Kirill Ladygin and Vitaly Petrov will take part in Champions' Race in Tolyatti

17 January 2020/ smp

SMP Racing drivers Kirill Ladygin and Vitaly Petrov will compete in the 23rd Champions’ Race, which will take place on January 19 in Tolyatti.

Kirill Ladygin is the current winner of the 2019 Champions’ Race – last year he won the competition for the sixth time and was awarded the Silver Rook prize, which goes every year to a winner of the race. He previously won this race in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

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This weekend, Kirill Ladygin will do his best to repeat last year’s success: “I will be participating in the Champions’ Race for the 14th time. Of course, I plan to fight for the Silver Rook and hope that this year luck will be again on my side. The competition is held on an unusual track with many closed corners, springboards, a bridge and fast and slow ligaments of turns. This year, in my opinion, there will be the strongest line-up of the race.”

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Vitaly Petrov will take part in the Champions’ Race for the second time. In 2019, he was very close to the final round.

“It is interesting that the Champions’ Race takes place in winter conditions, on ice, on spike tyres, which is very familiar to me,” SMP Racing driver Vitaly Petrov said. “Yes, unfortunately, last year I was very close to the final round: due to my own mistake, I lost valuable time. Let's see what happens this year. Rivals become stronger every year, although, in general, the conditions are equal for everyone. We are all in a great mood and hope to enjoy the competition with each other.”

The Champions’ Race is held on the track of the PJSC AvtoVAZ test site, which is a closed curve profiled in height with many complex turns. The total length of the distance is 2.5 kilometers. According to the rules of the race, two cars start the race at the same time. Each of them starts on its ice path, which diverge after the first turn, intersect through a viaduct and then converge again. Thus, in two laps, each driver drives along both tracks. Cars drive most of the race very close to each other but are separated by snow parapets. Participants compete on the same specially prepared racing versions of LADA Vesta cars (170 hp).

Since 2018, the winner of the Champions’ Race has been awarded the Silver Rook prize. According to the rules of the competition, a driver who has won a race twice in a row receives a trophy for life.

You can watch the race online on the official LADA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ardebon. The most interesting moments of the 23rd Champions’ Race will be shown on Match TV and Auto Plus channels.

The start of the competition is on Sunday, January 19, at 10:00 (Moscow time).
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