The leader of the TimeUp team became an RDS winner a record five times at five stages in a row G.P. Andrey Astapov reached the final of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series for the first time in his career. Georgy Chivchyan prevailed over Evgeny Losev in the battle for third place.
The fifth round of the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix (RDS GP 2024) on the Moscow Raceway track in its «reverse» configuration became one of the most interesting weekends in the entire 15-year history of the tournament. Pilots who were not expected to make it to the TOP-16 and quarter-finals, and veterans of the series fought for a maximum of third place. The main battle for victory was between a debutant of the main national drift championship and one of the honored RDS GP pilots, who reached the final for the first time. And for the second weekend in a row, youth prevailed over experience.
TimeUp team rookie Artem Shabanov continued his unprecedented series of ten consecutive podiums in various drift tournaments and five consecutive finishes in the top three at the five past stages of the RDS GP 2024 season. Having started his career in the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix with bronze and silver awards, the Muscovite won the coveted «gold» at ADM Raceway at the fourth stage. And he won another victory at the fifth race of the season. Again — on the Moscow Raceway track in the «reverse» configuration, and again — in changeable weather conditions on a surface wet from rain.
The vagaries of nature played one of the main roles in the distribution of not only the prize positions, but also the places in the TOP-16. On Saturday, at the TOP-32 stage, rain fell on the track, which forced the athletes to adapt to the state of the racing surface. Not everyone succeeded, but the track with rain-filled and dry sections gave some pilots the opportunity to prove themselves: Boris Abramov, Anton Dmitrienko and Vladislav Erofeev made it to the Sunday TOP-16 duels for the first time this season. And if Abramov and Dmitrienko suffered defeat in the subsequent heats (Boris lost to the AVTOBAN AIMOL pilot Sergey Sak, and Anton to the future stage prize winner Andrey Astapov from LUKOIL Racing Drift Team), then Vladislav Erofeev sensationally won over the experienced Grigory Gusev (LUKOIL Racing Drift Team) and reached the TOP-8!
Together with him, the Fresh Racing duo of Damir Idiyatulin (who defeated the bright newcomer of AVTOBAN AIMOL Sergey Kuznetsov) and Evgeny Losev (he won the race with the representative of Carville Racing Anton Kozlov), as well as the leader of Takayama Forward Auto Georgy Chivchyan (he lost to Denis Sorokopud from LUKOIL Racing Drift Team) made it to the quarterfinals. In the intra-team derby «Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport», the winner of the qualification Arkady Tsaregradtsev suddenly lost to the young Ilya Popov.
The last participant of the TOP-8 was the leader of the personal classification of the 2024 season Artem Shabanov, who won the battle with his TimeUp partner Leonid Schneider. The duel turned out to be spectacular, because during the passage, the leader Schneider went into a skid after the power steering failed, and when Shabanov was the leader, he flew out after the drive broke down. TimeUp was unable to fix Leonid's car in the 5 minutes allotted to them, so Artem was declared the winner of this hit through a single bye run.
Considering that both Shabanov and Idiyatulin, who were fighting for the championship this season, ended up in the TOP-8, the fate of the leadership in the personal standings directly depended on the final position of each pilot. For Damir, it all ended in a duel with Evgeny Losev, who won this intra-team confrontation and got into the semi-finals. The judges identified the winner in these incredibly dense, super-spectacular runs only through OMT (re-runs), which brought incredible pleasure to thousands of fans in the stands of Moscow Raceway and at the RDS TV broadcast screens.
