These events would be more than enough for several pilots and a couple of stages of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series, but all these tests at Igor Drive fell to the lot of Evgeny Losev.

Since 2020, when the autodrome in the Leningrad region appeared in the RDS GP calendar, weekends on it traditionally give a lot of interesting races. Spectacular (thanks to the high-speed nature of the track, where wide safety zones allow you to take risks) and unpredictable (because this is a drift where everyone is able to stand upside down in one run), and even when one of the most aggressive drivers in his style takes on the job - it won't be boring for sure!

Evgeny Losev gained a huge army of fans with his ability to combine crazy productions, frenzied shifts and riding on the edge throughout the entire evaluated section. Therefore, for the fans, every passage of the pilot from Irkutsk is a feast and a treat for the eyes, and for rivals it is a headache because of the need to adapt to an uncomfortable opponent and not be too far behind him at a distance.

But it all started with problems not with rivals, but with Losev himself. Before the stage in St. Petersburg, Eugene re-equipped his already legendary Toyota Mark II (X80) with a new engine for E85 fuel, so the performances at Igora Drive were supposed to be the debut of the unit in combat conditions. And predictably, childhood illnesses were not avoided, but they were revealed in very dramatic conditions.

In qualifying, when the pilots try to pass the first attempt as carefully as possible, so as not to reset it, and then take a chance in the second passage, Losev did not waste time on trifles. The representative of Sintec Fresh Auto Drift immediately gave his full and gave such a ride, which the judges rated for the maximum possible 100 points in drifting! It was only the second such successful run in the history of RDS GP. And it is especially interesting that both Anikui - this is how a 100-point qualification is called in drifting - happened in 2022 and were performed by Sintec Fresh Auto Drift pilots (before that, at the start of the season, Damir Idiyatulin drove with the maximum result at Moscow Raceway). But Losev's second attempt turned out to be more important.

In principle, Evgeny could not go to qualifying for the second time at all, since the rivals had little chance of repeating his result, but the pilot did not sit in the paddock. And this decision turned out to be so right that the athlete himself, and his team, and all Losev's fans personally, and Sintec Fresh Auto Drift in particular, were happy with him. Simply because at the end of the second qualifying run, the engine, if not completely dead, then seriously malfunctioned.



In the time pressure mode, in the time remaining until the top 32, the team managed to revive the car just enough so that the driver could get to the setting zone on his own and fix his entry into the top 16 through a bye run in the absence of rivals in the initial stage of pair races. Well, then, at the cost of a sleepless night, Toyota was returned to working condition - it’s good that the problems got out in qualifying, and not at the beginning of pair races, when a breakdown could put an end to further performances in St. Petersburg.

But this does not mean at all that an easy walk to the podium was waiting for Losev. At the top 16 stage, Evgeny's opponent was Charles NG from STAR PЁR STARS AIMOL. The pilot from Hong Kong, who is driving the Flanker F for the second stage in a row, has found a second wind behind the wheel of a Russian hypercar - the fantastic drive of two most experienced pilots did not allow the judges to determine the winner at the first attempt. As a result, two OMT races followed at once, as a result of which Losev received a ticket to the top 8.

Further, without much difficulty, the future winner of the stage took over the leader of BY Motorsport Sergey Sak, but in the semi-final with Leonid Schneider, he had to sweat, but experience got the better of youth. Exactly so that at the next stage, in the final, to meet with another Forward Auto pilot - titled Georgy Chivchyan.



Taking into account the fact that Gocha showed the second result in qualifying, the two leaders of Saturday came together in the fight for the victory. And in this confrontation, the Krasnoyarsk resident turned out to be stronger than his Irkutsk counterpart - Losev failed to win his first victory in the 2022 season, and Chivchyan won his second stage of the year. However, Eugene was not particularly upset - the silver became a worthy reward for both the pilot and the entire Sintec Fresh Auto Drift, which did their best to return their athlete to the fight after sudden technical problems.

The only annoyance for Sintec Fresh Auto Drift was the loss of leadership in the individual competition by Damir Idiyatulin. In a tight fight, when every credit score counts, two stages before the end of the season, the Krasnoyarsk player could not even make it to the semi-finals. Suddenly for everyone - it seems thatand for himself - in the top 8, Idiyatulin lost to Schneider. Damir made too many mistakes, and the pilot, who spends his first full season in the RDS GP, went to the semi-finals. And even though Leonid failed to participate in the fight for victory, he nevertheless won his second podium in his career. And in a duel with what an opponent! Arkady Tsaregradtsev also claimed bronze, but this time the Tsar failed to get into the top three, from where he was pushed out by Schneider.

And while some dream of riding in tandem with Idiyatulin and Tsaregradtsev, the young Krasnoyarsk citizen makes dreams come true and not only participates in duels with the most experienced opponents, but also defeats them. By the second half of his debut season, which began with a series of annoying crashes and crashes, the young RDS GP driver was able to gather his strength and show noticeable progress.

Schneider on "Igora Drive" also chalked up the victory in the unofficial competition for maximum speed on the production. As part of the top 32, the Forward Auto pilot sent his car into a skid at a speed of 176 km/h and was able to keep the car within the track after that - none of the rivals could beat him.

Two podiums in a row in the individual competition, the ability to cope with the car in an extreme setting is the best confirmation of how much stronger Leonid has become mentally. And this benefits not only the Forward Auto team, in which all three pilots constantly claim the podium, but also the entire Russian drifting industry, where young pilots are already fighting on equal terms with veterans of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series.



The next stage of this confrontation between two generations in the RDS GP is scheduled for September 10-11. The sixth stage of the Grand Prix of the Russian Drift Series will be held at the Moscow Raceway, but this weekend promises to be one of the most interesting and unpredictable of the entire season - the track is at least familiar to the participants of the championship, but this time the pilots are waiting for a completely new evaluated section, which will be driven in side opposite to the usual direction.