Nissan GT Academy. Final. Day 4. 01.10.2013.

The day 4 began at 7 a.m. Instructors came in to the boot camp and said us, that there is no time for breakfast and we might go. We wear our race suits, took our open face helmets and went to the bus. We did not know at that moment what the next event was going to be. We arrived to the oval track, where we saw absolutely empty Nissan Micros. We realized that this is the race to the bottom. 

We went to the class, where Roman Rusinov and Vitaly Petrov gave some instructions. The full contact was allowed. When Diana (one of the organizers) heard about the rules, she asked referees “Do they have an ambulance here?”. They said that it is not necessary, because in the previous Nissan GT Academies (Europe, German, America) there was only one contact with the spin and it was not dangerous. Then she said that this is crazy Russians and they will destroy all the cars and there will be a lot of crashes. At that time they did not believe her.
The competition started. At first we run qualification and I took the 3 position on starting grid. I made a good start, overtook somebody. After the first lap I was the second and was defending my position. Then on the second lap I felt that somebody started to hit and spin me. I tried to go forward and suddenly appeared on the roof. This was my the first crash in this competition and it was really dangerous. People put me back on the wheels and asked how I feel myself. I said that everything is ok. I was ready to continue the race. Mechanics repaired my car and put me to the last 8 position. In two minutes there was a restart. After 3 laps I was on 5th position and was ready to attack for the 4th and 3rd positions. Then right in front of me in the corner there was a contact between 3rd and 4th places. I think the speed was about 60-70 km/h and I was going right to the door of Vitaly Kuvarzin. If I hit him right to the door, it might end very badly. So I decided to hit the back of his car and then crashed right to wall. There were no safety tyres or something like this. The shock was very heavy and it was much worse than overturn.

I had no chance to avoid the crash. Then I had a bruise from the belts and also neck ached.My car was absolutely destroyed. But I was ready to continue the race, but I had some thoughts about stopping racing on this circuit, because it was really dangerous. The safety was quite bad. British did not think that Russians will drive like crazy guys. Of course after two crashes during 5 laps I was a little scared. In other runs I was careful. However in the last run something happened with my breaks, they were absolutely blocked and I went to the wall third time. I remember that in the last run only three cars finished. We made a good show. We made a lot of crashes. This was what TV waited from us. Roman Kuzin won in two team runs. He was in our team and we thought that our team won the competition. However referees said that we lost the race and one of us will leave the project. It was Vitaly Kuvarzin. He thought that they chose him because he touched the grass twice in Nissan GT-R in the previous day. He tried to find the best breaking point. This was the reason of his mistakes.

The next stage was rally. There is a small gravel track in Silverstone, near the obstacle course. At first we made instructional course in our bus. This was funny. The driver was one of Colin Mcrae's teachers and he drifted on a bus. Nissan 370z were ready for us. These were the same cars that we used on drifting, without ESP, ABS on an asphalt racing tires. The circuit was gravel and the tires did not fit to this surface. We had two training laps in Nissan 370z. The behavior was like I drove the car on the ice. It was quite difficult. Then we had an hour before the valid run. Before this competition my concentration was on the process of driving. I did not think about the result and time that I might show. I just tried to do my work well without errors. In this competition I wanted to show the fastest time. This was my aim and this was the fatal mistake. It started raining and I made a huge mistake in one corner. I was too quick on entrance and did not fit into the corner. Two tires came under the bottom and I lost a lot of time. At that moment I thought that I will be the next looser. I was upset. So here I would like to give the most important advice. Concentrate on the process of driving. Do not think about time. You will be faster and will not do fatal errors. When the competition ended we went to the boot camp. 

One hour later Roman Rusinov and Vitaly Petrov came in to the boot camp. Roman announced that I am the next who leave the project. Everything was absolutely fair. I waited for this decision. I thought at that time, if they said another man, I would live the project by myself, because I made a fatal error, everybody saw it and before this event we had the very similar results. This was my mistake. I respected each participant and it was me who might leave the project. I really wanted to win this project and made my dream reality and I had real chances to win. I was upset, but was also proud what I did. I was able to compete with people who had a racing experience before, but I even did not have a car. At that moment my participation in the project ended. This was a long way, it took a lot of my time and strength. I set the aims and I reached them. I thought this was the most important thing for me. Also I proved to the parents that I can. I still want to be the professional racing driver. I believe that in future I will become when I will have financial capabilities.