REC: Fourth race – fourth winner

      After the away round near St. Petersburg, the Russian Endurance Championship (REC) returned to the Moscow Raceway near Moscow, where the fourth race of the season took place on August 9.

      A short two-week break between rounds brought some changes to the entry list, as not all teams had time to recover personnel and equipment after the previous intense marathon at Igora Drive. Nevertheless, 30 crews took part in Saturday’s race, delighting fans with more technical novelties.

      On the eve of the round, V Racing, for which Alexander Vartanyan and Denis Bulatov drive, decided to change not only the car but also the class. After a heavy crash in the last race the Audi R8 LMS GT4 was sent for repairs, and in its place the crew received the higher-spec GT3 version of the same German supercar, which had never before raced in Russian championships.

      Along with the car, V Racing also changed class, moving from GT to GT Pro — in other words, a kind of promotion.

      Although two favorites for the GT Pro and overall standings, YADRO Motorsport and Time4Race, skipped the fourth round, the battle in the class promised to be hot — partly because of a completely unpredictable weather forecast.

      Vartanyan and Bulatov faced crews that had already won earlier rounds this season: Denis Remenyako and Mikhail Aleshin in the CapitalRT Mercedes AMG GT3, and Andrey Solukovtsev and David Pogosyan in the ISKRA Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.

      A new prototype was entered for the marathon by Blackthorn in the CN Pro class. Drivers Egor Efrosinin and Igor Mukhin swapped the golden Ligier sport prototype for a Norma — a spare car that had not raced before.

      That didn’t help them in qualifying, and pole for the second consecutive round went to their class rivals — crew No. 29 of TEAMGARIS in a Ligier. Vartanyan and Bulatov’s Audi lined up on the second row of the grid right behind the TEAMGARIS, Blackthorn and SVL CSKA Racing prototypes.

      The start was won by Efrosinin, but after just a few laps the leader’s prototype noticeably dropped pace and soon had to yield the overall lead to Vartanyan. The V Racing driver, with experience in international Formula 4 and Formula Renault 2.0 series, broke through to second place at the first corner by overtaking a group of rivals with late braking, and then rapidly passed the Blackthorn prototype. Vartanyan’s lead, however, did not last long, and at the end of the first 15 minutes he was overtaken by Konstantin Tereshchenko from TEAMGARIS No. 29 in the more nimble Ligier prototype.

      Spectators then saw a repeat of the plot of previous REC races this season, where the prototype driven by Tereshchenko confidently ran in first place but gradually lost its chances of success due to technical problems closer to the middle of the four-hour marathon. This round was no exception: in the second half of the race the fight for victory continued exclusively among GT3 sportscar crews.

      By that time a trio of contenders for the overall win had formed: V Racing and CapitalRT (crew No. 013 of Remenyako and Aleshin) and one of the Spora GT crews in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo, No. 63.

      Vitaly Larionov, who shared the cockpit with the same Konstantin Tereshchenko (who was again racing in two crews — in the Ligier prototype and the Lamborghini sportscar), this time had an excellently prepared car at his disposal and at the start of the marathon won a couple of spectacular duels with GT Pro rivals, later securing a spot in the top three.

      With relatively equal pace among the three cars, the teams’ pit-stop strategies with mandatory stops played a decisive role in the fight for the overall victory. Under REC rules, during the four hours of the marathon each crew must make three pit visits lasting at least three minutes each. A GT3 car laps Moscow Raceway in roughly 1 minute 40 seconds on average if not caught in heavy lapped traffic. Thus, during a pit stop a crew can fall behind rivals by approximately two laps.

      Of the leaders, Spora GT made all three stops first, hoping to catch up with rivals who delayed their stops on the final stint. The Larionov–Tereshchenko duo managed to get ahead of Aleshin and Remenyako from CapitalRT thanks to a beautiful attack by Vitaly that he had been setting up for several laps.

      But V Racing handled their task best: Vartanyan and Bulatov were able to build the required three-lap lead over the chasers and thus retain the lead during a pit stop that the crew made between the rivals’ stops.

      Returning to the track in the lead with roughly 20 minutes to the chequered flag, Bulatov confidently brought the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 to the car’s first victory on Russian circuits. Crew No. 41 became already the fourth different winner of the overall classification in the fourth race of this season!

      “We knew the Audi R8 LMS GT3 is a fast car, but to debut with a win — that’s incredible!” Vartanyan shared. “Especially after two weeks ago we didn’t even think we could race.”

      Behind the GT Pro winners came Larionov and Tereshchenko in the Lamborghini. The winners of the previous race, Remenyako and Aleshin, this time had to be content with only third in class, while victory in the GT class went to CapitalRT’s second car driven by brothers Vsevolod and Yaroslav Prakhov. Filling the second spot in the GT classification, between the Prakhovs’ Mercedes and the third-placed SHISHKOIL&YUKA ADV PRO. RACING TEAM, was the Toyota Supra GT4 of Stanislav Aksyonov and Eduard Islamov.

