A new season of the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC kicked off in Bykovo

1 July 2019/ smp

For the first time in ten years, the national championship took place in Moscow.

Competitions were held on June 29-30 at the territory of the airfield Bykovo in Moscow region, where a drag strip was built especially for such events. Eighty-eight drivers from all Russia participated in the event and competed in four classes of the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC and Moscow region Drag Racing Championship.

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The weather has made major adjustments in the course of the competition. On Saturday, all races were canceled due to rain, and the qualifying sessions were postponed until Sunday morning. During the night, the organizers managed to dry the track and prepare if for competitions. It was originally planned that the organizers would spray all 402 meters of the distance with traction compound, a sticky glue-like substance that greatly enhances traction, but under current conditions the glued distance was limited to 200 meters, which is essential for a stable start of drag racing cars.

The last day of June was a truly long and racing day: the competition lasted 15.5 hours, from early morning until dark. Despite the forecast, there was no rain in Bykovo and all participants had time to qualify and fight for a win in each class of two championships.

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In the FSL class, Ramon Busto (Yaroslavl) not only won in the FSL class of the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC driving BMW X5M Ramon Performance, but also helped to maintain four cars prepared by his tuning studio. Evgeny Yumaev (Moscow) took second place in the Audi RS6 VAGPLUS VAGPLUS followed by Kirill Stulov in the Audi RS6 Seven Force Stage 2. This season, Evgeny’s service company of the VAG group also acts as a partner of the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC, therefore all the SMP RDRC winners were awarded special Cups from the VAGPLUS studio.

There were new participants in the FSA class, who quite successfully conducted the first round of the SMP RDRC. Sergey Sadovsky (Dolgoprudny), driving VAZ 2108, was able to climb to the third step of the podium and Vladimir Kapotov (Moscow) in the Honda Civic made his way to the quarter final and finished fourth.

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Elshan Aslanov (Moscow, Lukoil Racing Team) in the VAZ 2110 and Mustafa Murtazaev (Simferopol) in the VAZ 2108 were fighting for a FSA Cup. In the qualifying session, they showed similar results, and it was interesting to find out who was faster in the end. Unfortunately, in the decisive race, Mustafa made a false start, and his result was not counted. Elshan Aslanov took the win of the first round with the best elapsed time of 9.362 seconds (excluding the reaction rate at the start).

There were strong rivals in the FSB class this year and similar results only confirmed it. If it were not for equipment breakdowns, which are typical for the first races on the track after the winter break, the battle in the final could have been even more intense. So, after 1/8 finals, Dmitry Kapustin (Belgorod) and Maria Panova (Nakhodka) were forced to retire from the competition.

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Maria Panova, a female drag racing driver (Nakhodka), has made a sensational return to the SMP RDRC this season, driving the new for her Toyota Soarer dragster, the car that Maxim Krivobokov (Novosibirsk) drove in 2018 and took a win in the FSB class. He suggested that the girl try a more complicated vehicle, since he plans to continue performing in the Russian Championship driving another dragster.

For the first time, Panova took part in the competition in a completely rebuilt Toyota Soarer and successfully coped with a new challenge for herself, driving the distance in 9.2 seconds. Unfortunately, technical problems did not allow Maria to continue the race after the 1/8 final.

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Konstantin Krapivin (Omsk) took third place in the FS class driving Toyota Supra, following Roman Dubovets in the Toyota Chaser. He was also awarded a special prize from the head of the city district Zhukovsky for the longest trip to a race as Roman drove his car from Khabarovsk to Bykovo. Alexey Volik (St. Petersburg) took the win in the class, driving the Subaru Impreza.

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The US (Unlimited) class was the most numerous category of the championship: cars from other classes could compete on a par with Pro Modified cars of Andrey Kravchenko, Alexander Albin and Dmitry Samorukov. Edward Manasyan (KBR, Prokhladny) in the VAZ 2105 drove half of the distance on equal terms with Topspeed Promod PM100 of Kravchenko, until he was off his own strip. Both drivers skillfully managed to avoid contact, but Andrey’s car suffered from hitting a concrete fence. Therefore, only Edward could take part in the final races and as a result he took third place, following Roman Dubovets in the Toyota Chaser. Dmitry Samorukov (Zhukovsky) won the race, driving the Dodge Viper.

