REC: YADRO Motorsport's success in the fourth stage of the series

      The Russian endurance racing series (REC) returned to its "home" racetrack Moscow Raceway after the away stage near St. Petersburg on August 1. The fourth race of the season for the "Grand Prix of Avtoradio" was victorious for the crew of the YADRO Motorsport team, consisting of Sergey Stolyarov and Ivan Chubarov, competing in a Mercedes AMG GT3.

      The duo of experienced Russian drivers outperformed thirty-five other crews that started in the four-hour marathon, which was opened by the stars of the adventure film "Battle of Motors," actors Ivan Yankovsky and Yura Borisov, as well as director Ilya Malanin, who drove alongside Roman Rusinov, a legend of Russian endurance racing.

      The historical vehicles for the film, which will be released in October, were meticulously recreated by the founder of the REC series, Igor Ermilin, and his team.

      However, the rare copies of "Russo-Balt" and its eternal rival Blitzen Benz were not the only cars authored by Ermilin that took to the track that day. For the second time this season, the latest prototype "Phantom," developed by the constructor according to the CN class regulations, was entered. During testing, it showed a control time in qualifying and recorded additional laps of the race distance.

      Its "classmates" in the CN Pro category engaged in a full-fledged battle for victory. The top three positions on the starting grid were taken by this machinery, and for the fourth time this season, the pole position was claimed by the crew of Igor Mukhin and Georgy Efrosinin from the "Pro Motorsport" team. Future winners of the "Grand Prix of Avtoradio," Stolyarov and Chubarov, were the best among the rest, finishing fourth right behind the prototypes.

      The advantage of the CN Pro category machinery became even more evident during the race. After the start, all three sports prototypes left the GT3 category cars far behind, not to mention other less powerful vehicles. Meanwhile, the fastest Ligier of the LMP3 class from TEAMGARIS (No. 29), driven by Konstantin Tereshchenko, initially got stuck in third place behind another car from the French brand in the lower CN category, driven by Mikhail Loboda from BALCHUG Racing (No. 21).

      The delay of the TEAMGARIS drivers, winners of the previous REC stage, played into the hands of Georgy Efrosinin, who managed to build a lead during that time. Tereshchenko could only catch up to Efrosinin and make a successful attack after half an hour, as he was held up by dense traffic after overtaking Loboda.

      Nevertheless, Efrosinin, in his bright canary-yellow prototype, tried not to let the new race leader get too far ahead and continued to tail the Ligier of TEAMGARIS. The chase continued until Efrosinin's car suddenly came to a halt on the track closer to the end of the first hour of the marathon. However, Efrosinin was lucky enough to restart the engine, returning to the race two laps down.

      The same could not be said for other participants – Maxim Kirin and Anatoly Shreider from Tice Team, whose BMW with the number 50 stopped almost simultaneously with Efrosinin's prototype after contact with a competitor in the GT Light class. A serious suspension failure on the front left wheel forced the team to retire, and the race was interrupted for the first time by yellow flags.

      The next neutralization occurred less than half an hour later when the race director deployed the safety car to clear debris and evacuate another BMW from the GT Light category, which was driven by crew No. 41 from Hypercar & BMW-STO.

      The slowdown of the peloton was taken advantage of by the drivers in the GT Pro category, who massively headed for one of the three mandatory pit stops. Thanks to the stops of the supercars, Georgy Efrosinin returned to the top three leaders, which at that point was still led by Tereshchenko.

      After the restart, the second-place driver from BALCHUG Racing, Mikhail Loboda, collided with a lapped car on a slow "touring" vehicle, forcing him to head for a lengthy repair in the pits, thus dropping out of the leading group. Shortly thereafter, the safety car was deployed again due to the exit of SHISHKOIL RT driver Alexey Savin. His Mercedes with the number 1 lost a wheel.

      The YADRO Motorsport drivers (No. 16) were the best at applying the "cutting" tactic during pit stops against the faster sports prototypes, and by the middle of the marathon, they had confidently moved into second place overall. When, less than an hour before the finish, the leading TEAMGARIS car encountered power steering problems, the second position of Stolyarov and Chubarov converted into the final first.

