The final of the Russian racing season – this weekend

In sprint races, the beam of fate will fight with someone who is often unlucky. And in the marathon races in the battle for the title, the crew on the powerful Mercedes-AMG and the crew on the Russian car will converge.

From October 9 to 12, the Autodrom “Grozny Fortress” accepts the last weekend of the Russian series of ring racing this season. And in the course of these four days, everything will be in order with the quantity and with quality. There will be a lot of races: after all, the season is completed by the participants in the series of SMP RSKG Sprint, where the stage consists of two to three half-hour races, and the crews of the Marathon series of the SMP RSKG Endurans. And the quality will ensure the position of the Grozny weekend in the calendar, multiplied by the features of the Avtodrome in the capital of the Chechen Republic.

Since the stage is the last and decisive, then there is nowhere to postpone decisive actions. If in the standings you play the role of the pursuer, you need to overtake the opponent here and now. But on not too wide and not having long straight highways in Grozny, it is not easy to do this, even if you have a serious advantage in speed. “Walk around” the competitor, waving his pen, will not work here. If you want to overtake, you have to act boldly, take risks, try to stay on the very edge of the clutch.

G-Drive SMP RSKG

Therefore, the finals in Grozny are always exciting. It is worth recalling at least how in recent years events developed in the most prestigious Sprint class SMP TCR Russia. Three years ago, the decisive episode was a clash of two main applicants for the championship title. Two years ago, the fateful overtaking took place on the penultimate circle of the last race. And a year ago, everything was decided by a maneuver, perfect and completely three turns before the finish of the season.

Of course, fans are waiting for no less vivid continuation. Moreover, this season with the intrigue in the championship is again full order. The current champion Mikhail Simonov is the leader, in which many see a sort of pamper of fate. Last year, he won the championship on the first attempt, although he had much more experienced pilots in his rivals.

This year, the racer from the Samara region again spent almost the entire season on the first line of the standings. Although the off -season changed the team (becoming a pilot of the Lukoil Racing Twins Team team) and stopped working with his long -term coach (and the country’s multiple champion) Dmitry Bragin. Such effectiveness brought Mikhail the sympathy of one part of the fans – and the antipathy of the other. And among the audience of direct broadcasts this weekend, there will probably be not so few people who want to see the defeat of the “lucky”.

The opponent of Mikhail is Alexander Sm all. Many consider it to be his fastest pilot of the championship, and not without reason. Six years ago, in the younger formulas, Muscovite on equal terms fought with Oscar Piasta himself, who is now leading in Formula 1. Then he won Formula 3 in the races. Yes, and on Russian routes in recent years, Alexander has repeatedly demonstrated its powerful potential.

But over and over again, Smolyar is not lucky: for circumstances beyond the control of the racer, he every now and then gives the opponent a head start. For example, this year, Simonov from the very beginning performed on a brand new Rave hatchback Leon Cupra Vz, while Smolyar received such a car only at the second stage. And to fully use its potential only from the third (according to the rules, in the case of replacing the car during the championship, the first race on the new car should start from the last position).

G-Drive SMP RSKG

Now Smalya is in a catch -up position, but only 16 points behind. While at one stage you can get as much as 67. Simonov in this situation is clearly early to play the account to keep an account, we must strive to get ahead of the opponent. But it will not be so easy to do. At the penultimate stage, Simonov scored more points than Smolyar – and therefore, in the course of the decisive races, the championship leader will weigh 10 kg more than the pursuer car. In a word, everything is ready for the next bright finals.

In endurance races, everything is twisted no less famously. The two previous seasons were the sole leaders of the marathon series crews on the BR03, sports prototypes of Russian production. In 9 races, held in 2023 and 2024, they won 8 victories, thanks to which both times became owners of the Russian Cup. However, this year there is no previous dominance: the first two races (in total in the Marathon series of 4 stages) were won by crews performing at the powerful German compartment Mercedes-AMG GT3. Russian cars were partially rehabilitated by the victory in the longest race of the season, the August 6-hour marathon on the Moscow Raceway highway. Now the fate of the title will be decided by a 4-hour race in Grozny.

G-Drive SMP RSKG

The fastest crew on the BR03 is headed by Vitaly Petrov, the first Russian pilot of Formula 1. Now this crew leads in the overall standings and is the favorite in the struggle for the title: for success there will be enough finish in second place. But still, we are talking about endurance races, where there is always a considerable risk of breakdown or, for example, clashes with a circular concentration.

Therefore, the second applicant for the title-the crew of the Time4race team on the orange Mercedes-AMG at number 10-is clearly not going to Grozny for a checkmark. In addition, in this crew there is also a racer successfully playing abroad: on the account of Alexei Nesov, in particular, there is a victory in the “24 hours of spa” race. Plus, Alexei and his partner Maxim Kizilov have excellent motivation: if they achieve success, they will be the first to lead from under the nose of the crews not only the victory in a single race, but also a whole title.

It became interesting? Is there already a desire to follow the events in Grozny? Then here is key information. SMP TCR Russia class races will be held on Friday (the beginning of a direct broadcast at 11:00) and on Saturday (the live broadcast will be launched at 11:00). The 4-hour Akhmat Race race will take place on Sunday, start at 13:30. Direct broadcasts can be monitored in the VK-Plot of the SMP RSKG. If you have a desire and an opportunity to see everything with your own eyes, then this link is all the information necessary for fans, including the weekend schedule and the coordinates of the route. /m

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