Dmitry Samorukov among top ten drivers of the European Drag Racing Championship

11 September 2019/ smp

SMP Racing driver Dmitry Samorukov took part in the sixth round of the European Drag Racing Championship and was classified tenth among 38 drivers according to the results of his debut season.

The final round of the European Drag Racing Championship (EDRC) season took place on September 6-8 in the UK on the Santa Pod drag strip.

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The first Russian driver of the European Drag Racing Championship Dmitry Samorukov (SMP Racing team) constantly improved his own results during the qualifying rounds and final races. In qualifying, he drove the distance of 1/4 mile in 5.99 seconds. This time was the seventh-fastest among the participants.

In the Round of 16, Samorukov competed in the race with seven-time European champion Swede Micke Gullqvist. Dmitry's reaction time at the start was 0.0443 seconds, which is 0.0732 seconds better than that of the Swedish driver. The Russian won the race with a final elapsed time of 5.98 seconds. He was ahead of his illustrious rival by 0.078 seconds, thereby depriving Micke of a new championship title.

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In the quarter-finals, the SMP Racing driver competed against Swede Jan Ericsson, who later became the 2019 European champion. Samorukov’s elapsed time at the finish line was 5.846 seconds - Dmitry’s new personal record. The Russian lost to Ericsson only 0.0656 seconds of “dirty” time, that is, taking into account the driver’s reaction time to the traffic signal at the start. This race was the fastest in the history of the EDRC.

During six rounds Dmitry Samorukov has scored enough points to hold tenth place among 38 drivers in the Pro Modified EDRC class. He also finished eighth in Europe in ‘the best time in the race’ classification (5.846 seconds).

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“We have completed our first season in the European Drag Racing Championship. I want to thank the SMP Racing team and our chief technical specialist Adam Flamholc for the amazing work they have done. In our debut season, we managed to be tenth among almost four dozen experienced and venerable rivals and it is an outstanding achievement. We learned new things for ourselves at every round. Each race was a new challenge for us and we coped with all of them. The team, despite all circumstances, fixed the most difficult technical problems and made our Camaro drive faster and faster. I am proud that I am part of this team and glad that we were able to perform well enough to provide good position in European drag racing. I am sure that new participants from Russia will appear in the future, and we, in turn, will use all the knowledge that we gained in Europe in our SMP RDRC championship, ” Dmitry Samorukov said.

“My company Flamholc Racing has been working with Dmitry Samorukov and the SMP Racing team for four years now - mainly in the Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC. This season we debuted at the European Drag Racing Championship as one team. I was invited to maintain the car and train Russian mechanics in working with Pro Modified class cars. We did a great job on car setups, the guys learned a lot, and Dmitry was able to get along with the new dragster during the season and achieve very good results in the final. I am pleased to work with the SMP Racing team, and I am glad that they proved the status of Flamholc Racing as a successful drag racing team. I am sure that in the future we will be able to achieve even better results and fight for prizes, ” Adam Flamholc said, chief technical specialist of the drag racing team at SMP Racing and head of Flamholc Racing.

Photo: Lena Peres, Eurodragster.com
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