Before the start of the weekend in Sochi, the forecast promised changeable weather conditions. On Friday, there was no rain during practice, but on Saturday during qualifying, the weather conditions worsened, which made the surface as uneven as possible: due to the fact that the asphalt dried unevenly, many drivers had difficulties. But despite this, the participants showed their skills and produced a beautiful drift performance. On Sunday there was a strong wind, it was raining all day and the event was close to being cancelled, only thanks to the well-coordinated work of the organisers, the third Sochi Drift Challenge round took place.
The races were held on a new layout, as at the first round, the drivers accelerated in the long third turn of the track and finished in the fourth.
Once again, the Kultura Zanosa team from St. Petersburg made a pleasant surprise, Alexey Bakhvalov and Valery Nikulin met in the TOP8, Valery reached the final and took second place at the round. Another member of the St. Petersburg team, Alexander Abramov, had a good result in a Dodge Viper, won a race against experienced RDS GP driver Grigory Gusev.
The winner of qualifying Nikita Shikov from the CARVILLE RACING team lost to Mark Shinkarev. The weather has made its own adjustments to the overall standings.
Driver from Krasnoyarsk Leonid Schneider took gold, silver went to Valery Nikulin from Kultura Zanosa, and bronze was taken by Grigory Burlutsky from CARVILLE RACING. In the team standings, the first place was deservedly taken by Kultura Zanosa, thus interrupting the winning streak of the CARVILLE RACING team, which this time took second place. The third place was taken by the SIDE MASTERS team.
As the judges noted, the third round of Sochi Drift Challenge of the 2022-2023 season turned out to be difficult, but interesting, and also showed that drivers and teams must be able to work in all weather conditions and quickly adapt to them.
Viewers were able to enjoy drift online thanks to the broadcast. Over the past weekend, the stream has been viewed more than 1 million times. For those who did not have time to see the competition, a recording of the broadcast is available in the official Rosgonki group on VK https://vk.com/rosgonki. And on 23 February, a digest will also be released in the Rosgonki group, where viewers will be able to see the highlights of the round, and exclusive content that was not in the broadcast (the podium, interviews with drivers and much more that was left behind the scenes).
You can watch the competition live only at the final, which will be held on 25 and 26 March. An additional bonus for ticket holders: access to the very heart of the event - the Service Park, where you can see cars and drivers at arm's length, take photos and buy souvenirs.
It is better to plan a race weekend in advance, as prices are expected to increase from 1 March. Tickets to the final are available here.
See you at Sochi Autodrom!