Artem managed to defeat Ilya Popov and secured his leadership in the season by reaching the TOP-4. Andrey Astapov defeated Sergey Sak, and Georgy Chivchyan defeated Vladislav Erofeev, so there were four very different pilots in the semi-finals: the most titled, one of the most aggressive, one of the most experienced, but without much success behind him, and also an ambitious newcomer to the tournament. And it turned out that the stars of the series only had to play for third place among themselves. Gocha lost his chances of winning after contact with Astapov, and Losev, although incredibly good in passing with Shabanov, could not overcome the pressure of his opponent. Two «debutants» met in the decisive battle: Artem Shabanov, who is spending his first season in RDS GP, and Andrey Astapov, who reached the final of the main national drift championship for the first time.The path to these battles lay through a lot of OMT races, and the final stage of determining the winners of the stage could not do without re-races. And in both pairs. In the battle of Losev vs. Chivchyan, the judges gave the victory to Gocha, who thereby provided his new sports car based on the Nissan Z with a second consecutive podium. In the decisive confrontation between Shabanov and Astapov, the judges had to work hard to identify the strongest in «synchronized swimming», into which the final hits were turned by bad weather. As a result, the second time in a row, the victory went to the representative of TimeUp Artem Shabanov, and Andrey Astapov for the second time in his career (the pilot was in the top three for the first time exactly a year ago at the same «reverse» version of Moscow Raceway) climbed to the podium and achieved his best result in RDS GP.The strongest always wins, but there is intrigue every time. At this stage, for example, the weather made everyone nervous. In drifting, every mistake costs a very large loss in points, so the most stable one wins. But in RDS GP, the TOP-8 is already full of professionals who feel very good on all surfaces. It is nice that today there was not a single accidental victory — all the pilots were deservedly on the podium, they and their teams were the best and worked very hard. Dmitry Dobrovolsky, Head of the Russian Drift Series 
Artem Shabanov was very consistent in all conditions: on dry land, in the rain, and — the most difficult — on mixed roads. In drifting, as in any motorsport, the team plays a decisive role. Shabanov is a talent, a diamond in the crown of Russian drifting, who has every chance of becoming the Russian James Dean due to his consistency. But without a team and a well-prepared car, his skill will not matter. As soon as he went to TimeUp, everything started to work out. The balance between the skill of the pilot, engineering skills and teamwork is the key to victory. Dmitry Dobrovolsky Head of the Russian Drift Series 
A difficult stage. The Moscow Raceway track is some kind of cursed place for my car, because it refuses to go there, but I am happy with how everything turned out. I remember the races with Evgeny Losev very well, where I had to work hard, but in the end I came as close as possible to my goal — to become champion ahead of schedule already in Krasnoyarsk. There, Damir Idiyatulin's performance can seriously affect the final result. As a Moscow pilot, I am alone against the Siberians, and therefore I really want to show the best possible result in their homeland. I need just a little bit to take the title, so I will throw all my strength into the team standings and try to give as much as possible to the team for its success. Artem Shabanov is a TimeUp pilot and the leader of the personal standings of RDS GP 2024 based on the results of the past five stages 
RDS GP 2024. Stage 5. Moscow Raceway. Personal standings. Top 3:
- Artem Shabanov (TimeUp) – 260 points
- Andrey Astapov (LUKOIL Racing Drift Team) – 189 points
- Georgy Chivchyan (Takayama Forward Auto) – 162 points
RDS GP 2024. Stage 5. Moscow Raceway. Team standings. Top 3:
- TimeUp – 301 points
- LUKOIL Racing Drift Team – 232 points
- Fresh Racing – 198 points
After the weekend in Moscow, Artem Shabanov increased his lead in the personal standings to almost double the advantage over Damir Idiyatulin, who is in second place. Evgeny Losev remains in third place, but his main rival is now Georgy Chivchyan.
RDS GP 2024. Personal standings after five stages. Top 3:
- Artem Shabanov (TimeUp) – 1060 points
- Damir Idiyatulin (Fresh Racing) – 662 points
- Evgeniy Losev (Fresh Racing) – 588 points
The leader in the team standings has changed – TimeUp has overtaken the champion teams Fresh Racing and Takayama Forward Auto, having every chance of winning the first title in its history. But if TimeUp and Fresh Racing are separated by several dozen points, then Takayma Forward Auto is further behind – for it, the main task will be to defend its position from the claims of LUKOIL Racing Drift Team and «Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport», which are getting closer.
RDS GP 2024. Team standings after five stages. Top 3:
- TimeUp – 1381 points
- Fresh Racing – 1320 points
- Takayama Forward Auto – 826 points
The next, sixth stage of the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix will be held in the heart of Siberia – on September 7 and 8, the country's main championship goes to the birthplace of Russian drifting, Krasnoyarsk. The «Red Ring» track will be new for Artem Shabanov and home for his main rivals. It is possible that it will be in Krasnoyarsk that the fundamental rivalry between the Muscovite and the Siberian pilots will be put to an end, and for the first time in several years, the RDS GP champion of the 2024 season will be determined ahead of schedule.