Twelfth round of the Unlim 500+ Car Festival was held on May 31 — June 1 at the Dmitrovsky practice ground near Moscow. 1-km races of supercars have already been held for 5 years in a row and the organisers of the anniversary season had prepared special events for more than 3,000 spectators who came to watch the tournament. Albert Demchenko — the famous Russian luger, the Merited Master of Sports, seven-time Olympian, vice-champion of the Olympic Games in Sochi — participated in the event for the first time behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Also for the first time, speed and time record-setting attempts have been registered during the festival. Dmitry Samorukov became the overall winner of the 12th Unlim 500+ event — he managed to cover the distance of 1 km in 15.781 seconds.
Saturday, first day of the event, was dedicated to practice sessions and qualifying. Sunday began with the inaugural ceremony, which presented all countries that produce the audience’s most favourite cars like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Jaguar, Porsche, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Aston Martin, etc. in a rather unexpected way. Movies helped to find the best association with various vehicles. “James Bond” presented cars from Great Britain — the famous spy and his lady-companion jumped into Aston Martin straight from the helicopter, which landed on the track. The expressive Italian character was demonstrated with the help of a famous scene from “The Taming of the Scoundrel” movie — an actor driving a Lamborghini tractor dragged a bed with an actress right in front of the audience.
The central episode of the opening ceremony involved a DeLorean, like the one starring in the Back to the Future movie, followed by a mediaeval knight astride a black horse. In this way the organisers presented yet another season’s premiere, which is the new Unlim 500+ logo, which uses the knight as a symbol of tournament between the strongest and bravest competitors.
During both days of the festival the major attention of the audience was focused on the bright red Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, which had been specially brought to participate in the competitions.
The car’s recognisable sports exterior, its technical specifications, and Albert Demchenko behind its wheel — all these factors made the car extremely popular. In the rare spare moments, Albert was giving answers to the questions of the guests, signing autographs, and making photoshoots with the Corvette Stingray. However, the sportsman was still spending most of the time behind the wheel. He had his first practice run on Saturday, got involved really fast, and started each new run with even more enthusiasm. The vice-champion of the Olympic Games could not leave Unlim 500+ without scoring victories and setting new records. Albert Demchenko won several races, demonstrated one of the best results in the Super Cars RWD class, setting the elapsed time of 23.042 seconds. Demchenko’s top trap speed was 239.84 km/h. As the sportsman has already called time on his career in luging, we might expect to see Albert during the next Unlim 500+ event, when he will try to beat his own achievements.
For the first time, speed and time record-setting attempts were registered during the 12th Unlim 500+ Car Festival. In this way the Russian Automobile Federation (RAF) marked the beginning of the discipline new to the Russian motor sports. The results of the best record-setting attempts will be submitted for approval to the RAF, which will later report about the officially registered records.
72 applications have been filed for participation in the twelfth round of the Unlim 500+ competitions. After all inspections and eliminations, 44 cars entered the main stage of the tournament. They were divided into Super Cars AWD, Super Cars RWD, Sport Cars AWD, Sport Cars RWD, GT, Super Sport AWD, Super Sport RWD, and SUV classes according to their drive and transmission types. The time taken to cover 1-km distance was getting less and less in the course of 7 hours of competitions. The results were even better closer to the evening, when the temperature of air and track surface became more comfortable. The major feud for the best overall result was running high in the Super Sport AWD class between two Nissan GT-R cars with Dmitry Samorukov and Dmitry Matveev behind their wheels. The results of both drivers had already been close to 16 seconds and the most intriguing was the name of the final winner. Samorukov managed to seize the initiative in the last hour of the competitions and demonstrated best time close to 15.7 seconds several times in a row. Matveev was not able to beat this result and Dmitry Samorukov was recognised as the Unlim 500+ overall winner. It took him 15.781 seconds to cover the distance of 1 km. Dmitry’s top speed reached 355.38 km/h.
Winners of the 12th stage of the Unlim 500+ competitions in different classes are:
Super Sport AWD
1. Dmitry Samorukov, #599 (Nissan GT-R (R35) Mk.2 AMS Alpha 16) — 15,781 sec.
2. Dmitry Matveev, #650 (Nissan GT-R (R35) Mk.2 Altechno A1) — 16,180 sec.
3. Alexander P., #33 (Nissan GT-R (R35) Mk.1 Boostlogic Godzilla) — 16,288 sec.
Super Sport RWD
1. Sergey O., #3 (BMW M3 (E90) Filin Edition) — 20,152 sec.
2. Aziz A., #90 (Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG (W204) Weistec Engineering) — 20,943 sec.
SUV
1. Oleg B., #555 (BMW X6M (E71) PP-Performance Stage 4) — 20,939 sec.
2. Tamerlan S., #95 (BMW X6 M) — 21,425 sec.
3. Dmitry L., #63 (Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG Evotech) — 21,532 sec.
Super Cars AWD
1. Konstantin, #700 (Lamborghini Aventador) — 20,070 sec.
2. Alexander, #69 (Lamborghini Aventador) — 20,161 sec.
3. Dmitry M., #54 (Porsche 911 Turbo S (991)) — 20,255 sec.
Super Cars RWD
1. Andrey M., #1 (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6)) — 21,806 sec.
2. Alexander K., #71 (Jaguar F-Type R) — 22,361 sec.
3. Sergey M., #338 (BMW M6 (F13)) — 22,477 sec.
Sport Cars AWD
1. Sergey I., #911 (Porsche 911 Turbo (997) Mk.1) — 19,980 sec.
2. Andrey N., #66 (Porsche 911 Turbo (997) Mk.2 Cobb Stage 2) — 20,661 sec.
3. Dmitry M. (Porsche Panamera Turbo PP-Performance Stage 2)
Sport Cars RWD
1. Maxim Y., #85 (Chevrolet Corvette ZR 850 IPS Motorsports V&S) — 20,303 sec.
2. Stepan K., #30 (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6)) — 20,923 sec.
3. Ramon B., #800 (BMW M5) — 21,229 sec.
GT
1. Nikolas G., #20 (Audi RS6 R11 K Sportmile) — 18,675 sec.
2. Vladimir U., #27 (Nissan Juke R) — 19,141 sec.
3. Nikolay G., #999 (Audi RS7 APR/Total Race st2) — 19,517 sec.
Congratulations to Unlim 500+ Dozen winners!!!
