At 10 am on Sunday, 20 September, the IB Translations team will start off in the 2015 Classic Car Rally Club Final

This year's classic rally turned out to be a short one for both organisers and teams. The original plan was to compete in two out of three races of the season, but with an extra race added by the organisers, the team is back to the track. We finished fourth, barely missing the podium, in the season’s first event – the Classic Car Rally Club, delivering the team’s best performance so far. In the Chopard Rally, we came in seventh, but ended up in the 11th place due to a judging error. More than fifty crews contest in a typical race, which makes our results quite impressive. Next Sunday will see us compete in the season’s closing event – the Classic Car Rally Cup Final in Skolkovo. Our crew: Mikhail Tsyferov (driver) and Konstantin Golota (co-driver).

The race will be held on 20 September with the cars starting off at 1:00 pm from Vesennyaya Street, Zarechye, Moscow Region (directions:http://skolkovo-park.com/contacts). The location is far from central, but hopefully this will not scare off our faithful fans. Crews will be arriving by 10:00 am to showcase their vintage beauties. Come around 10 am to enjoy the show and support the team.

Organiser’s web page: http://classic-rally.ru/developments?id_object=53.
A great video from last year’s event:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPQ5KfJaJ8&feature=youtu.be (check out the atmosphere).

As always, we are driving our ZAZ-965A V4 887 Pumpkin Special LE, decked out in IB Translations’ corporate colours. The car was made by ZAZ in 1967 to mark 50 years since the October Revolution. Unfortunately, after a whole season of racing the car’s engine is not in the best of shape. We are currently deciding what to do about it.

Mikhail Tsyferov, driver: Ahead of the season’s final race, we are faced with a number of serious issues. It is too late to try and fix the engine, so we are left to hope that the car will make it to the finish line. We will have to rely on our driving skills to compensate for the poor engine performance.
Despite the often overwhelming challenges, it is important to stay positive to cheer up your team and fans who are watching you. Being optimistic is a tough challenge under the present circumstances, but it is the only way to move forward to future success. After all, things could have turned out much worse.

Konstantin Golota, co-driver and team owner: It does not get any worse than this. Unfortunately, the engine compression has dropped significantly towards the end of the season, and as a result, the car runs at 60% of its capabilities. However, this is not going to stop us simply because it never did before. We will do our best to end the season on a high note making sure that our mechanics have all the data they need on the malfunctioning engine. Going forward, we will be switching to Honda motors that have proven themselves in Formula 1 races.

Come join us at 10 am on Sunday, 20 September in Skolkovo.

On to victory!