Arkady Tsaregradtsev scored 99 points in both qualifying attempts. For the first time in the 2024 Russian Drift Series Grand Prix season, full pairs were formed in the TOP-32. Two of the four pilots of the interregional tournament RDS Europe, who received a wild card for the 3rd stage of the RDS GP in St. Petersburg, reached the TOP 16.
Since 2020, the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix (RDS GP) has invariably held stages in St. Petersburg at the Igora Drive circuit, but in the 2024 season, for the first time in history, a “reverse” configuration of the area being evaluated was used. This change, insignificant at first glance, seriously affected the balance of power, since it equalized the capabilities of experienced pilots of the country's main drift championship and newcomers to the series. And at the same time, it forced the athletes to make every effort to find an approach to a difficult route in a short training time.
Acceleration to a set-up through a turn, the need to maintain control over the car in manji (dynamic swinging of the car from one side of the track to the other on its straight section), as well as a series of shifts were not within everyone’s control. Especially when the doubles races started. On Saturday, in qualifying, everything went without any problems — 27 pilots out of 33 entered athletes entered the informal “90+ club”, setting another record for its representativeness.
The best in the first ever RDS GP qualification on the “reverse” version of Igora Drive was the 2022 champion Arkady Tsaregradtsev. The leader of the “Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport” team scored 99 points out of 100 in both of his attempts, demonstrating incredible stability. Evgeniy Losev from the Fresh Racing team also received 99 points from the judges, but the second attempt at 98.5 points deprived the pilot of victory in qualifying. The top three were closed by the representative of LUKOIL Racing Drift Team Grigory Gusev with the best performance by 98.5 points.
All four pilots of the RDS Europe interregional tournament successfully made it to the TOP-32, who received a wild card to the RDS GP stage in St. Petersburg. Opening the qualifications as beginners, they immediately announced themselves as strong competitors, being the first to earn membership cards to the “90+ club”. Artem Leitis from the Lemarc Yakhnich Motorsport Winline Team drove 90 points and became 26th, and the athletes of the Predator Drift Team were Alexey Kozlov (92.5 points), Alexander Abramov (91.5 points) and Ilya Polishchuk (90.5 points) – became 19th, 21st and 24th, respectively.
Taking into account the incredible density of qualifying results, Saturday's grid of paired races turned out to be very unusual, which could not but affect the course of the races. Not everyone was able to find the optimal car settings and adapt to the rhythm of movement on the new version of Igora Drive, so a rare duel was done without contacts or errors that forced the judges to order re-runs (OMT) to determine the winner.
The Popov brothers from “Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport” competed in the intra-team derby — neither Ilya nor Vladislav spared any equipment, so both races turned out to be rich in contacts. Evgeniy Losev even got a ticket to the TOP-16 through a single pass “bye run” when he was rammed by Sergey Sak from AIMOL AUTOBAN during the staging. Damir Idiyatulin from the Moscow team Fresh Racing lost his opponent when Alexey Vakhtin from VSTeam CarX announced a technical withdrawal. Similarly, Denis Sorokopud (LUKOIL Racing Drift Team) made it into the Sunday duels when Carville Racing representative Nikita Shikov’s car broke down during warm-up.
Roman Tivodar (Takayama Forward Auto) made a rare mistake and lost to Anatoly Shcherbak (VSTeam CarX). In a series of OMT races, two wild card participants representing the St. Petersburg Predator Drift Team were able to break into the TOP 16: Ilya Polishchuk and Alexey Kozlov broke the resistance of Nikolai Gorkovenko and Andrey Astapov (LUKOIL Racing Drift Team).
One of the most exciting races of the day was the duel between the two strongest drivers of the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix. Four-time RDS GP champion Georgy Chivchyan (Takayama Forward Auto) and last year's vice-champion Anton Kozlov (Carville Racing) had incredibly tight and synchronized races. Both were good in the role of leader and pursuer, but Gocha was still stronger, and Anton stopped fighting at the stage.
RDS GP 2024. 3rd stage. «Igora Drive». Top 16:
- Arkady Tsaregradtsev – Maxim Grossman
- Vladislav Popov – Ilya Polishchuk
- Damir Idiyatulin — Anatoly Shcherbak
- Grigory Burlutsky — Sergey Kuznetsov
- Evgeny Losev — Georgy Chivchyan
- Artem Shabanov — Denis Sorokopud
- Denis Migal — Alexey Kozlov
- Anton Klyamko — Leonid Schneider
As a result of a fierce struggle, only the Fresh Racing and TimeUp teams were able to reach the TOP-16 in full force. Two pilots each will represent “Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport” and Predator Drift Team, and Carville Racing, LUKOIL Racing Drift Team, Takayama Forward Auto, AUTOBAN AIMOL, VSTeam CarX each brought one representative to the stage of Sunday duels.
The fight for prizes in the third stage of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series 2024 continued on the Igora Drive track on June 23. At 14:00 Moscow time, the TOP-16 pair races started, based on the results of which pairs of participants in further stages will be formed, up to the final, which will determine the name of the first winner of the RDS GP on the “reverse” configuration of the track in St. Petersburg.