Autocross (day of Istra municipal area)

Autocross happened this weekend is an annual event in honor of Istra municipal area, which celebrates its 227-year birthday these days. The race takes place since 1998, when the track in Buzharovo was built, and attracts a number of participants. This time five categorues were present - kids on mini buggies, two classes of 'serious' buggies (in fact, the cars in both classes were the same), UAZ and ZIL categories.

The track itself was a sandy way made on a hill, curvy and narrow, with not so many places for overtaking, especially for huge trucks. Moreover, the weather was dry and sunny, so every running car left the huge cloud of dust behind, and the organizers had to water the track every hour to keep it in condition. Watering cars - two RWD Kamaz trucks and also RWD ZIL - from time to time couldn't complete the lap and slowly slided down the hill, where they tried again and maybe from the fourth-fifth attempt they succeeded. Unlike them, UAZ acting as a safety car, with a funny white flag on its front bumper, ran quickly checking the track before each race, thanks to AWD transmission and light weight.

My sister allowed me to take her new Samsung NV8 camera, and I was so happy with a 4gb space that completely forgot about battery, which came undone in the middle of the day, exactly when quarter- and semi-finals have started. And my Fuji's card was already full - I've fulfilled it while giving a rest to NV8.

Kamaz watering car and UAZ safety car/technical service car.

The first to come were buggies - nothing strange, having in mind what the track has become later. As usual, there wasn't many of them - just six cars, and there wasn't actually any serious competition - young Vladislav Demkin, who had good results in European races, just owned the rest drivers wherever he wanted. But here I must say he had a way better car.
I wrote to our buggy experts and they told me a little about the cars.

So, #3 - Anatoliy Zhukov. His 4x4 car was built in 1990-1991 at Gazprom and has a inline-4, 1.5-liter VAZ 2106 engine. The engine was modified, so I can't tell its output, but the production one had 71hp @ 5400rpm and weighed 121,3 kg. The gearbox is taken from Kamaz. In its previous life the car took 6-7 place in European championship driven by Roman Kolesnikov.
Zhukov had the worst results in both runs - in one category (D3) he took 5th place of 5 cars started, and in D3/5 he didn't start.

#15 - Vladimir Sutchkov. 3rd and 5th in D3 and D3/5 accordingly. 'Sprint' buggy with a plastic kit. Equipped with VAZ 2108 engine - 1.3-liter (not sure) inline-4. Made in Togliatti (about 200 cars), rear wheel drive.

#17 - Vladislav Demkin. Czech 4x4 buggy with a 600cc motorcycle engine, prepared for European championship. He just made a huge gap on each lap. Yes, and by the way, he's only 12 years old...

#48 - Aleksei Borzunov. Modified 'Sprint', like the #15 car, but in a different way. The engine used is VAZ 21011 (1.3, 69hp), gearbox from VAZ 2108. Modified front suspension. 2nd in D3 and 3rd in D3/5.

#52 - Mihail Maslennikov. Guys could tell me nothing about this car, except for 'this is something new'. 5th in D3/5 and 4th in D3.

#55 - Andrei Nikitin. Made around Kamaz frame (that's what I've been told, though I can't see it) with Kamaz gearbox and VAZ 21083 1.6-liter engine. All wheel drive. Didn't start in D3, but in D3/5 took a good 2nd.

After buggies finished, UAZ's came to the track. According to the regulations T1-2500 class can be entered not only by UAZ, but also by Niva, Luaz and 'other cars meeting the above demands with a FIA or RAF homologation'. Shortly, any SUVs or 4x4 pickups up to 2.5 liters are allowed, but UAZ is much cheaper then almost any SUV in the world, it's much more reliable then many SUV's, as basically it's a military car, has awesome off-road possibilities and finally it's simple in construction, so many enthusiasts can handle the car and repair it themselves.

Though cars are almost production ones (minor changes are allowed), they're rather fast for the dirt track and there is always an interesting competition in T1-2500, as it's almost a monocup. It was like this again in Saturday - they came close to each other battling in every turn and sometimes rolling over the roof. Marshalls, BTW, were such hippies they didn't even know what to do - when the car stopped on a roof behind them, they started to panic and could do something after someone gave them any hint - 'Yellow flag, yellow flag! Nooo, wave it!' And after all they have just left their position and went somewhere out of sight...

I don't know the starting list and the results because final race took place on Sunday, when I was in a different location.

A bit from the closed park. Damages on the body (the photos are taken before the race) are clearly visible here, especially on the last pic.

Qualifications.

The last set of UAZ's.

And the last class - T4-3, consisting of V8 7-liter ZIL-130 cars (some others allowed, but everyone drive 130's) with a rear wheel drive.
They've dug a deep hole in one of the curves yet during the qualification, so that UAZ cars jumped heavily there in semi-final, and even during the T4-3 quarter-finals these heavy machines (minimum weight is 4.5 tons, as I have already wrote before) dropped so high that I thought they had no chances to get back to 4 wheels, but they surprisingly did and moreover they have resumed the race, despite even some major damages - say, one of the leading cars ran with a ripped out front right spring, which hung behind the wheel...