      The pursuers, Mukhin and Efrosinin from "Pro Motorsport," could not make up the one-lap deficit to Stolyarov, but they did take home a long-awaited victory in their CN Pro class from the fourth stage.

      The misfortune of TEAMGARIS practically dashed the team's championship ambitions for the season, especially against the backdrop of the results of the overall leaders – Denis Remenyako and Mikhail Aleshin, representing the Capital RT team. Despite a puncture at the start of the race, their crew finished on the podium again, taking second place in the GT Pro class, thereby solidifying their lead over competitors.

      In the GT category for semi-series GT4 supercars, the "junior" crew of YADRO Motorsport (No. 97) consisting of Denis Pomogalov and the titled veteran Viktor Shaitar triumphed for the second race in a row. Meanwhile, another deserving driver, Alexey Basov, who competed in the TCE category alongside Amet Memetov for SU RT (No. 86) in the previous stage, lost victory literally in the last laps due to a failure of his Cupra.

      Ilya Laryonov and Vladislav Perfiliev from Real Performance (No. 24) briefly took the lead in this class but almost immediately faced problems, and ultimately the victory went to Ilya Kamensky and Nikolai Sushchev, competing for the GNV Kamenskiy Racing team (No. 91).

      In GT Light, the undisputed leaders of this class, Roman Smolyakov and Evgeny Magidovich from Sportcar Racing Team (No. 5), who retired in the previous REC stage, took first place. Roman Manuilov and Vakhtang Dimitradze finished second again, driving the unusual BMW Z4 coupe from team 82 RT (No. 82). Valery Smirnov and Artem Kosarev from the Mazda High Power crew (No. 53) rounded out the podium, simultaneously winning in the GT Light Stock Car subcategory.

      The intense race, held in hot conditions and tight competition on the track, became a beautiful conclusion to the summer part of the REC season before a long break until October. In the fall, the series will return to Moscow Raceway for the grand finale, which this year will be titled "500 Versts of MRW."

      Final results of the Grand Prix of Avtoradio

      Winners of the overall classification

      YADRO Motorsport No. 16 — Sergey Stolyarov / Ivan Chubarov

      Moscow Cup

      1. YADRO Motorsport No. 16 — Sergey Stolyarov / Ivan Chubarov

      2. Pro Motorsport No. 9 — Georgy Efrosinin / Igor Mukhin

      3. Capital RT No. 13 — Mikhail Alyoshin / Denis Remenyako

      CN Pro

      1. Pro Motorsport No. 9 — Georgy Efrosinin / Igor Mukhin

      2. TEAMGARIS No. 29 — Konstantin Zakharievsky / Stanislav Sidoruk / Konstantin Tereshchenko

      3. BALCHUG Racing No. 21 — Kirill Kirakozov / Mikhail Loboda

      GT Pro

      1. YADRO Motorsport No. 16 — Sergey Stolyarov / Ivan Chubarov

      2. Capital RT No. 13 — Mikhail Alyoshin / Denis Remenyako

      3. ISKRA Motorsport No. 37 — Andrey Solukovtsev / David Pogosyan

      GT

      1. YADRO Motorsport No. 97 — Viktor Shaitar / Denis Pomogalov

      2. MOTOR SHARKS No. 83 — Anton Nemkin / Ivan Lukashevich

      3. TEAMGARIS No. 34 — Stanislav Aksyonov / Eduard Islamov

      TCE

      1. GNV Kamenskiy Racing No. 91 — Ilya Kamensky / Nikolai Sushchev

      2. Real Performance No. 24 — Ilya Laryonov / Vladislav Perfiliev

      3. QUANTUM RACING No. 12 — Dmitry Shishko / Zakhar Slutsky / Artem Slutsky / Pyotr Biryukov

      GT Light

      1. Sportcar Racing Team No. 5 — Roman Smolyakov / Evgeny Magidovich

      2. 82 RT No. 82 — Roman Manuilov / Vakhtang Dimitradze

      3. Mazda High Power No. 53 — Valery Smirnov / Artem Kosarev

      GT Light Stock Car subcategory

      1. Mazda High Power No. 53 — Val