazing skill-requiring turns, sets a high bar for both the piloting quality and the reliability of cars.
According to the results of the S1600 class qualification, which was held on Friday, Philipp Tuponosov took 10th place on the starting grid of Saturday's race.
Philipp was able to perfectly take the rolling start, and after a short sprint to the first corner, which was only a few hundred meters long, Philipp won five positions. On the first laps, the race was characterized by an extremely tight battle on all levels, and lots of overtakes and collisions, one of which led to a safety car appearance already on lap three of the race. The safety car regime was removed on lap 6 and the tight battle in the peloton resumed immediately. Unfortunately, on the tyres, cooled down after three slow laps, Philipp touched the gravel trap with the rear wheel of his car by just a few centimeters and as a result of the subsequent U-turn, the main driver of GTE Racing Team rolled back to the last place, almost hitting the safety barrier. Just two laps after the race resumed there was another serious accident – a group of three drivers could not share the back straight, which resulted in a "box" and severe damage to two more cars. For the third time, the safety car left the track on lap ten, but it did not affect the character of the race. With 5 laps to go, the drivers, continuing to fight on the track, gave the spectators an endless series of overtakes, contacts, and collisions, two of which involved Philipp. As a result of the fierce battle, Philipp was able to finish the race in the 6th place, earning good points in one of the most exciting, exhausting, and challenging races of the season.
Thanks to the traditional inverted grid, Philipp started Sunday's race in the 2nd place. Unfortunately, a good start for Philipp and two other drivers ended up with a drive-through the pit lane penalty, as the stewards found out that there were false starts on the first lap. Philipp returned to the end of the peloton and could only hope to minimize losses and finish in the points. On the remaining laps, the GTE Racing Team main pilot was able not only to pick up the pace but also make some beautiful and risky overtakes of his rivals using extremely late braking in the first corner. Philipp saw the checkered flag in the 10th place, and as a result of the penalties imposed on his rivals after the finish of the race, he moved up to the 9th place.
After the first four stages, Philipp is 8th in the S1600 class individual classification with 61 points.
In the Super Production class, the GTE Racing Team pilot Vasily Vladykin finished the qualification in 8th place. Saturday's race, in which Vasily planned to make up for his failures at the last stage, ended for the GTE Racing Team pilot without even starting. Due to ignition issues, Vasily was unable to start the warm-up lap and was forced to withdraw from the race.
Due to technical issues on Saturday, Vasily had to start Sunday's race from the pit lane.
Unfortunately, Vasily could not find the optimal race pace and had to fight with his car on all eighteen laps of the distance. A difficult weekend ended with Vasily finishing in 8th place, which brought Vasily his first points of the year.
Stage 5 of the 2019 SMP RCRS Championship will be held on August 3-4 at ADM Raceway.