- In 2024, Russian Drift The series is holding its 15th anniversary season
- Traditionally, the country's main drift championship will open the weekend at the Moscow Raceway
- Current RDS GP champion has prepared a unique car
The Russian Drift Series Grand Prix (RDS GP) opens a new season, which will be an anniversary for the country's main drift championship — for the 15th time in the history of the tournament the strongest athlete will be determined. One of the three dozen pilots will win the championship title and either become the RDS GP champion for the first time, or become a multiple holder of the prestigious title.
Traditionally, the first stage of RDS GP 2024 will be held in Moscow at the Moscow Raceway, where drift stars and thousands of their fans will gather on April 28-29. Together with the fans in the stands of the circuit, tens of thousands of fans around the world will be able to watch the events live. For those who cannot be personally present at the Moscow Autodrome, a live broadcast of all sessions of the weekend — from qualifying and TOP-32 on Sunday to TOP-16 and final races on Monday — will be broadcast on the RDS TV platform.
< b>Exclusive Nissan Z from Georgy Chivchyan
As the current champion, the new season of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series will begin from Krasnoyarsk Georgy Chivchyan, who will compete in a completely new car — in the off-season, the only two-time winner of the FIA IDC Drift World Cup and four-time winner of the RDS GP built the first sports car in Russia, Nissan Z, prepared for drift The newest model has already proven itself at the world level, but for Russian motorsport it will be an absolute debut. Considering the colossal experience of Gochi himself and his TAKAYAMA FORWARD AUTO team, a car prepared using proprietary know-how should be competitive from the very start.
Together with Georgy Chivchyan in 2024, TAKAYAMA FORWARD AUTO will continue to include the winner of the RDS GP stages, the experienced Roman Tivodar, and a recent series debutant, but already a stage winner, Timofey Dobrovolsky, for whom this season will be the second in the country’s main drift championship. Both athletes will remain faithful to their familiar Nissan Silvia S15, prepared by the Krasnoyarsk team.
New BMW from the vice-champion
Anton Kozlov, who broke into the RDS GP elite from the very first season, will get behind the wheel of a new car in 2024. BMW will be replaced by… BMW, only more recent — the retro coupe 3 Series of the E30 generation will be replaced by the two-door 2 Series in the F22 body. The update of the car is largely dictated by changes in the technical regulations of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series. How the vice-champion will perform in a new car will be one of the intrigues of the upcoming championship.
Anton Kozlov’s partners at Carville Racing will be RDS GP regular Nikita Shikov, who will continue to compete behind the wheel of his Toyota Supra A90, and current champion of the interregional series RDS EUROPE Grigory Burlutsky. The latter has already competed in the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series at single stages, and now will spend his first full season in the tournament in his BMW 2 Series.
Another Toyota Supra A90
The Fresh Racing team, after a difficult season, returns to the fight with the desire to join the championship race from the very first stage. Modernized cars should help in this, among which will be the second model in the RDS GP, the latest generation Toyota Supra A90.
The new sports car will be at the disposal of the founder of the team, Denis Migal, whose partners in the new season will be the most experienced Siberians Damir Idiyatulin and Evgeny Losev — both athletes of the Moscow team will continue to compete in the Toyota Supra of the A80 generation, modified and tuned to their driving style.
< b>BMW Team
One of the main surprises of the season was the major re-equipment of the LUKOIL Racing Drift Team, which retained the composition of the pilots, but updated the fleet of cars by two-thirds. In 2023, only Grigory Gusev drove the E92 generation BMW 3 Series, and in the 2024 season both Andrei Astapov and Denis Sorokopud will change to the German coupe.
All cars will be equipped with the same engines, which should make it easier for the team to work with the equipment during the stages. Obviously, the legendary team took this decision from the leaders of RDS GP from TAKAYAMA FORWARD AUTO, which long ago switched to unified equipment for all its pilots. Whether this will allow LUKOIL Racing Drift Team to improve their results and return to victories — the new season will show.
