The juniors Yakhnich Motorsport win in International Competitions!
The juniors Yakhnich Motorsport win in International Competitions!
After successful performance in Russian races the pilots of Yakhnich Motorsport Junior Team were to represent Russia in the prestigious International competitions – the final stage of the Open Championship of Finland in mini-moto held in Imatra.
The Scandinavian sportsmen started to record fast seconds from the first training taking away the best lap from each other while the pilots of Yakhnich Motorsport were getting used to the new track and adjusting their mini-bikes. Finally the worked done on the track and in the boxes produced good results: in the qualification the young sportsmen from Russia broke through and occupied the whole first start line having been half a second faster than the reigning Champion of Finland Pasi Puhakka.
The weather sprang an unpleasant surprise an hour before the race – it started drizzling. This drizzle couldn’t drench the track completely, so the process of choosing right tyres for the race turned into the lottery. All the Finish sportsmen appeared on the track on tyres designed for heavy rain, Andrew Sviridenko prefered medium tyres while Nika Cletsky and the “playing coach” of the team Ivan Lukin chose slick.
In the first laps it was Ivan Lukin who was fighting for the leading position while the juniors of the team had disappointing falls and had to win back their positions. The situation chaned after the 3rd lap when it started raining heavily – Lukin yielded to Andrew Sviridenko who had taken the advantage of the medium tyres. Ivan who wasn’t able to keep high pace on the slicks started defending his second position aggressively holding the group of the Finish sportsmen back. The rain was becoming heavier and heavier and in the 8th lap of the distance Ivan went to a spectacular 10-metre high-side in a slippery fast corner. By that time Sviridenko had managed to leave the closest competitor half a lap behind and Nika Cletsky to cover on the slicks the most part of the peloton. Fortunately Ivan Lukin wasn’t injured seriously and was able to leave the track without help.
But a couple of laps later the red flags appeared on the track: Nika Cletsky had a serious accident having slipped on the oil. The fall was so serious that the sportswoman’s uniform got torn in two across the back and the young pilot didn’t feel her legs for some minutes after the fall. The Russian sportswoman was immediately taken to a hospital of Lappeenrant where she was thoroughly examined. Fortunately, fractures and visceral injuries were not diagnosed. Nevertheless Nika is to undergo the course of rehabilitation before she can ride a bike again.
After the incident with the Russian sportswoman it was decided to stop the race. So, Andrew Sviridenko took the 1st place and Nika Cletsky the 3rd one.
In spite of the injuries the pilots of Yakhnich Motorsport were satisfied with their performance because being at the prestigious International competitions for the first time they were able to get more experience at fighting against strong rivals and gained a victory both in the qualification and the race!
Andrew Sviridenko: I am happy to be the winner of the International competitions! I would like to thank the team for their excellent work and Ivan Lukin for his tactical help in the race. I wish Nika hadn’t been injured. But I am sure she will recover soon and become even stronger and more aggressive on the track!
Nika Cletsky: Of course, it is not pleasant to be taken straight to hospital from the track. But it isn’t my first experience this season and I try to take it easy. In the race we were quite competitive having proved that we are ready to perform at the high International level. I will try to make a come-back and win here next year.