More than 5,000 spectators attended the first round of the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC. In addition to competitions on the drag strip, they were offered a wide variety of activities designed for family members of all ages: access to the park with racing cars, children's fun zone, racing simulators, food court and much more. They also had a chance to see the LMP2 BR01 prototype run by Russian team SMP Racing in the international series of endurance races. SMP Racing crews, driving this car, took many wins, including the bronze medal in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race. This weekend, SMP Racing driver Anton Ladygin has driven the BR01 prototype on the straight line, storming to 12.5 seconds.

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The second round of the SMP RDRC will take place on July 20-21 at the Nizhny Novgorod Ring circuit (Nizhny Novgorod region).

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Comments of the SMP RDRC Round 1 winners:


Ramon Busto (Yaroslavl), class FSL: “This time the competitions were very serious, both the Russian Championship and the Moscow Region Championship, where I also won in my class. A lot of things depended on the skill and even more success depended on the car. We were on the track from 3 a.m. and it was a very long day. It was hard to withstand it, especially in such different weather conditions. There were five cars from our company and I had to participate in their preparation and be near during their performances. I feel happy that I managed to take first place in my category.”

Elshan Aslanov (Moscow, Lukoil Racing Team), FSA class: “The emotions after the round are positive. On Friday and Saturday, we were freezing and getting wet in the rain, and probably no one expected that on Sunday the weather would still give us the opportunity to hold competitions. I have good impressions about the track, it is great, comfortable, smooth and allows you to drive fast: we achieved the result of 8.6 seconds. In principle, we could try and set a new a record, but decided with a team not to do this and concentrate on fighting for a win in our class. It was obvious to me that we would compete in the final with Mustafa Murtazaev. We needed to rematch after last year’s round in Grozny. We did our best, focused on a win and as a result we managed to achieve our goals. The final was great.”

Alexey Volik (St. Petersburg, M-technology team), FSB class: “We’ve had a goal of winning for a long time. The race was not easy, there were many technical problems. But we fought and won. I want to congratulate my friend Denis Yushkov, without his help, nothing would have happened, and also the team of M-technology, who worked hard and prepared the car. Thanks to all my friends and acquaintances who supported me. Great atmosphere, lots of positive emotions.”

Dmitry Samorukov (Zhukovsky, SMP Racing team), US class: “I really needed this victory, because this is the first round in Moscow in the last ten years. And it’s next to my native Zhukovsky city. In fact, there is no such thing as an easy victory, especially in drag racing, anything can happen at any time. We had a lot of different problems, but we set everything up perfectly and drove smoothly. It is a pity, it was not possible to compete side-by-side with our favorite rivals. I want to say a huge thank you to the organizers: they have been on the track for two nights and were preparing it for us, the drivers, so that we could show what our cars are capable of.”

The results of the SMP RDRC Round 1:

Class FSL

1. Busto Ramon (Yaroslavl), BMW X5M Ramon Performance, ¹70
2. Yumaev Evgeny (Moscow), Audi RS6 VAGPLUS VAGPLUS, ¹6
3. Kirill Stulov (Moscow), Audi RS6 Seven Force Stage 2, ¹101

Class FSA

1. Aslanov Elshan (Moscow), Lukoil Racing Team, VAZ 2110, No. 77
2. Murtazaev Mustafa (Simferopol), VAZ 2108, No. 51
3. Sadovsky Sergey (Dolgoprudny), VAZ 2108, ¹20

FSB class

1. Alex Volik (St. Petersburg), team M-technology, Subaru Impreza, ¹43
2. Roman Dubovets (Khabarovsk), Toyota Chaser, ¹777
3. Konstantin Krapivin (Omsk), Toyota Supra, ¹2

US class

1. Samorukov Dmitry (Zhukovsky), SMP Racing team, Dodge Viper, # 333
2. Roman Dubovets (Khabarovsk), Toyota Chaser, ¹777
3. Edward Manasyan (KBR, Cool), VAZ 2105, No. 54

The best results of the SMP RDRC Round 1:

Elapsed time - 7.357 seconds (Alexander Albin (Omsk), Dragster Dragster);
Overall time (taking into account the reaction time of the driver at the start) - 7.758 seconds (Dmitry Samorukov (Zhukovsky), Dodge Viper);
Speed - 296.29 km/h (Alexander Albin (Omsk), Dragster Dragster).

All the results of the SMP RDRC Round 1 are available on the website: https://dragdb.ru/public/402
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