WSBK Moscow Raceway 2013 Diaries
The Russian team Rivamoto, which competes in the international Supersport series, invited us to spend the Moscow round with them. A new and very interesting experience for us. Motorsport in Russia is poorly developed, especially road racing, and Rivamoto competes in an international championship at the top level. We couldn't miss the chance to see professionals at work and learn the sport from the inside.
Our first meeting with the team took place on the day of arrival, Wednesday. The track impressed us: when we drove into the paddock, it was as if we had landed in Europe: clean, beautiful, with friendly, polite foreigners everywhere. But the location of the complex is strange: in an empty field, far from cities. Who it was built for is unclear. Probably for themselves :) We wouldn't have gone there as spectators...
From the first day we tried to film everything we could and everything that seemed interesting. We had to bother team members to take part in the process; we hope it didn't affect the quality of their work.
Wednesday and Thursday: preparation
The team always arrives on Wednesday with a truck and a van (except for the Australian round, for which all the staff fly with a transport company). On this day everything is unloaded and set up. The only free evening was on this day, and Konstantin told us about the team's motorcycles and suspension settings.
Thursday is entirely devoted to preparing the motorcycles. The mechanics service all the systems and check the settings. The thing is, after each round the motorcycles are transported without checks or diagnostics, so one full day during the round is set aside for this. In the evening the riders Jack Kennedy and Eduard Blokhin and team manager Jeremy McWilliams arrived. On this day the riders are allowed to ride around the track on a moped. On Thursday evening we asked Andre Aziolli to tell us about his job servicing the wheels.
Friday: first qualifying
On Friday the first two sessions take place: practice and qualifying. In practice the riders learn the track, the mechanics check the motorcycles and the managers find the optimal settings. In qualifying you need to set the fastest possible lap time, which determines the grid positions, so the task is to ride one lap as fast as possible. For this, tires can be changed during qualifying, and suspension settings and electronic system strategies adjusted. After the practice session we caught Simone Toso (the electronics engineer), and he briefly told us about the electronic systems used on their motorcycles.
Saturday: second qualifying
On Saturday the same thing happens as on Friday. The riders have a chance to improve on the previous day's time and move up the results table. But we were unlucky with the weather: it rained on and off. Improving times was impossible. After qualifying on Saturday we went to visit the stunt riders who were preparing for the final round of the ChVE championship. Aras and Anton had just gone out to train; the highlights are below...
Sunday: the race
Before the race there is a 15-minute warm-up session for a final check of the motorcycles, which took place in the rain. The weather was unpredictable, and the decision on race tires was put off until the very start. In the end a downpour began, and the choice was easy. Before the start it was very nerve-wracking, since the rain had caused many crashes in other classes. Almost immediately after the start the race was stopped. Everyone was sure it was because of the weather. The riders returned to the pits and waited for a decision to postpone the race by a few hours. Later it turned out the reason was different...
The round was interesting and tragic: Rivamoto had to face and overcome difficulties before the race, which was canceled a few minutes after the start due to the death of rider Andrea Antonelli.
We will remember this trip for the rest of our lives!