REC: Aleshin and Remenyako won the race at Moscow Raceway

      The second stage of REC, the Russian endurance racing series, was the Grand Prix of Sports, and on June 27 at the Moscow Raceway in the Moscow region, it gathered an impressive peloton of 37 crews. Moreover, it has become a tradition for bright premieres of domestic racing technology to take place there: if two years ago the 4-hour marathon was remembered for the debut of the supercar Rossa GT, then last Saturday the audience saw the first laps of the new sports prototype "Phantom," created by designer Igor Ermilin, the founder of the REC series.

      In both cases, the cars were brought onto the track by Roman Rusinov, who at one time won titles in WEC (in the LMP2 category), in the European and Asian Le Mans Series, as well as being a multiple prize-winner of the "24 Hours of Le Mans." However, while the futuristic "Phantom" is still undergoing testing before fully participating in REC, its "classmates" in CN Pro entered into real competition for high positions this time. The crew of the "Pro Motorsport" team, consisting of Yegor Efrosinin and Igor Mukhin, was unmatched in qualifying for the second consecutive stage. Unfortunately, in the race, their car did not complete a single lap due to a turbo failure, returning to the garage before the start.

      After the sudden retirement of the leader, another sports prototype – the Ligier with the number 21 from the BALCHUG Racing team, driven by Mikhail Loboda – took the lead. In the first turn, Loboda held off an attack from another experienced driver – Mikhail Aleshin, who was driving car number 13 – a Mercedes AMG GT3 in the silver colors of the CapitalRT team. Nevertheless, the BALCHUG Racing driver was unable to create a gap, hindered by an early neutralization of the race, which occurred just two minutes after the start. The wet asphalt, made slippery by rain and gravel washed onto some sections of the track, became a treacherous trap for many, and the first to go "on an excursion" into the run-off area was Dmitry Shishko in the touring Audi of his SHISHKOIL RT team.

      However, while Dmitry managed to return to the track despite the mistake, the Seat number 66 of the MS RT crew flew into the barrier at the end of the back straight, causing the first appearance of yellow flags. At the restart, the peloton noticeably tightened, and Loboda and Aleshin had to literally push through the lapped cars that were ahead of them in slower bodywork vehicles. Aleshin handled the traffic better, briefly taking the lead in the race. Soon, the marathon was interrupted again by an incident when the rear wheel of the BMW number 36 driven by Vladislav Agnivine from Burma RT flew off. To safely evacuate the car, which stopped right before the turn, the race management decided to deploy the safety car, and the leading Aleshin reacted instantly – he immediately turned into the pits for the first of three mandatory stops.

      Following Aleshin, other participants headed to their pit stops, including Ivan Chubarov from YADRO Motorsport in another GT3 category Mercedes. However, one of the favorites could not return to the race – Chubarov's car would not move, and the team was forced to retire. The winner of the first stage of the season, Alexander Vartanian, a driver for the Vracing team driving an Audi R8 GT3, also faced difficulties at the very start of the race due to a punctured tire, which forced him to make an extra pit stop.

      At the end of the chaotic first hour, Alexey Denisov from DRTeam unexpectedly took the lead in the less powerful "cup" version of the Porsche 911 GT3, which, unlike his competitors, decided to complete the entire segment without stops. Meanwhile, a real battle for first place unfolded behind him: Aleshin engaged in an impressive duel with Konstantin Tereshchenko, a driver from crew number 29 of the TEAMGARIS team.

      The Ligier sports prototype piloted by Tereshchenko was of a higher LMP3 class, and after a lap side by side with the Mercedes, Konstantin managed to execute a beautiful maneuver. It was somewhat reminiscent of the legendary overtaking that Mika Hakkinen performed against Michael Schumacher at the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix: Tereshchenko passed Aleshin, emerging from behind a lapped car at the end of the straight. After this, Mikhail did not impose a fight on his opponent and allowed him to create some distance, but soon again skillfully took advantage of the yellow flag situation when car number 77 from the Mazda High Power team stopped on the track due to a breakdown.

