REC: The first victory of the LMP3 prototype

      The Russian endurance racing series REC held an away stage, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on July 11 at the Igora Drive racetrack in the Leningrad region. After the first two races of the season in Moscow, which took place under rainy conditions, the northern capital welcomed the series participants with 30-degree heat. The surprises of the third stage did not end there. The qualifying session showed a colossal advantage for the sport prototypes of the CN Pro class over their closest competitors – the GT Pro class supercars. Crew No. 9, consisting of Georgy Efrosinin and Igor Mukhin from "Pro Motorsport," secured their third pole of the season with an absolute track record of 1 minute 45 seconds in their Norma. Following the qualifying winners were their "classmates" – the BALCHUG Racing team (No. 21) and TEAMGARIS (No. 29). The nearest car in the GT3 category, the Audi R8 LMS, driven by Alexander Vartanyan and Kirill Smal from the Vracing team (No. 90), was over two seconds behind the third place on the starting grid.

      The Igora Drive racetrack, built for Formula 1 racing, with its kilometer-long start-finish straight and fast configuration in dry weather, revealed the key advantages of the prototypes – better power-to-weight ratio in the peloton and speed in corners. Teams with more powerful but heavier supercars from Mercedes, Audi, and Lamborghini could only hope for rain under such conditions, which was expected for the final segment of the four-hour marathon. Then, on a wet track, the GT3 technology could have leveled the gap due to the "electronic assistants" that the prototypes lack.

      The start of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg began with fierce competition among the leaders. Even on the straight, pole holder Efrosinin was overtaken by BALCHUG Racing driver Mikhail Loboda, but at the entrance to the first turn, his prototype was hit by the silver Mercedes of Mikhail Alyoshin from CapitalRT (No. 13). The chain reaction also affected Alexander Vartanyan, who attempted to overtake the entire group with late braking on the outside line. Loboda's out-of-control prototype pushed Vartanyan's Audi off the track, forcing the Vracing driver to make a brief detour through the gravel.

      For the fragile Ligier of BALCHUG Racing, contact with the Mercedes, which is twice the size of the prototype, resulted in a torn aerodynamic kit and damaged suspension, putting an end to a promising race. Nevertheless, the team's mechanics managed a miracle and repaired the car during the marathon, after which the orange-blue vehicle returned to the track 15 laps down. Another participant in the starting incident, Alexander Vartanyan, whose crew with Kirill Smal was considered another favorite of the race, ended their performance in less than half an hour. The golden-black Audi Vracing (No. 90) suffered a gearbox failure.

      Meanwhile, the battle for the lead unfolded between the two fastest cars in the peloton – the Norma prototypes of Georgy Efrosinin from "Pro Motorsport" and the Ligier of Konstantin Tereshchenko, competing for TEAMGARIS. The fight was not just between the two leading drivers behind the wheel of the best REC cars, but also between different technical philosophies: the CN group prototype with its characteristic open cockpit against the LMP3, which is the "junior" version of the prototypes competing in the world's largest 24-hour marathon, the "24 Hours of Le Mans." From the first laps, the two prototypes quickly pulled away from their rivals and staged a beautiful duel, in which Tereshchenko ultimately prevailed.

      However, when Konstantin was replaced at the wheel of the Ligier by his namesake and teammate Konstantin Zakharievsky at the end of the first hour of the race, Efrosinin, who remained on the track, caught up with his opponent and then regained the lead. The reverse exchange of positions occurred midway through the distance when the "Pro Motorsport" prototype stopped for its next mandatory pit stop and let the Ligier of TEAMGARIS pass. Shortly after, the yellow Norma of Efrosinin and Mukhin was also overtaken by the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Alyoshin-Remenyako from CapitalRT. Meanwhile, the drivers in the TEAMGARIS prototype managed to solidify their lead against the backdrop of regular yellow flags due to mass retirements of cars from the lower classes GT Light and TCE.

