On May, 13 the Kazan Ring Canyon track saw the first stage of the Pussian Cup in Mitjet racing class.

“We are really happy to be back here in Kazan for the first race of the Russian Cup. A lot of new things await us in the upcoming season: new pilot crew, new stage locations, new teams – I am sure it will make the upcoming stages of our championship interesting. The first race is always special. One must note a certain tension caused by the upcoming qualification race, which will demonstrate the balance of power in the peloton. It seems that the struggle for the cup is going to be extremely intense”, - said Sergey Yegorov, promoter of the Russian Mitjet series, announcing the upcoming race.  

The fans who gathered at the race track witnessed extremely sharp rivalry, uncompromising struggle, triumph of the winners and several serious collisions. As expected, by the results of the morning qualification, Dmitry Gwasava became the pole leader with Anton Nemkin in second place. A real surprise came from the young (15) and promising pilot Danila Ivanov, who finished 3^rd (notably, RAF has granted a special permit to Danila, allowing him to take part in such high-level competitions). One must note, that while the gap between Gwasava and Nemkin estimated seven tenths of a second, the other pilots had to fight for every one hundredth of a second. Which is yet another evidence of the high level of rivalry in the Mitjet monoclass.  

The first race of the stage went without serious incidents and did not bring any surprising results. Dmitry Gwasava retained his leadership as the pole-sitter, Nemkin came second, while the third place was occupied by the leader’s teammate Yuri Borisenko, who defeated Constantine Gugkaev after an intense struggle (which lasted till the very last lap). We must add that on the first lap, the car of Danila Ivanov was swung round after an unfortunate collision with the same Gugkaev.   

The second race was truly full of intense moments! Mikhail Makarovsky went into a gravel trap after underestimating his speed at the first turn, and a safety car was launched into the track. Danila Ivanov, who was leading then, saw the safety car and slowed down. Unfortunately, Borisenko and Kaishev who followed him did not notice the warning signals in time. This resulted in a serious collision between three cars with massive car damage. The pilots remained unscathed, but were unable to continue the race.

The director of the Russian Mitjet series Boris Shulmeister said the following about the situation: “I am happy that Mitjet is an up-to-date racing prototype, compliant with all the latest engineering regulations and standards of the International Association of Motorsports. Even after such a serious accident, our guys have escaped unhurt. This is our primary concern”. 

As for the results of the race, Dmitry Gwasava celebrated his second victory of the day. Anton Nemkin was second at the finish line. Konstantine Gugkaev came third. The nex, second stage of the Russian Cup will take place on the already familiar Kazan Ring track on May, 20.