The first round took place on May 24-27 at Santa Pod Raceway, the UK.
SMP Racing driver Dmitry Samorukov is the first Russian to take part in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship.Dmitry represents the SMP Racing team and competes in the Pro Modified class, driving the Pro Modified car, styled as a Chevrolet Camaro 1968. The MaxRide Motorsport team (Russia) led by Swedish engineer Adam Flemholz maintains the 4000 HP car.
The first round of the FIA EDRC was held at Santa Pod Raceway, the oldest and one of the most popular drag racing tracks in Europe. At the beginning of the weekend, Dmitry Samorukov had four qualifying sessions, driving a distance of 402 meters (1/4 mile) in 6.3 seconds, which is considered the average time for the Pro Modified class.
The final races of the first round took place on Monday, May 27th. Dmitry Samorukov raced at the very beginning of the competition day and in the 1/8 finals improved to 6.575 seconds, but that was 0.1 seconds more of the rival’s time - the difference in the reaction time at the start. However, Dmitry's elapsed time turned out to be better than the result of another driver.
“It is very honorable and responsible to become the first Russian driver in FIA European Drag Racing Championship,” Dmitry Samorukov said. “We have already gained quite a lot of experience in the SMP Russian Drag Racing Championship SMP RDRC and decided to try ourselves in another competition. We have prepared a car, which according to its specifications can compete with European Pro Mods. At Santa Pod Raceway, we successfully conducted practice and qualifying sessions. In the last session, I planned to improve my result, but made a small mistake during the start. Fortunately, I was able to keep the car and drive to the finish line. The next day we raced in the finals, but I lost to my rival at reaction time. Our elapsed time was better, which speaks of the great capabilities of our Chevrolet Camaro. At the end of the race, the fire started – the fuel hose was blown off, but the technical services of the autodrome quickly worked and put out the fire. There is a minor damage, but we have enough time to repair the Camaro for the next round in Sweden and, I am sure, we will be able to go further in the final heats."
The FIA European Drag Racing Championship continues in two weeks, June 6-9 at Tierp Arena in Sweden.
Dmitry Samorukov is a three-time drag racing champion in the US class, winner of the Russian record in time and speed of driving the distance of 1/4 mile (6.305 seconds, 366 km / h).
Фотографии: Mike Kraa’j (www.dhra.nl)
