The stage in Nizhny Novgorod went under the dictation of the current champion of the tournament Artyom Shabanov. The leader of the Timeup team, who on the Nizhny Novgorod Ring on Saturday for the first time in his career won the RDS GP qualification, did not leave any chance to his rivals in paired races. The victory at the stage became the second for the athlete in the season, but the leadership in the personal standings did not help to return.
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The path to victory for Artyom was not easy, since at each stage of paired races he was opposed by very serious rivals. In the top 32, Shabanov, through the re-placement (OMT), was able to defeat Vladislav Popov (“Lecar Offable Motorsport”), and the most titled participant in the Russian drift of the series-George Chivchyan (Forward Racing 400Z, number 31) was waiting for the TOP-16 Timeup pilot. But the leader of Takayama Forward Auto could not oppose anything to his opponent and lost to this duel. In the top 8, Shabanova was waiting for the most experienced Damir Idiyatulin (Fresh Racing), whom they met in the final last year in Nizhny Novgorod, but this time the victory was behind Artyom.
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In the semifinals, Muscovite was not easily broken by the resistance of Anton Kozlov (Carville Racing) …
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… And in the decisive battle of the day in a dense struggle, he was able to wrest the victory from Arkady Tsaregradsev from Lecar Office Motorsport.
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“I love the track in Nizhny Novgorod – it is almost always successful for me. I was at the “Nizhny Novgorod Ring” in third place, in the second, and now I got to the first. Probably, throughout my career in RDS GP, all the most important rivals met me at this stage – both Georgy Chivchyan, Damir Idiyatulin, Anton Kozlov, and Arkady Tsaregraders. Before the final race, small technical problems with the car arose, but the mechanics know the car perfectly, they worked clearly. There is no secret to success, we just worked, and everything turned out very well for us, ”says Artyom Shabanov.
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Arkady Tsaregraders on the way to the final consistently overcame the resistance of Ilya Drift Team, Denis Migaly (Fresh Racing), Alexei Kozlova and Andrei Astapova (Lukoil Racing Drift Team), which performs the BMW M3 E92 with 2JZ GTE engine.
RDS GP 
All the chances were the first victory in the season, but in the end the king took second place. As the champion of the RDS GP 2022 itself noted, after failure at the first stage, the two “silver” in a row became for him and the Lecar Motorsport teams in a row with an excellent result.
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Anton Kozlov (BMW, 73) supplemented the prize podium at the Nizhny Novgorod Ring. The leader of the Carville Racing team became the only pilot who, in 2025, graduated from three of three stages among the winners. In Nizhny Novgorod, for this I had to make a lot of effort, starting from the TOP-16 stage, where Danila Vorobyov became a strong opponent, and Danila Skorobogatov imposed a serious Lukoil Racing Drift Team pilot in the top 8.
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The third representative of this team – Andrei Astapov (BMW E92 with number 8) – became an opponent in a duel for third place. As a result, surpassing the three athletes Lukoil Racing Drift Team and losing only to the future winner of the stage, Anton Kozlov secured his third place.
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Sunday duels, which took place in sunny weather on a dry coating, however, did not do without incidents. In the battle of Maxim Grossman (Fresh Racing) and Timofei Dobrovolsky (Takayama Forward Auto, white Nissan Silvia, No. 19), both pilots were noted by contacts.
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Sergey Kuznetsov (Star Stars Aimol) provoked a clash with Andrei Astapov, and Evgeny Losev became the culprit of a spectacular accident with the participation of Alexei Kozlov – two strokes at once seriously damaged the legendary Toyota Cresta Cresta of Kamchatka (based on the photo).
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“As always, a powerful stage! Today was a wonderful day – the weather took pity on us, sparing both spectators and pilots. Several times I caught myself thinking when I watched the races that no one in the world could go as our guys were traveling today. This is even beyond the understanding of opportunities: at high speed literally centimeters from each other. I am proud that we managed to build joint efforts-already without any exaggeration, without boasting-really the best championship in the world, ”said Dmitry Dobrovolsky, director of the Russian drift of the series.
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Due to its stability, which, in the debut season for him, RDS GP 2023 almost led Anton Kozlova to the championship, the Carville Racing pilot retains leadership in the personal standings after three stages of 2025. However, the advantage is purely symbolic: Artyom Shabanov inferior to Kozlov only ten points, which the representative of Timeup can easily play even for one successful qualifications.
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Arkady Tsaregrad residents went to the third place in the race for the championship title-the leader of Lecar Obsessed Motorsport immediately a hundred points ahead of Roman Forward Auto, for whom in Nizhny Novgorod it all ended at the TOP-32 stage.
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As for the command test, the leaders were fixed here in the leaders, which with a serious margin is ahead of Carville Racing, which did not fall on the “Nizhny Novgorod ring” in the top 3 of the command test. Takayama Forward Auto is still holding the third place, however, at the distance of the attack at once there are two teams at once – Fresh Racing and Lecar obsessed motorsport. The Lukoil Racing Drift Team Podium in Nizhny Novgorod did not allow them to get into the first five teams, but made it possible to significantly correct their affairs in the team championship.
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The RDS GP participants will meet next time a month later on the highway in Moscow-July 19-20, ADM Raceway Autodrom will accept the fourth stage of the Russian Drift Grand Prix. But the fans of the drift will not have to be bored in anticipation – on July 12, the first RDS Fest Dront festival in the history of the RDS Fest, where they will see the RDS stars and in new roles will take place at the Moscow Raceway Avtodrome.
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The second stage of the Russian Drift Grand Prix of the series (RDS GP) took place at the Nizhny Novgorod Ring. The most spectacular sports discipline again did not fail fans and spectators. There was a show with smoke and squeal of tires, and an acute struggle of leaders, and clashes. The most spectacular frames of races are in our gallery.
