Timeattack.fi - Alastaro Circuit - Toyota MR2, 2.0 liter, 1997

The beginning of the story is sad - there is not even a small race track in our St. Petersburg village ... there was the Neva Ring, but it floated thanks to personalities whose names are not censored in the common people ... even some mythical karting tracks are used, don’t understand how or are not used at all. All the hellish St. Petersburg racer can dream of is parking near Real Madrid =) And how in civilized countries you have to pay for parking, only money is not taken by an automatic machine, but by specially trained people%)

Well, enough about the sad, because there is a small country Chukhoniya relatively close to the north-west, where harsh Chukhon racers live, who are familiar with motorsport at all by hearsay, who love to gasp, but only for some reason only where it is allowed ... In one of such places and it was decided one fine day to go.

About the pleasant part, you can write a little more seriously. The path was not very close, since the Alastaro Circuit, where we headed, is located not at all close to the border and more than 500 km from St. Petersburg. Having left in three cars at 12 noon, we met our Finnish friends in Helsinki and at our destination, a very cozy cottage near the highway, we arrived at about 10 pm. The second wave of racers arrived after midnight. Then, pivo, barbecue, bath - in general, everything is as it should be.

На утро вставалось как-то тяжело =) Мы не успевали к открытию и на первые сессии, но, тем не менее, с твердой решимостью как следует отжечь, организованная колонна двинулась к трассе. До этого я не был на подобных мероприятиях и, конечно же, был в предвкушении чего-то эдакого… Надежды оправдались в полной мере. Конечно до такого уровня организации нам еще далеко как до луны. Уже на въезде замечаешь большую парковку с огромным количеством разных машин, издали доносятся звуки ревущих двигателей. Сразу чувствуешь что в воздухе висит атмосфера праздника. Там оказывается проходят не только гонки… в одном месте расположились машины соревнующиеся своим внешним видом, в другом месте что-то похожее на соревнования по автозвуку, рядом с прицепа выгружают какой-то ацкий корч. Среди участников замечаем еще знакомые лица из Питера, они приехали отдельно сами по себе.

Поставив машину я выхожу из-за трибун и передо мной открывается прямая старт финиш и за ней все трасса. С небольшим интервалом проносятся совершенно разные машины время от времени обгоняя друг друга. Я как будто попал в рай. Конечно эти первые ощущения ничем не передать. Уже чувствую, еще чуть чуть и я буду там же, топить газ на прямой и атаковать повороты.

Registration, briefing and quickly lay out all the things to be in time for the next session. So I have already passed the technical commission and I am waiting in line until they let me out on the track. It's my turn, the go-ahead is given, and I'm heading straight to the start-finish line, first braking, high-speed right turn with a slight slope and uphill ... the horizon line turns 45 degrees for some reason, but soon comes back ... another right turn, but slower and with a stronger slope, yeah, we went through this more than once, but damn it, the trajectory is not at all obvious from the first time ... acceleration, a simple steep left, again acceleration, a very high-speed right turn that is clearly passed without braking, but damn it’s scary , the foot itself releases the gas ... again acceleration, in front of a 180-degree slow right, you need to brake hard and slow down a lot ... again acceleration,
A couple more laps, I even overtook a couple of people, suddenly there is a smell from the pads, which immediately, due to lack of experience, makes you score points - “isn’t something already on fire!” and immediately makes you remember that it would be necessary to let the car cool down as well.
After the first session, a lot of emotions, I urgently need to share with everyone :)
In the next session, I'm practically experienced =) I drive more aggressively, I try to understand the track. There were no more problems with the pads, they got used to it :), after all, the upgrade of the brakes was not in vain, the Motul RBF600 did not disappoint either.

Time imperceptibly approaches the climax - actually the TimeAttack itself. Not big briefings yet and we are ready to start. It turns out that everything is simple - three classes Club, Competition, Unlimited, which each ride 3 laps in their session - warm-up, test and cooling lap. Cars are released at intervals of 10 seconds. We are all naturally in the Club class. For some reason they put Yura TaPuK in front of meand, of course, we agree that I will let him go away ... So the go-ahead, I went to the warmup, like the food is not quickly warming up the tires, and here is the last turn before entering the fast lap, the time attack has begun! Coming to the starting line, I see Yura just entering the first turn, the thought creeps into my head that this is not quite normal ... I drive, I attack, Yura is approaching ... Damn, I understand that I am approaching him too quickly. Another turn and here it is already very close. There is only one thought - to overtake now or ruin the circle for both myself and him. I quickly approach him on a straight line, equal and overtake on braking - “fu, it turned out, it didn’t seem to interfere with him either.” A few more turns and the fast lap is over. I pass the second attempt worse, I make a few mistakes in a couple of places, and most importantly, the gear does not turn on once.
We are waiting for the results. The second attempt turns out to be better than the first, the suspicion creeps in that the time was somehow cut off because of my overtaking. But okay figs with him, suddenly it turns out I'm fifth in the class. Our hellish evo5 fourth! And the top five go to SuperLap, where it is decided who takes the prizes. Moreover, everyone, except me, from the top five of the Club class travels around the entire not numerous Competition class.

1 Nissan GTR 1:26.421 1 1:28.563 2
2 Honda Civic 1:30.125 1 1:30.718 2
3 Nissan Skyline 1:30.281 1 1:30.500 2
4 Mitsubishi EVO5 1:31.375 2 1:32.438 1
5 Toyota MR2 1:33.406 2 1:33.672 1

A superlap is the same, only one attempt and another turn of the course is used, not previously used.
Let's go one more try! The food is not bad, but I understand that I had large gaps before and it will not be possible to improve much. Yes, I remain the fifth, but Sergey becomes the third in the evolution! Wow, one cup is leaving for Russia!

1 Nissan GTR 1:31.125

2 Nissan Skyline 1:33.500

3 Mitsubishi EVO5 1:34.672

4 Honda Civic 1:34.859

5 Toyota MR2 1:36.563

Ride another session, then there was an award. Then it immediately began to rain. Someone else rolled in the rain, but I didn't - so I was completely satisfied.

We went back to a well-deserved rest - in the evening, as usual, we had a good time and the next day we went home.
Analyzing everything already at home in a calm environment, of course, a lot of things come to mind - where you could attack harder, where to slow down later, where not to let go of the gas. It becomes clear that you need a motor and a lot of sets of tires :) And all this will definitely happen someday, because such trips give unforgettable sensations, invaluable experience. This is a real active holiday.

Cool video about the event as a whole