From the garage to the championship: how amateurs become auto professionals

From the garage to the championship: how amateurs become auto professionals

A new motorsports season is starting in Russia. St. Petersburg will traditionally host the largest races in drifting, rally raids, motocross and many others. Alexey Titov, General Director of the Igora Drive autodrome, spoke about the conditions for the development of motorsport in the DP region.

It seems that motorsport is one of the most expensive in preparing future champions, especially now, when prices even for ordinary passenger cars are sky-high. How accessible are technical sports?

“This is generally not a cheap pleasure in comparison with classical sports disciplines, such as football or volleyball, for example. However, our task is to make them more accessible. Anyone can rent equipment and equipment to try their hand at it. That is, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to understand after a while that there was no real interest. Although in general, of course, you need to prepare for large expenses if you want to engage in auto or motor sports.

That is, those who do not come from a sports family can also achieve high results?

– Of course, we also have such examples! 9-year-old St. Petersburg resident Roman Sergeev came to our karting lessons and proved himself very well. His parents didn’t do anything like that, but just happened to bring their child for a ride. Now this guy has every opportunity to become a leader in the Russian championship, the final of which will be held in Sochi.

How has technology and equipment changed in recent years?

— Despite foreign political pressure, there are no problems in organizing this work now. If we talk about the technique used by our athletes at different levels, there is an absolute mix here. Let me give you the example of the already mentioned karting. Children aged 6 years and older who study at the Micro 4T SMP Academy train on equipment from the Russian manufacturer BR Engineering – very high quality and reliable.

Safety is of paramount importance here because children are driving, and what could be more important in our country? If we talk about the automotive circuit discipline, the C1600 and Sportprototype CN classes (a car built specifically for racing – Ed.) are very popular, where there is always a large number of domestically produced cars. Among them, for example, Shortcut are sports cars assembled from 90% Russian components.

In what disciplines do St. Petersburg athletes have an advantage over their competitors?

— Our region has always had a fairly powerful school of technical sports. We have a lot of success in rally and circuit disciplines. Recently, we have seen a strong increase in teams for which we now have high-quality bases. At the Igora Drive autodrome near St. Petersburg, they can train and participate in a variety of disciplines – motocross, rallycross, as well as drifting and road racing. In these categories of technical sports, they have the opportunity to show high results at the regional level and reach the levels of Russian championships and Cups, which are also held here.

Naturally, without experience, knowledge and titles, it is not so easy to get into any of these categories, since you need to be selected, you need to prepare, and we have this opportunity. I would like to emphasize that almost any visitor can try his hand at the race track.

It turns out that one site combines many different, unrelated complex technical disciplines?

— Indeed, if we take the world practice of the last 20 years, then, as a rule, the circuit concentrates either on sports, when a first category track is being prepared, for example, for Formula 1, or on multifunctionality, but without major events. However, we managed to create everything at once: there is a highway circuit of the highest level, and karting, and rally-cross, and motocross. At the same time, there is also a Center for Emergency Training and a large number of sites for holding auto slalom competitions. All opportunities for motorcyclists have also been created. By the way, I know of no more than eight tracks in the world that simultaneously have the highest homologation of the FIM (International Motorcycle Federation – Ed.) and the highest homologation of the FIA ​​(Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – Ed.), but these sites do not provide other opportunities.

Initially, we created the autodrome as a unique cluster for people interested in the development of technical sports. Of course, the chief architect of the complex, Herman Tilke, who designed a colossal number of tracks, and not only for Formula 1, helped with this. Initially, the logic of this complex was to create a unique and high-quality platform for professionals and beginner athletes, but also to have a certain social component.

How did the departure of international competitions affect the development of Russian sports?

“It’s only gotten better for the athletes!” Russians would have less opportunity to train on the track, because any major international competition involves quite a lot of preparation of the entire site – which means that the track is constantly in preparation for such competitions and there is less time left for athletes to do their favorite thing.

Changes for the better have also occurred for the site itself. The increase in the number of competitions from year to year is very significant. Last year there were 84 events, which is 40% more than in 2022. This year we expect even greater growth. The audience is also expanding – in 2023 we counted more than 100 thousand visitors.

Are the events you mentioned interesting not only for athletes?

– Undoubtedly! The uniqueness of the complex also lies in the fact that we have a number of sites that can operate simultaneously and not interfere with each other at all. We are talking not only about motorsports and other technical sports, but also about racing on bicycles and roller skates. In addition, it holds its own skiing championship. There are social and cultural events. For example, Leningrad Center holds spectacular theatrical performances in the summer. In addition, there is a museum with absolutely stunning automobile specimens.

All this helps to reach an audience that, at first glance, may not be very interested in motorsport, but little by little this atmosphere begins to draw them in.

On the other hand, people from motorsport are rarely attracted to other disciplines, but here they involuntarily look around and notice something tempting for themselves at the grand annual event “GARAGE FEST Igora Drive”. This year it will take place on the last weekend of July, the 27th and 28th, and will include an endurance race, drifting competitions, classic car circuit racing, an exhibition of rare cars, interesting lectures and discussions about cars, and There will also be competitions of student-created racing cars, an exhibition of dragsters and promods for drag racing, concerts of popular performers, delicious food and numerous entertainment. This is a real open-air holiday for the whole family, where everyone can find something to their liking.

It is obvious that this festival has really gained popularity among the audience, as it will be held for the third time. How do you yourself assess the success of projects, especially new formats?

— During events, we always organize different surveys: for competition participants and separately for spectators. Moreover, each questionnaire is individual and depends on the events – some will have only 20 questions, while others will require you to spend 20 minutes. We find out what you liked and what you didn’t, and ask you to answer in detail why. As a rule, a very large number of people are extremely responsive to such surveys. We always try to take their opinion into account as much as possible in our plans for future periods, to make changes to the infrastructure, if possible, to operational processes.

It’s no secret that an important component of work in our field is the returning viewer, so, of course, we need to do everything necessary to not only attract new audiences, but also delight regular guests with both a high level of service and responsiveness, so that visitors understand that we care about them and are improving based on their wishes.

You have already mentioned that the number of events has almost doubled in just one year and there will be even more of them. What is causing this growth?

— Of course, the territory of the circuit is limited, but our task is to use it as efficiently as possible. Due to its multifunctionality, it is possible to hold events simultaneously at different sites, thus increasing efficiency throughout the year. We may hold some events more than once a year. For example, the stages of the RDS GP (Russian Drift Series – Ed.) will take place twice already, one in the summer and another at the end of the season.

How do such changes affect your team? How is personnel work structured?

– We have a team of permanent employees who work throughout the year – about 200 people. And there is, of course, a whole block of tasks for temporary staff who are hired for various projects. During the hottest summer season we invite up to 300 people. This is necessary to maintain a large volume and high quality of events.

And the last question: how do you see the future of Russian motorsport?

– I am sure that the future is the happiest, brightest and most promising. We have a huge number of people who truly love their car. But so far there are still few opportunities for them to look at their “swallow” not only on the way from point A to point B, but also to see it in a sports competition. We are actively working to create more such opportunities. We need to open the doors of motorsport wider and engage the audience that is interested in it.