Young driver Irina Sidorkova completed her first season competing in two different classes of the RCRS national series at the same time - GT4 and Endurance - and reached the podium in both in the final round.
21-year-old driver Irina Sidorkova concluded her participation in the 2024 RCRS season, where she competed simultaneously in the GT4 and Endurance classes - continuing her long-distance racing development program. The Fort Grozny Circuit hosted the closing round with 3 sprint races and the traditional endurance, the 4 Hours Akhmat Race.
Despite the many challenges and even some misfortunes that arose throughout the year, Sidorkova also achieved good results, reaching the podium four times in total and finishing 4th in the drivers' standings in the GT4 class. Furthermore, it was certainly another opportunity to continue living her childhood dream, which was to become a professional racing driver.
GT4 class
The previous rounds were like a rollercoaster for Ira Sidorkova's journey through the season. From technical problems, forced retirements and sudden weather changes disrupting strategies, Sidorkova had at her lowest moment a P13 and a DNF at Igora Drive Circuit, but there were also good results: at the Saint Petersburg round, Sidorkova clinched a fourth place, and despite not having crossed the finish line in race 3, she had a great chance to fight for a place on the podium.
Irina's redemption came in the following round, at Moscow Raceway. She returned to the podium after taking third place in race 2 - matching her personal best so far, recorded in the opening round, where she had achieved a double P3.
In addition, in the other races of the weekend she collected important points, which kept her in contention to fight for a place in the top 3 of the drivers’ standings at the end of the season.
In the final round, held on October 4-5 at the Fort Grozny Circuit, Sidorkova had to overcome a 41-point gap to Sergei Stolyarov, who was in third place in the championship. And history began to be written favorably for her in race 1.
Starting from third on the grid, Irina was overtaken by Lev Tolkachev and still had to defend from the other competitors. But shortly afterwards she regained the position, from where she never looked back, securing her fourth podium of the season.
"I lost a little of time at the start and had to get my position back. Supras are, of course, very fast. I was catching up with 2-3 tens of second per lap, but of course, it was not enough. On the last laps, a piece of the left rear wheel came off, and I had to slow down so as not to lose at least the third position." - said Sidorkova after the Race 1.
The dominance of the Toyota GR Supra GT4 over the Mercedes AMG GT4 in Grozny was clear in the following races. Despite starting from P3 again in race 2, Sidorkova was overtaken by her rivals, dropping to 6th in the first few laps.
She fought bravely to recover and narrowly missed out on the podium once again this weekend. Pushing hard in the final part of the race, she crossed the finish line in P4 - just 0.3s behind Lev Tolkachev, who was in third place.
On Saturday, the 2024 GT4 season reached its final act and Ira Sidorkova was still in contention for the top 3 of the championship. With the reverse grid system, race 3 started with a woman on pole position - Svetlana Gorbunova - and Sidorkova was in 5th place.
Despite losing a position on the first lap, luck was on her side this time, and contact between two drivers ahead of her made her recovery job a little easier. Ira Sidorkova had moved up to P4 and remained in intense pursuit of Dmitry Rodionov's Toyota Supra until the checkered flag, but Rodionov held on by a gap of 0.273s.
"My first season in the SMP GT4 Russia championship has ended. As a result, I took fourth place in the overall standings. In the third race, I scored points. This was important, since I was fighting for fourth place, and I needed to finish ahead of the competitor."
Ira Sidorkova's efforts over the weekend allowed her to close the gap to Stolyakov considerably, but she finished behind him by just 11 points. However, the podium and points she collected secured her 4th place in the championship - as there was also a race against Andrey Solukovtsev.
Sidorkova reached the end of the season with 236 points, a strong result that could have possibly been even better: "Of course, I would have liked a different result, and it could have been, but a series of certain circumstances that were beyond my control made their adjustments", Irina added.
"Thank you very much to everyone for your support, I'm very grateful to you for cheering for me and supporting me." - she concluded, thanking her team, sponsors and also addressing the fans who were present at the circuits over the 6 weekends and on social media.
Endurance - 4 Hours Akhmat Race
Completing another 'double-duty' in 2024, Irina Sidorkova still had one more commitment at the Fort Grozny Circuit - the 4 Hours Akhmat Race, which also marked the fifth and final round of the RCRS Endurance. In a season marked by mechanical problems - which denied her scoring-results in 3 of the 4 previous rounds, she showed her strength in fighting for good results in the second round, held in Kazan, where she reached the podium with P2 in the 3 hour long endurance.
Before the season finale, Sidorkova announced that in the last race of the year she would be racing alongside Denis Remanyako, driving the Mercedes AMG GT4 from Capital Racing Team - instead of the BR03 prototype, as in previous rounds. Capital RT had provided technical support for Ira Sidorkova's participation in the GT4 class and the good relationship between the team and the drivers brought good results in the qualifying session, where they took 4th place overall on the starting grid.
With the occasional team change, Sidorkova competed in the GT4 class – instead of Group F, corresponding to sports prototypes. The Toyota Supras showed good performances in the first actions of the race, and #13 car - with Irina at the wheel, had fallen to P6 overall - 3rd among the GT4s.
Still in her first stint - which lasted about 1 hour, she took the crew's machine to 5th place. At the best moment during the race, the duo occupied second position overall, but with the stops that would be necessary until the end and the stronger pace of the prototypes, the #13 crew dropped to P4.
Ira Sidorkova's good pace in the final stint allowed her to keep the team in 4th position and with a chance of even getting a place in the top 3. She crossed the finish line in P4, just over 20 seconds behind the #5 Toyota Supra from X Motorsport - a great result, that took her to the podium once again this weekend, for 2nd place in the GT4 class.
"It's been a wonderful six months in the new GT4 class with Mercedes AMG GT. I would even say that one of my dreams has come true."
The 21-year-old driver shared her impressions of her first career season competing in the GT4 class: "The final result of the debut season in GT is 4th place in the overall standings. To be honest, the season did not go as we would have liked. It would be more correct to say, not in the way it could have been. A very large number of 'bad lucks' of various kinds - technical problems, contacts with rivals, being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the track... All this prevented me from getting into the top 3."
And she continued, also mentioning her learning process for the new type of machine she drove in her career: "However, there were many good results, battles and, most importantly, excellent speed. Although there were sometimes slight difficulties in overtaking, since I did not do pre-season tests or familiarization races. I had to understand the car, its capabilities and dimensions right in the battle".
"I'm pleased that my pace has always allowed me to be at the top of the field, and even several times during the season I managed to get 1 extra point for the fastest lap of the race! In short, a good debut, but I know I can do better. There is something to fight for and something to work on!" - she concluded.
Ira Sidorkova's next steps in motorsport will still take a while longer to be announced, but she remains hopeful for the future: "I really hope that next season I can get back behind the wheel of a GT4 car and, as daring as it may seem, compete for victory in the championship. I'm sure there will be more to come!"
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