      A real drama unfolded four minutes from the finish in the CN Pro class: after losing the overall lead and first in class, crew No. 29 TEAMGARIS still managed to get ahead of the BALCHUG Racing drivers (crew No. 21), whose prototype suddenly left the track and crashed into the tyre barrier due to rear-wheel lock in the last corner.

      Kirill Kirakozov, who was driving the Ligier at the time, was not injured, but the car suffered heavy damage and could not continue. Thus the Tereshchenko, Konstantin Zakharovsky and Stanislav Sidoruk crew won their class for the fourth time, while luck again turned away from BALCHUG Racing despite the team’s incredible fight for victory — Kirakozov and Mikhail Loboda had been coming through from the back of the pack after contact with another car and a spin at the start.

      Third in CN Pro went to the significantly delayed Blackthorn crew, which had to pit due to technical problems after the first hour and a half of the race.

      In a tight battle the GT Light class winner was decided: AVATAR Racing Team No. 555 managed to pass Vladislav Agnivin of BURMA Racing, who had led the race alone, in the last laps. For the St. Petersburg driver this REC round was his first start of the current season.

      The GT Light podium was rounded out for the second consecutive time by the No. 11 HOGO team in a BMW. For AVATAR Racing the success last weekend was already their second of the season — earlier the duo of Anton Yevtukh and Roman Smolyakov had also won their class at Moscow Raceway at the end of June.

      Against the backdrop of rivals’ misfortunes, such as the Russian Racing Group crew whose Mini Cooper No. 113 missed the start due to a sudden breakdown and later retired, Yevtukh’s and Smolyakov’s chances for final success in one of REC’s most unpredictable classes are noticeably growing.

      In the GT Pro Touring subclass this time only one of the three starters managed to cross the finish line. After the Ceat crew of Real Performance and the winners of the previous race from SU RT retired one after another, first place was confidently taken by the GNV Kamenskiy Racing crew in an Audi RS3 LMS No. 55.

      The fourth round of the Russian Endurance Championship was remembered for spectacular battles in almost all classes and the triumph of the stylish black-and-gold supercar of newcomer team V Racing. Will Alexander Vartanyan and Denis Bulatov repeat their success at the fifth round, or will 2025 go down in REC history as the year when different crews won every race?

      Fans of long-distance racing will learn the answers at the season grand final, which will again take place at Moscow Raceway after the long break on October 4.

      Results of the 4th round of the REC Avtoradio Grand Prix

      Overall winner:

      V Racing No. 41 (Alexander Vartanyan, Denis Bulatov)

      GT Pro class:

      1. V Racing No. 41 (Alexander Vartanyan, Denis Bulatov)

      2. Spora GT No. 63 (Vitaly Larionov, Konstantin Tereshchenko)

      3. CapitalRT No. 013 (Mikhail Aleshin, Denis Remenyako)

      CN Pro class:

      1. TEAMGARIS No. 29 (Konstantin Zakharovsky, Konstantin Tereshchenko, Stanislav Sidoruk)

      2. BALCHUG Racing No. 21 (Kirill Kirakozov, Mikhail Loboda)

      3. Black Thorn No. 111 (Igor Mukhin, Georgiy Efrosinin)

      GT class:

      1. CapitalRT No. 13 (Vsevolod Prakhov, Yaroslav Prakhov)

      2. TEAMGARIS No. 34 (Stanislav Aksyonov, Eduard Islamov)

      3. SHISHKOIL&YUKA ADV PRO. RACING TEAM No. 1 (Dmitriy Shishko, Aleksey Savin)

      GT Pro Touring (GT Pro subclass):

      1. GNV Kamenskiy Racing No. 55 (Boris Shulmeister, Sergey Valuysikh, Dmitriy Gomelkov)

      2. SU RT No. 86 (Amet Memetov, Ventsislav Raichinov)

      3. Real Performance No. 24 (Ilya Larionov, Vladislav Perfiliev)

      GT Light class:

      1. AVATAR RACING TEAM No. 555 (Anton Yevtukh, Roman Smolyakov)

      2. BURMA RACING No. 36 (Vladislav Agnivin)

      3. HOGO No. 11 (Vsevolod Prakhov, Konstantin Kvashnin, Dmitriy Kozlov, Alexander Sadovnikov)

      Moscow Cup (Stage I):

      1. Spora GT No. 63 (Vitaly Larionov, Konstantin Tereshchenko)

      2. CapitalRT No. 013 (Mikhail Aleshin, Denis Remenyako)

      3. ISKRA Motorsport No. 37 (Andrey Solukovtsev, David Pogosyan)