2016 PCC Europe: Race 1: Uralring

Kowalczyk Capitalizes to Snag Win



It was all about making the least mistakes.

Izaak Kowalczyk picked up where he left off after last season, winning the fourth PCC race of his career and third on the PCC Europe tour. That said, it wasn't the easiest of paths to get to the victory.

The 16 car started third, behind pole winner Jan Schmidt and RUS Autosport comrade Leonid Chernov, and remained in that position for the majority of the first stint. After pit stops, Kowalczyk moved up to 2nd and was slowly closing in on the leader Chernov when the 61 made a miscalculation. With 5 laps to go, the three lead cars of Chernov, Kowalczyk, and Kindahl caught the #44 Harrah's Pontiac of Stuart Buchanan, who had made an unscheduled pit stop prior. Chernov attempted to pass the slower 44 on the Bridge Straight, but had to check up going down the drop-off under the bridge. Kowalczyk capitalized and passed Chernov, who was then passed for 2nd by Klara Kindahl, who was making her first appearance of the year. Kowalczyk held off the #2 Datadyne Saturn and came home the victor.

Teammates Leonid Chernov and Grigoriy Novakovsky came home 3rd and 4th, respectively. Novakovsky, making his first stock car appearance since the 2012 Round of New York, ran strongly early but was spun by the #1 Altoros Gessler of Kristoffer Laaksonen and lost touch with the lead group approximately halfway through the first stint.

Potential Race Win Spoiled for Schmidt



Jan Schmidt came home 5th, but he couldn't have been happy about it.

Schmidt, the long-time second driver for Altoros Gessler GP, had a career run going early in the race, taking the pole position and leading five laps during the first stint. Unfortunately for him, things fell apart during the first pit cycle. As Schmidt led the field down pit road, the slower car of Karolina Storman was exiting her pit stall. The 373 crew released her car as the #27 Altoros Gessler was passing, and Storman collided with Schmidt in the pit lane. To add insult to injury, Schmidt's crew struggled to quickly repair the damage, and was beaten out of the pits by all three RUS Autosport cars as well as the Manticore Engineering Saturn of Klara Kindahl. Schmidt would remain in 5th position for the remainder of the event.

Kristoffer Laaksonen, the 2014 PCC Europe champion and Schmidt's teammate, also had an eventful performance. Outqualified by his teammate for the first time in 2 years, Laaksonen ran 5th for the majority of the first stint before making contact with the #66 Lukoil Lada of Grigoriy Novakovsky, spinning the Russian. Laaksonen had to check up to avoid hitting the #66, and lost several seconds. A long pit stop put Laaksonen in 7th, behind the #96 Chelyabinsk Tube and Pipe Katzev of Pyotr Lyovkin, driving for the local Russian Bears outfit and having a spectacular run. Laaksonen passed Lyovkin with 3 laps to go, and would remain in 6th for the rest of the event.


Fuel Intake Issues Break Glass Slipper for Lyovkin



To think what could have been.

With just three laps to go, Pyotr Lyovkin was looking at the best performance ever for himself and locally-based Russian Bears Motorsports. Three laps later, only a single point was all that showed for the effort put in over the weekend.

Lyovkin was hired just two weeks ago by Russian Bears Motorsports, a team which had only scored one point previously in PCC Europe competition (Hungary 2014, Lev Zarapin). There was little hope for success for the team at the start of the weekend, but that all changed once qualifying began. Lyovkin placed his car a stunning 11th at the end of the first round of qualifying, earning a chance to compete in the second round. He did even better there, pushing the team to new heights with a 7th place effort. During the race, the #96 Chelyabinsk Tube and Pipe Katzev ran a very lonely race in 7th, until the end of the first pit cycle. After a slow pit stop from the Altoros Gessler crew, last season's champion Kristoffer Laaksonen found himself behind Lyovkin! Lyovkin held off the much faster Gessler for 10 laps, but was eventually passed and relegated to 7th. Unfortunately for Lyovkin, he and a number of other cars would have to pit with just two laps to go for extra fuel to make it to the finish. The #96 Katzev hit the pits with two to go from seventh place for a splash and go, but there was an issue with the fuel intake and Lyovkin would have to pit once more, this time from 12th place coming to the white flag. Instead of finishing 7th, Lyovkin crossed the line in 20th place, taking the last point.

