KazanRing Circuit, July 21-22, 2018 — after a long summer break lasting for over a month and a half, the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT team arrived at Kazan with the determination to build on the progress achieved during the first weekend of summer at NRing circuit.
KazanRing Canyon is one of the most modern tracks in Russia and, according to the drivers, races here always turn out to be the most spectacular in the entire calendar of the SMP RCRS Championship, and the track itself, due to significant elevation differences and amazing skill-requiring turns, sets a high bar for both the piloting quality and the reliability of cars.
According to the results of Friday's qualification, the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT pilots Evgeny Meites and Philipp Tuponosov took the 5th and the 7th places in their class.
The first race started well for both pilots of our team. They immediately joined the battle and gained several positions. Unfortunately for Evgeny Meites, his fine start turned into serious contact with two cars of his rivals on the start straight, which led to a collision with a concrete wall of the pit lane and an offensive retirement due to the careless actions of the rivals. Philipp Tuponosov managed to avoid contact on the start straight and confidently passed the first lap, but on the second lap Philipp again faced technical issues — his Lada Granta had a turbocharger failure, which caused another withdrawal for technical reasons after two laps of the first race.
After the disappointing events of Saturday, the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT mechanics had to make a real miracle — to restore the car of Evgeny Meites, which was seriously damaged during the start of the first race, and replace the failed turbocharger on the car of Philipp Tuponosov, whose failure led to Philipp's retirement at the very beginning of the Saturday's race.
Sunday's race started quite confidently for our drivers, but almost immediately it became clear that despite all the efforts of our team mechanics, the car of Evgeny Meites could not provide a competitive racing pace because of the consequences of yesterday's accident, and Evgeny made the only right decision and concentrated on just bringing his Lada Granta to the finish and added so important points to the team's bank.
Philipp Tuponosov made a careful start and tried to stay away from racing incidents, avoiding a massive three-car pile-up on the first laps. By lap five Philipp could have counted on the first podium for the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT team in the Super Production class, but on lap 6 his Lada Granta had the timing belt broken, which resulted in another quick and very disappointing failure for technical reasons.
Despite all the difficulties that the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT team and its drivers faced at stage four of the SMP RCRS Championship in Kazan, the team and its pilots believe that luck will definitely return to them and at the next stage, which will be held at Moscow Raceway on August 11 to 12, the Autoproduct MATCH TV GTE RT team will once again perform in full force and show what it is capable of.
Race broadcasting:
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