      CapitalRT managed to conduct a pit stop with minimal time loss, and Aleshin was replaced by Denis Remenyako, his regular teammate. As for crew number 29 of TEAMGARIS, after their visit to the pits, they lost the lead to Mikhail Loboda. The driver of BALCHUG Racing, who had regained the lead, held first place until the end of the third hour, when it was finally time for him to turn onto the pit lane for the mandatory driver change, refueling, and tire change. At that moment, behind Loboda, the group of GT class cars was led by Aleshin, who inherited first place.

      In the end, Mikhail Aleshin confidently brought his segment to victory. Let us remind you that he is a winner, prize-winner, and participant in races of various levels, from Formula Renault 3.5, German Formula 3, and IndyCar, to the "24 Hours of Le Mans."

      The Ligier sports prototype of the TEAMGARIS team clearly lacked speed in the final part of the marathon to return to the battle for victory. Moreover, Stanislav Sidoruk, the driver of this crew, received a side hit while battling Kirill Kirakozov from BALCHUG Racing, causing the car to spin, which always results in additional time loss. The winners of the first stage, Alexander Vartanian and Kirill Smal from Vracing, also could not catch up with Aleshin and Remenyako's silver Mercedes, settling for second place at the finish.

      After Kirakozov from BALCHUG Racing received a penalty for the aforementioned collision, the victory in the CN Pro category went to crew number 29 of the TEAMGARIS team, consisting of Konstantin Zakharievsky, Stanislav Sidoruk, and Konstantin Tereshchenko. But the main thing is that both teams competing in prototypes demonstrated the ability to fight for overall victory and finally sorted out their technology. Another revelation of the stage was crew number 93 from the "ISKRA Motorsport" team, which took third place in the GT Pro class. The legend of Russian motorsport Boris Shulmeister and his partner Sergey Valuykikh, who are having their first season in REC, outpaced the Lamborghini of Andrey Solukovtsev and David Pogosyan from the flagship crew of the team.

      Dmitry Shishko's team, which due to engine problems with their Mercedes AMG GT4 before the race switched to an Audi in the TCR category, managed to win this touring classification despite spinning out on the very first lap. Following Shishko were brothers Zakhar and Artem Slutsky, as well as Petr Biryukov finishing in the Seat with the team number of Real Performance, as well as the crew number 91 of the GNV Kamenskiy Racing team, which lost the lead in the class in the last half hour of the race. They also competed in an Audi RS3 LMS.

      In the junior category of GT sports cars, the dominance of Stanislav Aksenov and Eduard Islamov from the second crew of the TEAMGARIS team was interrupted by the drivers of the Motor Sharks team, Ivan Lukashevich and Anton Nemkin. In the final segment during the dark hours, the experienced Lukashevich in the Mercedes overtook not only the Toyota of the competitors but also the Porsche of another star driver from the 2000s, Alexey Dudukalo from the "Katyusha" team, who together with Maxim Vinogradov took third place in the class.

      In the GT Light classification, Roman Smolyakov and Evgeny Magidovich on the Porsche with the team number of Sportcar Racing Team again took first place. The second and third places behind the German sports car were taken by the crews HOGO (number 11) and MS RT (number 33). Special mention should be made of the third place of the ONLY FAST & KB LIS team, competing in a BMW station wagon, in the new sub-class GT Light Stock Car for production cars with minimal modifications. In the last race, their car was involved in a serious accident, but the team did not give up, restored everything, and showed a real example of will to win, reaching the podium.

      Thus, the second stage of the Russian endurance racing series turned out to be marked by the return of last year's champions, Mikhail Aleshin and Denis Remenyako from CapitalRT to first place in the overall standings. Whether they will be able to repeat their success, or if we will see a third winner of the season, we will find out very soon – on July 11 at the Igora Drive racetrack, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will take place.

      Results of the second stage of REC – Grand Prix of SPORTS

      Moscow Cup

      1. Capital RT No. 13 – Denis Remenyako