Two racing weeks in two weeks. More recently, the racers of our partner team Innostage Ag Team conquered the most slippery and winding highway of the country in Nizhny Novgorod. And this weekend they will find a quick and picturesque track in their native Kazan. And the struggle for returning to the first three championship of Russia.
Wipers in the form of a prize for success in the race? This is easy to imagine in some amateur competitions (and rather like a joke), but for the tournament where real professionals act, it does not look too solid. But Innostage Ag Team is involved in the top-end class of Russian races (it is called SMP TCR Russia), where the leading commands represent such mighty brands as Lukoil, Rosneft and Gazprom. And among the pilots there is Alexander Smolyar – six years ago, in the Renault formula, he fought for the title with Oscar Piast, which is now leading in formula 1.
Nevertheless, when Rustam Fathutdinov a week ago, in the role of a silver medalist, the race said in an interview with “Mechanics put my motivation”, he had in mind the wipers. Moreover, not some super-technological brushes for his racing machine, but consumables for an ordinary road car.
Innostage Ag Team
This episode was preceded by the following story. A couple of weeks earlier, Rustam lent the team his personal BMW as a means of delivering mechanics to a rally-circus competition near Peter and back. It was raining more than once along the way, and it turned out that Middestenous wipers stand on the fairly expensive Bavarz Rustam. Although the racer Innostage Ag Team is clearly not one of those people who have to save on consumables. And returning the car before the recent racing weekend in Nizhny, the mechanics jokingly promised Rustam to give him the original BMW wipers … but only if he got to the podium. And the racer promptly caught them on the word – and finished the second in the first of two races of the stage.
The youngest. And the most emotional
At the previous stage, Rustam became the only of the three Innostage Ag Team racers, who managed to finish in the first three. And for the first time this season, he was ahead of both his teammates in the number of points scored at the stage. So Fathutdinova is more than logical to make the main character of this announcement. Moreover, Rustam is the only representative of Kazan among the Innostage AG Team riders, and this weekend the Russian series of ring racing will be held just in the capital of Tatarstan.
Rustam, the son of the singer Salavat Fathutdinov, very popular in Tatarstan and neighboring regions, is now 22 years old. But the current arrival in the top class of Russian racing for the athlete is already the third. The previous two folded differently. There were truly epic racing. For example, on the way to his first catwalk on the Smolensk Ring of the Smolensk Ring of the Smolensk Ring (then another 20-year-old), he had lost third place twice and again played him out with his rivals.
But there were many disappointments. For example, last year Fathutdinov, then defending the colors of the other team, stopped performing after the first two stages – the middle -aged Audi of the previous generation and lost to competitors in speed, and regularly threw unpleasant surprises in terms of reliability.
Innostage Ag Team
And when an unpleasant surprise happens, Rustam can respond (and most often reacts) to him very violently. Kazan is the most emotional of the three Innostage AG Team, and with a large margin. And phrases like “Fathudinov hit the wall of boxes” every now and then can be heard in direct broadcasts or reports from the stages of the Russian championship. And the team every now and then has to put up with the fact that after Rustam’s arrival, you should not touch an hour and a half, so that the racer cools down and move away from the not the most pleasant impressions brought from the route.
Fortunately, this does not mean that the pilot (by the way, the youngest in the team) can be distinguished during the race. For example, during the second race in Nizhny, Rustam immediately had two unpleasant episodes of the contact struggle with rivals – both Fathutdinov was very emotional on the radio, but did not lose control over himself, and the pace of his movement on the highway did not fall.
This year, Rustam also had reasons to knock on the walls of boxes. The process of mastering the Leon Cupra Competizione machine was not easy. Although this car (specifically this instance) was brought a year ago to the championship title Mikhail Simonov, and for Fathutdinov, and for Innostage AG Team, this car is new. So you need to study the nuances of its controllability, learn to configure it. Plus this season Rustam works with a new race engineer for himself, which also takes some time for coordination.
Innostage Ag Team
But the work of the pilot and the team bears fruit. Actually, in the very first race of the season, Rustam finished the fourth, and after the punishment of one of the rivals in the final protocol turned out to be the third. But the award ceremony at that moment was already passing, and the racer did not have time to swallow the prize champagne.
