WEC

The track-spec Renault RS 01 sports car was revealed at the Moscow Motor Show. The car will join the World Series by Renault in 2015.

Ginetta, the British manufacturer of street-legal sports cars and racers, have revealed a prototype design of their new car intended to debut in the LMP3 class.

Porsche have demonstrated a great example with their return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Sport does mean a lot! Now it’s time for McLaren to consider their return to endurance races.

The second round of the World Endurance Championship, which started at 22:30 Moscow Time, brought 4th and 5th places to the Russian SMP Racing team. The WEC racing weekend started on Friday, May 2nd, with free practice sessions followed by the evening’s qualifying. The SMP Racing team was traditionally presented by two LMP2 race cars number 27 and 37 driven by the following trios of pilots — Sergey Zlobin, Maurizio Mediani, Nicolas Minassian; and Kirill Ladygin, Viktor Shaitar, Anton Ladygin.

On Sunday at 03:00 PM Moscow time two cars of the Russian SMP Racing team lined up on the start of the race held at the British Silverstone Circuit. Car number 37 driven by Kirill Ladygin, Viktor Shaitar, and Anton Ladygin had earned third starting position, while the car number 27 in the hands of Sergey Zlobin, Nicolas Minassian, and Maurizio Mediani was fourth on the starting grid.

Two SMP Racing crews climbed the podium of the first race of the 2014 season held at the Silverstone Circuit. Two Russian SMP Racing crews won pole positions for the four-hour race of the European Le Mans Series, which was held on April 19th at the Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain. First pole-sitter in the GTE class was car number 72 in the hands of Sergey Zlobin, Viktor Shaitar, and Andrea Bertolini, while the car driven by Kirill Ladygin, Aleksey Basov, and Luca Persiani won the GTC class pole. Based on the results of qualifying, car number 71 with Anton Ladygin, David Markozov, and Olivier Beretta kept it close to their colleagues securing third position.

SMP Racing pilots Sergey Zlobin, Kirill and Anton Ladygin, Victor Shaitar, Aleksey Basov and David Markozov have successfully completed practice sessions in AOTech race car simulator. Training course was held near Paris and comprised simulation of various loads, weather conditions and different driving modes applied on racing track.

Porsche pilots tested the hybrids which will take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Tests were conducted in France at the Paul Ricard circuit. It was reported by motor.ru that the trials had to be stopped several times due to technical failures. However, there is nothing to worry about as the purpose of this event was to discover all weak points. The cars covered the distance of 4,700 km during three days of trials. Tests also included pit stop practices and night running.

On January 27–29 SMP Racing pilots in collaboration with Michelin performed tests of the LMP2 prototypes on the Portuguese Autódromo do Estoril. Sergey Zlobin, Nicolas Minassian, Maurizio Mediani, Viktor Shaitar, Kirill and Anton Ladygin took part in this test session.

G-Drive Racing crew of Roman Rusinov, Mike Conway and John Martin was first again in LMP2 prototype category at the 6 Hours of Shanghai which was held on November 9 in China. For the third time the team under the Russian flag stands on the highest step of the podium in the current World Endurance Championship.