Arkady Tsaregradtsev and the youth
A model of stability, not counting the change in the name of the team, can be considered the team “Evolution Yuka ADV by Obsessed Motorsport”, which retained both the composition of pilots and cars. The team will field three Nissan sports cars at the start – two 370Z coupes and one two-door 350Z, which were modernized in the off-season.
The pilots themselves also did not sit idly by and actively trained. Vladislav and Ilya Popov became one of the main discoveries of RDS GP 2023, and now they have to show how their level has grown taking into account the experience gained. No one doubts the skill of Arkady Tsaregradtsev, so the Tsar is expected to be included in the fight from the very first stage. It’s time for the 2022 champion to finally break the “dry” streak — a whole year without a win.
Strengthened composition of three teams
In the 2024 season, three teams strengthened their composition. Last year's debut team TimeUp added Artem Shabanov to its leader Leonid Schneider and experienced Maxim Grossman. The vice-champion of RDS EUROPE 2023 will make his debut in the main Russian drift series and may well become one of the sensations of the upcoming tournament.
As for the VSTeam carX team, this year it will be represented by three cars at once. Team founder Alexey Vakhtin and his teammate from last season Evgeny Spirin will switch to the newly built Toyota Supra A80 and will receive support from Anatoly Shcherbak, who joined the team this year driving a Nissan 200SX.
The AUTOBAN AIMOL team will also compete with three pilots, but with a two-thirds new roster. The most experienced Dmitry Ermokhin retained his place, and his partners were Sergei Sak, who returned to RDS GP, and tournament debutant Sergei Kuznetsov, who will pilot the Flanker F — the Russian drift hypercar remains in the series!
In the individual competition at the first stage of RDS The GP includes two St. Petersburgers driving a BMW 2 Series — Anton Klyamko and Nikolay Gorkovenko, as well as series regular Anton Dmitrienko driving a Nissan Silvia S15 and a newcomer to the tournament Vladislav Erofeev, who will drive a Nissan 370Z.
RDS GP 2024 Judging Panel
The practice of the panel of judges, unchanged throughout the entire season, which was first tested in 2021, will remain in the RDS GP 2024 season. Over seven stages, evaluate the performance of athletes of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series in qualifications and doubles races will be held by professional judges Anton Novikov, Vladimir Safonov and Stanislav Dolgikh. All three have extensive experience in both judging and performing in drifting.
Schedule of the 1st stage of RDS GP 2024 at the Moscow Raceway:
April 28, Sunday
- 8:30-9:30 – training
- 10:00-13:30 – qualification
- 14:00-15:00 – grand opening of the competition and autograph session
- 15:30-18:30 – pair races TOP-32
April 29, Monday
- 9:00-10:30 – training
- 11:30-12:30 – pilot parade and autograph session
- 13:00-14:30 – TOP-16 pair races
- 16:00-18 :00 – doubles races TOP-8/TOP-4/final
- 18:30-19:00 – award ceremony
You can follow the events on the track both from the stands of the Moscow Raceway and live on the RDS TV platform — qualifying races can be watched free after registration, and paired races will be available by subscription.
About Moscow Raceway
The Moscow Raceway became the first European level track in Russia. Opened in 2012, the track is certified under the FIA Grade 1 (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) and FIM B (Fédération Internationale Motorcycle) categories, which allows racing at the Formula 1 and World Superbike level on the circuit.
All time During the existence of the circuit, it hosted stages of the leading international series DTM, WSBK, World Series by Renault, FIA WTCC, FIA GT, Blancpain Series, as well as Russian RDS GP, RSKG, RSBK, Russian Endurance Challenge and TRD Endurance.
RDS GP statistics at Moscow Raceway
2021
- Qualification: Georgy Chivchyan (94 points)
- Top- 3 doubles races: Arkady Tsaregradtsev (winner), Evgeny Losev, Georgy Chivchyan
2022 (1st stage)
- Qualification : Damir Idiyatulin (100 points)
- Top 3 doubles races: Damir Idiyatulin (winner), Roman Tivodar, Georgy Chivchyan
2023 (1st stage )
- Qualification: Damir Idiyatulin (100 points)
- Top 3 doubles races: Anton Kozlov (winner), Charles NG, Georgy Chivchyan
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