Teammates Nikolas Marchankov and Lev Zarapin both had rough weekends. Marchankov, in his first outing with Russian Bears, qualified 24th but improved to 22nd early, where he ran most of the race. A late pit stop relegated him to 27th position, the last car on the lead lap. Zarapin shockingly failed to qualify after making contact with Merce Dees Winslol exiting pits during the first round of qualifying. Instead of coming into the pits to repair the damage, Zarapin stayed on track in an attempt to ride it out. While on track, the car dropped a cylinder and Zarapin DNQed.

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 3 16 I Kowalczyk 139.897 34 4 180 Running
2 6 2 K Kindahl -1.27 34 0 170 Running
3 2 61 L Chernov -2.33 34 25* 175 Running
4 5 66 G Novakovsky -10.90 34 0 160 Running
5 1 27 J Schmidt -13.49 34 5 160 Running
6 4 1 K Laaksonen -20.23 34 0 150 Running
7 8 109 A Motov -29.47 34 0 146 Running
8 11 23 K Scurrel -37.35 34 0 142 Running
9 20 500 P O'Hannigan -47.00 34 0 138 Running
10 10 11 J Beaufort -51.09 34 0 134 Running
11 14 43 S Torregrossa -52.72 34 0 130 Running
12 18 79 R Kurosawa -54.95 34 0 127 Running
13 22 81 V Winslol -56.24 34 0 124 Running
14 16 98 D O'Hara -56.86 34 0 121 Running
15 27 713 S Winslol -1:02.76 34 0 118 Running
16 9 18 G Fini -1:04.32 34 0 115 Running
17 32 10 M Haas -1:11.28 34 0 112 Running
18 25 47 I Ambleton -1:13.77 34 0 109 Running
19 19 015 C Lucis -1:15.47 34 0 106 Running
20 7 96 P Lyovkin -1:15.97 34 0 103 Running
21 33 644 M Winslol -1:19.75 34 0 100 Running
22 17 550 S Filipov -1:20.00 34 0 97 Running
23 21 97 C Gibson -1:22.60 34 0 94 Running
24 15 33 A Magnussen -1:23.25 34 0 91 Running
25 26 77 A Kostopoulos -1:32.34 34 0 88 Running
26 34 76 K Mallory -1:38.14 34 0 85 Running
27 24 90 N Marchankov -1:51.40 34 0 82 Running
28 38 07 B Tolbanov -1L 33 0 79 Running
29 37 373 K Storman -1L 33 0 76 Running
30 29 44 S Buchanan -1L 33 0 73 Running
31 13 34 H Ventola -1L 33 0 70 Running
32 28 09 AJ Canton -1L 33 0 67 Running
33 36 83 V Vine -1L 33 0 64 Running
34 40 01 P Benoit-Hogan -1L 33 0 61 Running
35 23 42 G Balducci -1L 33 0 58 Running
36 35 63 J Bracchi -1L 33 0 55 Running
37 31 15 M Jakobsen -1L 33 0 52 Running
38 12 505 G Vignon -1L 33 0 49 Running
39 30 26 A Lake -1L 33 0 46 Running
40 39 31 A Misko -1L 33 0 43 Running

The three lady drivers for Master Sport Motorsports allqualified differently, with [Katyen] Scurrel claiming 11th, [Ingrid] Ambleton claiming 25th, and team owner Alexa Lake claiming 30th.

A stack-up would cause Lake and Ambleton to fall back. Their entire race was slowly moving forward and taking as making their way up the chain of destiny or disaster.

All three ladies would have a relatively quiet day, Katyen Scurrel would finish 8th, while  Ambleton would claim 18th after remaining in the low 30s all day long.
Lake and Ambleton battled for 27th while they slowly made their way forward until an uncalled for pit stop caused Alexa Lake so much time, and then she would be spun out by the #66 car and Lake would slug her way to a 39th place finish. Forlorn from her potential top 20.

Katyen Scurrel (by her simplified name said very little when she was asked about the race, "Slow race. Move up, do good."

Alexa Lake stated to interviewers that, "I wish my day had gone better, that mechanical woah stole my otherwise brilliant day. It was so fun racing with the talented drivers. I will do better next time you see me."

Ambleton said one word and ran off to her bus with Lake and Scurrel. "18th!" she said. [

More on the Master Sport Australia side of things

Derrike Chaiter and Vivaldi Werhst are to make their first appearance(s) at Bikernieki in the coming days. We asked Chaiter how he thought plans were going and he replied in a stellar manor, "Vivaldi and I be working hard to get our Duncan GT rides together. Aye, we're almost sponsored and our cars will be out on track soon for testing!"

Small tests already shows that the model Duncan GT they use will be fast and reliable.
We'll have more on this soon!

Written by Kate Holkrier XO