On July 13, the third stage of the main summer retro races – the Classic Touring Series 2024!
The 2024 season is supported by the global tire manufacturer YOKOHAMA, the title partner of the Series. The sponsor of the Classic Touring stages is Zemsky Bank. The Series races are supported by the Russian Automobile Federation.
The stage that the Series held at NRing marked the middle of the 2024 racing season and now the Classic Touring participants are getting closer to the finals.
Admission for spectators on this day was absolutely free, so anyone had the opportunity to see the races of specially prepared military classics — the famous Zhiguli, Moskvich and Volga cars. And foreign classics in the competition, where cars from BMW, Honda, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz competed. A separate race was also held for domestic ShortCut cars.
For classes A2/1-1600, A5 and A2/1-2500, the races were held as the RAF Cup for circuit racing.
Total 57 pilots registered to participate in the third stage races. Participants representing the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Trans-Baikal Territory, Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Republic of Belarus, Kemerovo Region and other cities and regions took their cars to the track.
As at all other CT Series events, the podium places are decided based on the results of two races. Therefore, throughout the entire racing day, pilots need to show good speed and consistency of results.
The racing day opened with the United 1 race, where domestically developed ShortCut cars competed. The smallest race — there were only four participants at this stage — was distinguished by a vibrant fight for prizes. The pilots, having started straight away, set an excellent rhythm for this racing day. Peleton leader Anton Rybkin loses his position in the first race due to an unfortunate mistake. But in the end, due to a collision between Ivan Gerasimov and Artem Leontyev, who were fighting for the first position, he managed to regain the leadership. In the second race, the winner of the first race did not share the track with Alexander Nesterov and finished third.
Winners of the stage in the ShortCut class:
< li>Anton Rybkin
The United 2 race featured modern touring cars. In the Open 1600 class, Alexander Voronov became the undisputed leader. In the second race, Dmitry Ravikov tried to retain the first position, but in the end lost to Voronov. Denis Kachura tried to beat Evgeniy Galitsky in the fight for third place right up to the checkered flag of the first race, but his efforts were unsuccessful. But in the second race, on the last lap, Kachura overtook Vladimir Cherevan and finished third. Alexander Voronov received +30 seconds for a collision with Denis Kachura’s car. Pilot Stanislav Agafonov, who showed the best result in qualifying, easily took the lead in the Open 2000 class and chalked up a winning double in the stage races.
Winners of the stage in the Open Class (Open 1600):
Winners of the stage in the Open Class (Open 2000):
United 3 is one of the most long-awaited races for many, the most popular race of the Soviet classic combat. In the A2/1-1300 class there was again no equal to Alexey Petrov, who chalked up two victories. In the A2/1-1600 class, pilot Vakhtang Dimitradze tried to force a fight on the current season leader Ivan Vershinin, but victory in the first race still went to Ivan. In the second race, Ivan Vershinin could not start and went into the race very late and lost the prize position. In the A5 class, the season favorites suffered setbacks due to technical problems. In the first race, Pavel Tseplyaev had problems; the pilot slid off the racing surface and did not continue the race. And already in the second race, his main competitor, Vladimir Cherevan, pulled off to the side of the road and did not finish. One of the class leaders, driver Taras Laukart, in the second race enters the pit lane after the first lap and drops out of the fight.
Winners of the stage in class A2/1-1300:
Winners of the stage in class A2/1-1600 (Traditional competition):
Winners of the stage in class A2/1-1600 (RAF Cup):
Winners of the stage in class A5 (Traditional competition):< /b>
Winners of the stage in class A5 (RAF Cup):
During one race United 4 pilots competed in the domestic classic Volga, LADA Kalina cars and foreign cars. The leader of the racing field and the Touring Classic 16V class, Anton Solodikhin, finished in first position both times, not losing it to his competitors. Dmitry Kozlov, who finished in second position in the first race, finished the second race in the pit lane. In the A2/1-2500 class, where Volga cars compete, Vadim Antipov wins the first race with a big advantage. But the main drama for this class unfolded in the second race. Three laps before the finish, Ruslan Tolokonnikov, in the fight for second position, knocks out Pavel Pastushkov and he loses several positions. But already on the next lap, Ruslan Tolokonnikov himself loses the podium position due to contact with Shamil Iksakov. And class leader Vadim Antipov loses leadership due to contact with a participant from another class, Ilya Kashin. The pilot and leader of the second race in the Tourism 1600 class, Ilya Kashin, cannot withstand the impact and retires due to contact. The first race in this class was won by the youngest participant in the Series, Yaroslav Grekov, ahead of Natalya Goltsova, but in the second race Natalya came to first position.
Winners of the stage in class A2/1-2500:
Stage winners in the Touring Classic 16V class:
Stage winners in the Tourism 1600 class:
Stage winners in the team standings:
For some participants in the Series, this stage became especially significant. The leader of the Touring Classic 16V class, pilot Anton Solodikhin, proposed to his girlfriend Anna during the award ceremony for the winners of the third stage.
On this day, representatives of regional clubs and communities that support love and interest in classic cars gathered in the paddock of the NRing race track as participants in a retro exhibition. Volga Club Saransk, Gazteam52, Moskvich Club “AZLK.NNOV” and DDR-Club presented their cars. All participants of the exhibition took their lap of honor around the Nizhny Novgorod Ring at sunset of the racing day.
The CT Series stage was held jointly with the friendly Championship and Cup of the Republic of Belarus. Partner support for the Classic Touring Series in the 2024 season is provided by SPKB Techno “Attractive Plant”. Partners of the CT Series are also the official distributor of outdoor equipment HISUN in Russia and the TSS Group company.
Information support for Classic Touring in the 2024 season is denied by the online magazine of news and events of the motor industry MOTORCITY.PRO, the online newspaper » Reedus», the author's telegram channel First Place, the information and entertainment project Ruevents.ru, the online glossy Somanyhorses.ru, the online publication Kolesa.ru. The regional information partner of the Series is the newspaper “Nizhegorodskaya Pravda” (Pravda-NN).
The next stage of the Classic Touring Series will take place on July 27-28 at Igora Drive together with the already iconic Garage Fest festival!