      The most serious incident was a fire in the BMW of the OBAGRA RT team (No. 98). Driver Anton Vasiliev managed to exit the cockpit, but during the evacuation, he could not stop the car, and the burning BMW rolled down the track. Thanks to the professionalism of other drivers, a major accident was avoided, and the marshals quickly reached the burning car and extinguished the fire. A storm that hit St. Petersburg by evening spared the racetrack, and without the intervention of the elements, crew No. 29 of Konstantin Tereshchenko, Konstantin Zakharievsky, and Stanislav Sidoruk from TEAMGARIS brought the race to victory in the overall standings with a comfortable lead of one lap. This success was historic, as it was the first time an LMP3 sport prototype triumphed on a Russian track, having debuted at the first REC stage this spring.

      Georgy Efrosinin and Egor Mukhin could not catch up with Mikhail Alyoshin and Denis Remenyako in the Mercedes CapitalRT, but finishing in the top three and second place in their CN Pro class after a long series of retirements is rightly considered an excellent result for the "Pro Motorsport" crew. Facing difficulties at the very start of the race, Mikhail Loboda and Kirill Kirakozov from BALCHUG Racing did not give up and, after repairs, reached the finish line, taking third place in CN Pro. The "bronze" podium was celebrated by the drivers together with the mechanics' crew, who restored their car in record time after the accident on the first lap.

      The TCE class winners from QUANTUM Racing – crew No. 12 consisting of Petr Biryukov, Pavel Pomogalov, and brothers Zakhar and Artem Slutsky – also did not falter in the face of circumstances, as they had to skip qualifying due to a breakdown of their Audi RS3 TCR and start the race from the pit lane. The second-place finishers in the class, GNV Kamenskiy Racing No. 55 drivers Ilya Kamenskiy and Nikolai Sushchev, subsequently dropped to third place due to a penalty, while Ilya Laryonov and Vladislav Perfiliev from Real Performance No. 24 moved ahead.

      In the GT Pro category, after the retirement of Vracing drivers Alexander Vartanyan and Kirill Smal, the victory went to the CapitalRT duo of Mikhail Alyoshin and Denis Remenyako, who increased their lead in the personal standings of the season amid their rivals' misfortunes. The second place in the class was taken by Andrey Solukovtsev and David Pogosyan from "ISKRA Motorsport" (No. 37), while third place went to Alexey Nesov and Maxim Kizilov from Time4Race (No. 10), who returned to REC. In the GT class for "semi-series" sports cars, one of the legends of Russian motorsport, Viktor Shaitar, alongside young driver Denis Pomogalov, brought victory to the YADRO Motorsport team (No. 48).

      The second and third places were taken by the crews of TEAMGARIS No. 34 Stanislav Aksenov and Eduard Islamov and "Katyusha Racing" No. 3, for whom Maxim Vinogradov and Ivan Kostiukov drove in the previous stage. They also became the holders of the St. Petersburg Cup, a separate classification for teams registered in the northern capital.

      The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg unexpectedly ended for the Sportcar Racing Team crew No. 5, who had dominated the GT Light class throughout the first races of the season. This time, with just over an hour to go before the finish, Roman Smolyakov and Evgeny Magidovich faced technical problems with their Porsche Cayman and were forced to head to the pits. As a result, victory was celebrated by Vladislav Agnivyn and Stanislav Yarkov from BURMA RT No. 36, who rose to the top of the class after a retirement in the previous stage. The second place was taken by representatives of the 82RT team Roman Manuilov, Vakhtang Dimitradze, and Alexey Veremenko in the rare coupe BMW Z4 numbered 82 for the series. Rounding out the top three in GT Light were regular REC participants from X-Rays Motorsport – Maxim Elizarov, Andrey Lukin, and Anatoly Shipov.

      Results of the 3rd stage of the REC Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

      Overall winners

      TEAMGARIS No. 29 (Konstantin Zakharievsky / Konstantin Tereshchenko / Stanislav Sidoruk)

      St. Petersburg Cup

      1. "Katyusha Racing" No. 3 (Maxim Vinogradov / Ivan Kostiukov)

      2. SHISHKOIL RT No. 1 (Dmitry Shishko / Alexey Savin)

      3. QUANTUM Racing No. 12 (Petr Biryukov / Pavel Pomogalov / Artem Slutsky