Last Sunday, on 1 June, the IB Translations team took part in the second Classic Car Rally Cup. Sadly, we were forced to retire from the event due to an accident caused by another car. Our crew included Mikhail Tsyferov (driver), Konstantin Golota (co-driver) and Alexander Usoltsev (Twitter commentator).

Event coverage by RBC: http://style.rbc.ru/news/luxury/2014/06/06/18615/
Event coverage by Kommersant: http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2484699
Vehicle overview: http://usolt.livejournal.com/752303.html

This year, the race welcomed 67 crews, including nine competing in a separate programme in the Veterans category (for cars made before 1946). Of the remaining 58 cars, six raced out of competition. Unfortunately, the IB Translations team had a DNF (Did Not Finish).

Mikhail Tsyferov, driver: 
“The race was going well. The snafu with the car bodies at the start (facepalm) didn’t fluster our crew in the slightest. We were proceeding along the route with barely any mistakes, predicting it 5–6 control points ahead, and our co-driver successfully dealt with all unforeseen issues by leveraging the highly effective “epiphany" technique. As a result, we managed to reduce the extra distance to 1 km compared to 40 km in the previous race. 
It was funny to see less confident crews trailing us, especially given that some of them had started far ahead of us. The most enjoyable part was letting them go up front and watching them drive off in the wrong direction. 
Regretfully, when we were passing the 72nd control point, the car accompanying us blew its engine control fuse. We don’t know what exactly went wrong, but the car suddenly jerked, pulled off a graceful drift, and literally threw us off the track. Luckily, nobody got hurt, save for the common sense. 
It is sad that our team couldn’t realise its full potential, as we felt we were close to winning the race. Anyway, there were still many positives. Now that we know what it’s like to be among the leaders of the race, we are looking forward to the next rally.” 

Konstantin Golota, co-driver: 
“In terms of navigation, we were well-prepared. We were following the route and felt hesitant only once, where the time and distance control point was virtual (meaning there was no actual control). This was well within the rules, but we lost some time figuring out that we didn't have to look for it. The crew was on track to beating its own record, having only five penalty minutes after the second stage of the race. We could have got 2nd place if we had the chance to finish the third stage at the same pace. Sadly, we had to retire when we were that close to the podium.”
 
Alexander Usoltsev, Twitter commentator:
“This has got to have been the most thrilling rally ever. The two red Cadillacs filled Moscow audiences with tangible admiration. It was quite a challenge to navigate two large cars along narrow side streets, but we were pulling it off with flying colours. Unfortunately, the excitement of it all got to us, and we neglected to consider the dangers posed by a road that was freshly covered with bitumen in hot summer. One of the cars, going as slowly as ~30 km/h, spun out as if on ice and collided with us, which meant all our efforts and preparations were for nothing. Still, we did learn a valuable lesson and will carry on undeterred.”

For live tweets from @usolt, visit @golota82 (http://twitter.com/golota82). 


So, after our best ever performance at the season opening, we had to DNF at the second stage. What a disappointing finale to a most promising weekend. The accident with the main and accompanying cars forced the crew to retire from the race, which was very unfortunate given how well the race was going.

The next rally will take place on 26 July, when Night Moscow will welcome old-timers for – all of a sudden – a night race. We are looking forward to seeing our supporters at the starting line in the evening!
 
On to victory of communism!