June, summer, all drifts have gathered in Odessa! It is time for the Second round of the Ukrainian Drift Championship UDC 2013!
This year the Championship changed its Odessa location from the usual parking lot near the Riviera SEC to a huge ring of the New City SC. And this new racetrack with a greater “entrance” speed is not single, as it was at Riviera, but has three reversals and is absolutely different!
For the Second round almost all racers had time to finish building their cars. 22 cars were declared for the race. The judges decided to give everyone the chance to race and build a chart of pair runs of Top-32. But there will be more on it later…
So, the first day, Qualification day.
As usual, in the first half of the day the participants are given time to practice, and qualification runs begin in the late afternoon. An incredible heat accompanied the race for both days! The cars were overheating, the racers were baking in their suits, and the mechanics were sunbathing in the wild southern sun.
MarchenkoRacing’s racer – Vladimir Marchenko – in the course of training was getting used to the track and experimenting with rubber and manner of track passing. Of course, we are not going to share the results of the experiments, as it is a “trade secret”.
Upon finishing the training, the participants lined up to pass the qualification.
In his turn, Vladimir took the starting line. Each racer has three attempts to perform his best run on the track. All three runs by Vladimir were on a high level, with the correct path, good drift angle and decent amount of smoke. All this was assessed as 94.67 scores by the judges and the third place according to the qualification results.
The first day of races ended with a festive parade of participants in the city of Odessa with a stop at the top of the Potemkin Stairs and near the monument to Duke de Richelieu. But Vladimir Marchenko was not able to take part in this drive, as the ground clearance of MarchenkoRacing’s combative Nissan does not let to drive it in the streets of the city.
Race day!
Despite the night rain in Odessa, the sun continued to melt the asphalt, people and vehicles. However, despite the heat, the stands gradually filled with fans and spectators of our show!
In the morning the racers were able to practice, and at 2:00 p.m., exactly in line with timing, the grand opening of the Second round of the Ukrainian Drift Championship was announced! The racers were presented to the audience, the national anthem of Ukraine was played, an autograph session was held… Then, at the briefing, the judges assigned the racers tasks for pair runs, wished them luck and the race was on!
Since Vladimir Marchenko took the third place in qualification, and there were only 22 participants, he automatically passed into a series of Top-16.
In Top-16 Vladimir was competing with a promising beginner of the Championship – Sergei Lavitskiy, who in Top-32 left Vitaliy Gerashchenko on the rear drive Honda Civic behind.
In one of the runs, when Sergei was leading, after the third reversal, he made a mistake and his BMW practically turned around. Vladimir, driving close enough to Sergei, did not have time to avoid a collision, but fortunately, the contact did not cause serious damage and MarchenkoRacing continued the race!
Top-8 – Sergei Lipskiy
Again Nissan, again with V8 American LS core. The races were rich in sound, skills and spectacularity! However, Vladimir had an advantage and MarchenkoRacing went on.
Top-4 – Denis Lisichenok
Sheen BMW E30 and quite experienced opponent. In the first race, Vladimir, chasing Denis, at first lost the path, and then could not get close enough to Denis, which led to a number of mistakes and non-synchronous reversals. Denis Lisichenok raced after Marchenko perfectly and with a small distance, so Denis Lisichenok got into the final, and Marchenko Racing went to compete for the third place.
Race for the 3rd place – Alexei Golovnya.
Perhaps the most interesting races of the season! The minimum distance in both races, ideal path, smoke, angle, crazy and close reversals from Vladimir Marchenko!.. The judges’ decision – One More Time! And once more! Beautiful passings by both racers, rear bumper pulled off in reversal from Alexei Golovnya’s car by Vladimir! But two cones, knocked down by Vladimir Marchenko, gave Alexei way to the third podium place at the Second round of the Ukrainian Drift Championship.
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Vladimir Marchenko – the 4th place.
Podium:
1st place – Dmitriy Illyuk
2nd place – Denis Lisichenok
3rd place – Alexei Golovnya
Marchenko Racing would like to thank all fans, who came to support the drift in such a hot day of June! See you in Vinnitsa, July 20, and before that – in Kyiv, at the Chaika racetrack at the 3rd stage of the Ukrainian Circuit Racing Championship!