Maxim Kyselev’s Final Show
On 11-12 September on the track “Nizhegorodskoye Koltso” the final stage of the Russian Road Racing Championship 2011 took place. The racer of the team “Yakhnich Motorsport” Maxim Kyselev, who had demonstrated a real race-show on the generously watered by the rain track, didn’t manage to hold his top position in the overall standings of the championship.
There is no telling that the early autumn surprised the participants by its bad weather, but everybody was exposed to some definite difficulties because of the capricious weather instability. At one moment the asphalt got dry especially in those spots where the drivers were making trajectories, at another it was watered again by the rain.
Under difficult conditions of the Saturday qualification the team Yakhnich Motorsport assembled the “Council of War” for discussing set-up questions more often than let its pilot onto the track. It resulted into the second position on the start grid: two Maxims, Kyselev and Averkin, were separated by 0.2 of a second.
There was panic and chaos on the start grid before the beginning of the first run. It seemed to many Superbike and Supersport racers, performing in the joint run, that the track had dried up, and they appeared on the start in slicks in spite of the organizers’ official announcement of the rain-race. And at once it started to rain again…It is impossible to express in words what panic this situation caused, but everybody had time to change the tyres.
When the start was given Maxim Kyselev and Maxim Averkin rushed ahead and drew out at once. But after some laps Kyselev made several mistakes on the slippery and wet track and set his main rival loose at the same time having let almost all the rest of the pilots take him over. With double energy Maxim started to make time and his ardour turned out to be so strong that even after the finish he didn’t throttle down and paid for it. Missing the first bend, Max slammed the brakes on and the bike slipped out… the both were turning over so vigorously that it seemed they would never come out if alive. Fortunately, Max was lucky. But his “war-horse” was in need of “resuscitation”, “open-chest massage” and “reanimation”…
The bike was assembled by joint efforts of the races and the teams from neighboring boxes, for example such teams as Valkyrie Racing and RWT Motorsport, as well as the main rival of “Yakhnich Motorsport” the team RuMax.
Max started the race perfectly, managed to draw out and was in the lead for several laps increasing his advantage. However, the fortune and the weather ordered otherwise: in the third bend Kyselev fell but picked up his bike at once and joined the race again trying to catch up with those pilots who had taken him over. His “war-horse” wounded in the first run was able to stand only one more lap of the racer’s swift movement and in the same third bend he fell again! But this time – in “highly artistic” manner: the pilot and the bike were turning over making in the air fanciful figures – the object of envy of all divers and figure skaters. Finally Max Kyselev’s bike rammed into the bump stop and the racer rolled on his bottom to the tyres, took a seat by his “wounded horse” and watched the end of the run “from the stalls”.
When the race was over Maxim told what had happened: “By the start of the first run we hadn’t managed to set the bike up properly for the rain-race and the weather was so changeable that the pilots and mechanics were kept in suspense. After my mistake I rushed to catch up with the rivals and got so much carried away that in the last lap I was sure that there was somebody left between me and Averkin but it was a lap late racer who I still managed to overtake “on my last legs” under the “chequered flag”. But I had to pay for this mistake with the crushed bike. On this occasion I would like to thank all our team and, of course, all the racers and teams who helped us, for their great work, which they had done, having assembled from “half-staff” the apparatus for the second run. Before the start of the second run, right in the warm up lap, I noticed that the brake lever was out of order and remembered that we hadn’t had enough time to bleed air from brakes properly. My both falls in the second run came as a result of this problem. I would like to say that that in spite of this far from ideal result , I liked this weekend. The team and I personally took one more acknowledgement that I am fast and competitive in the rain, and my rivalry with Averkin, which we had managed to enjoy before the accidents, presented me a lot of excitement and taught me something. I am sure it will help me to be faster in the future. I am very grateful to those people who supported me in this season, to all my fans, rivals, who kept me up, to my family and friends and, of course, to my team”. The team Yakhnich Motorsport congratulates Maxim on his silver medal of the Russian Road Racing Championship 2011 and pays tribute to his unbending sport character and will for victory.
Good luck in the future seasons, Max!