Worldwide exclusive - laptimes. I've begged them after the event :D The qualification was done in four parts (33 cars in general) - in each run cars went off the finish with about 10 seconds gap and ran two complete laps, the best lap time was counted and thus the quarter-final runs were generated.
AMO ZIL-VMF-'BIGAFR' team is a ZIL works team. #30 car entered as AMO ZIL BIGAFR VMF should belong to the same team, I guess, I don't know why the team's name written in a bit different way.

[B]pos.[/B] | starting number | [B]driver [/B] | team | [B]best lap time [/B]
[B]1 [/B] #71 [B]Viacheslav Svechnikov [/B] Rus Auto Ryazan' [B]1.22.72[/B]
[B]2[/B] #97 [B]Stanislav Safonov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.23.97[/B]
[B]3[/B] #2 [B]Yuri Kuliabin[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.24.22[/B]
[B]4[/B] #38 [B]Nikolai Skorik[/B] N.Skorik (private entry) [B]1.25.47[/B]
[B]5[/B] #30 [B]Fedor Shilov[/B] AMO ZIL BIGAFR VMF [B]1.25.65[/B]
[B]6[/B] #99 [B]Maxim Kolmakov[/B] OAO Uralelectromed' [B]1.25.90[/B]
[B]7[/B] #16 [B]Vitaliy Opredelennov[/B] Mostransauto - Istra ATP [B]1.26.21[/B]
[B]8[/B] #82 [B]Mihail Kostrukov[/B] SAMK GABTU-MOGADK-SKTS [B]1.26.56[/B]
[B]9[/B] #12 [B]Petr Drofichev[/B] 147 AB MO RF [B]1.26.66[/B]
[B]10[/B] #15 [B]Vladimir Sutchkov[/B] Mostransavto - Istra ATP [B]1.26.72[/B]
[B]11[/B] #95 [B]Sergei Safonov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.26.85[/B]
[B]12[/B] #85 [B]Yuri Ershov[/B] SAMK GABTU-MOGADK-SKTS [B]1.27.03[/B]
[B]13[/B] #73 [B]Vladimir Lunin[/B] Rus Auto Ryazan' [B]1.27.12[/B]
[B]14[/B] #11 [B]Vladimir Pikulev[/B] SAMK MVO "1st Autocombine" [B]1.27.53[/B]
[B]15[/B] #81 [B]Alexander Kostrukov[/B] SAMK GABTU-MOGADK-SKTS [B]1.27.75[/B]
[B]16[/B] #10 [B]Igor Ataev[/B] SPMK-96 [B]1.27.84[/B]
[B]17[/B] #33 [B]Andrei Pikulev[/B] SAMK MVO "1st Autocombine" [B]1.27.84[/B]
[B]18[/B] #51 [B]Vasiliy Yakovlev[/B] Autoclub "Energy" [B]1.27.97[/B]
[B]19[/B] #79 [B]Artem Shabrov[/B] 147 AB MO RF [B]1.28.13[/B]
[B]20[/B] #42 [B]Andrei Lezihin[/B] Lezihin (private entry) [B]1.28.47[/B]
[B]21[/B] #96 [B]Artur Manucharov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.28.81[/B]
[B]22[/B] #52 [B]Mihail Chizhikov[/B] Autoclub "Energy" [B]1.29.16[/B]
[B]23[/B] #44 [B]Sergei Putchkov[/B] Putchkov S.A. (private entry) [B]1.29.84[/B]
[B]24[/B] #98 [B]Sergei Kolpakchi[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.29.96[/B]
[B]25[/B] #61 [B]Sergei Shlykov[/B] OAO Uralelectromed' [B]1.30.09[/B]
[B]26[/B] #22 [B]Dmitriy Goncharov[/B] SPMK-96 [B]1.31.47[/B]
[B]27[/B] #86 [B]Alexander Igumnov[/B] OSS UNR 494 [B]1.32.84[/B]
[B]28[/B] #21 [B]Vladimir Volkov[/B] SPMK-96 [B]1.32.88[/B]
[B]29[/B] #92 [B]Dmitriy Kozlov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.33.46[/B]
[B]30[/B] #9 [B]Andrei Kolesov[/B] SAMK MVO "1st Autocombine" [B]1.34.69[/B]
[B]31[/B] #14 [B]Petr Moltchanov[/B] Mostransauto - Istra ATP [B]1.54.25[/B]
[B]32[/B] #90 [B]Andrei Rodnov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]1.58.87[/B]
[B]33[/B] #91 [B]Aleksei Zharov[/B] AMO ZIL-VMF-BIGAFR [B]no time[/B]

More ZILs

Nice thread Faksta!
Thank you for taking the time putting this info and photos out here.
Appreciate it :)

And btw.. I see that UAZ # 61 has Statoil sponsorship stickers..
You have Statoil gas stations over there??

More of them

[QUOTE=LotusLocost;812992]Nice thread Faksta!
Thank you for taking the time putting this info and photos out here.
Appreciate it :)

And btw.. I see that UAZ # 61 has Statoil sponsorship stickers..
You have Statoil gas stations over there??[/QUOTE]

Thanks :)
The official Statoil Russia site says there are some stations on the north, near Murmansk. But they mostly have business with lubricants.

More, more, more

And more

More ZILs

Almost the end

The last bunch of pics but...

..but one engine shot