SUMMER SHORT-TRACK LAST RACE

 

On the 24th of October the last non-ice race in this season at the St. Petersburg Motor-track took place. Over 20 participants raced in 40 3-lap races to score points for the win. The road let the participants to achieve rather high speeds and enjoy the spectators, for whom it was also a good occasion to celebrate the oncoming national Day of Automobilist.

The 4 leaders after day 1 were within only 5 points. Anton Zaykin (Team Nowerc, LADA-2108) had the 100% success - 20 points of 20 possible. His closest chasers - Yuri Niciporuk (Team Euro-Auto, Audi-"the frog") and Alexander Nikitin (Nowerc, VW-Beetle) lost only 1 and 2 points. The next possible winner - Yuri Roudnikov (Team "Salova, 52", VW-Corrado VR-6) retired in the middle of the second day with the suspension failure. The second day really brought the lot of admire to some hundreds of spectators, cause the high speed and passion for good results, performed by the participants, led to the... crash of the protective fence in many places around the track. Many cars retired, as the result.

The leaders kept closely until the very end and 3 starts before the end it was clear that there is the necessity in super-final - the duel of Zaykin and Nikitin. But the last 2 races were won by Nichiporuk and he scored the same amount! Only the Niciporuk's car failure on the last 10 metres of his last race prevented the unprecedent super-final of three starters. The better start of "The Beetle" was compensated by better tactics chosen by Zaikin (on the photo), his nerves and experience, so in the middle, after the constant "pressure", his LADA overtake VW and brought the driver to the beautiful victory.

For more pictures see the Russian story, and e-mail us for more detailed English story