But recently in Nizhny Novgorod, everything went as it should. In training, the times of Fathutdinov were medium, but having worked tightly before qualifications and on the settings, and on the pilot, Rustam eventually showed the third time. Then, immediately after the start of the Saturday race, the Innostage AG Team racer went on the attack on the position of the pilot that was riding ahead – and was able to gnaw at the second position in the Nizhny Novgorod Snail. This is the name of a protracted second turn, where the defender often displaces the attacking outside the track. Sometimes it seems that it is better for the attacker to lose the gas and give way. Rustam did not give in, was sufficiently stubbornly – and thanks to this he showed his best result during the performances in the top class.
Innostage Ag Team
Take the racing tool from the gardener!
By the way, the prize interview with Fathutdinov after the finish passed on the sound background not the usual on racing broadcasts. In the background, an even and quite loud rumble, or a whistle was heard – as if a jet engine was operating at a airliner standing on the platform. For the top class of Russian racing, this is a standard story, and makes this characteristic sound … garden technique.
One of the features of the SMP TCR Russia class cars is that many of their nodes and systems are designed to work with an air flow. For example, when your road car stands still, its radiator is blown with the help of special fans, and the TCR racing cars usually do not have such fans. Accordingly, when the car worked for half an hour in combat mode, after that it quickly drove the circle of honor and stopped in the finish zone, many of its components and units are very hot. And if you leave the car to cool in a natural way, there is a high risk to face different troubles. For example, can get damage to the turbine. And brake pads can boil to brake discs and will not let the wheels rotate.
Innostage Ag Team
Therefore, in the boxes of any SMP TCR Russia command there are several air vents at once – devices originally created to collect foliage in parks and in garden areas. When the car stops in the finish area, it is already waiting for mechanics with “hairdries”, which are sent to the air ducts and drive cold air flows to the most vulnerable nodes. Accordingly, when three dozen such devices are turned on at the same time, the noise costs decent.
The track of the next stage: driving through fractures
Before the start of the IV stage of the Russian championship, the Innostage Ag Team racers are in the overall standings on the 4th (Egor Sanin), the 5th (Pavel Kalmanovich) and the 6th (Rustam Fathutdinov) places. The lag from the 3rd place is 7, 13 and 16 points, respectively. In the team standings “our” team in the second position, inferior to the leader 36 points. This weekend, competitions will be held on the Kazan Ring Canyon highway in the vicinity of the capital of Tatarstan. Egor Sanin talks about the features of the highway.
“This track is an excellent candidate for the status of the most beloved. More than ten years ago, when I was 14 years old, I drove the first ring race in my career here. And immediately became the second. The race was generally boring, but for me it was a fierce success. And by the way, then Pavel Kalmanovich won, with whom we are now playing together for Innostage Ag Team.
Innostage Ag Team
The track is built on the territory of the former career, which makes it the most picturesque in the country. This is cool for the audience: from the upper point of this quarry, the track is visible entirely, as in the palm of your hand. For racers, it is important that there is a large difference in heights, that for most of the circle the car rides either in the hill or under the hill. This adds acute sensations and requires greater accuracy in aerobatics, confidence in its actions.
The penultimate turn is especially good. It can be held at high speed, but it is not easy to do. At the end of the braking area, the car drives through a fracture – that is, on the approach to the auxiliary, when you need a maximum hook with the track to turn, the front of the car is unloaded and strives to go into demolition. This is a difficult place, but I can do it well with its challenges, which brings additional pleasure. ”
As part of the stage, two races will be held, which can be watched live in the VK-Plok of the Russian series of ring racies: the live broadcast of the first race will begin on Saturday at 12:55, the second-on Sunday at 13:45.
Directly on the highway, you can not only follow the races from the rostrum, but also plunge into the racing atmosphere with your head. In particular, take a walk along the starting grille before starting the race, chat with riders during a daily walk around the pit lane, from close range to consider racing cars during excursions in boxes. And finally, to feel like a rider with the help of an advanced computer simulator. The information you need for a trip can be found on this page. /m
This weekend – large races in Kazan “Motor” in races: Start in the Nizhny! Motor.ru in Russian races: Ahead of the battle of Peter
