Bashkortostan motorcycle racers at ice season start

In Shadrinsk, on the ice of the Torpedo stadium, the G. Kadyrov Ufa Technical Sports Center racers completed their pre-season training. This coming weekend, they will have the first official competitions of the 2023-2024 season in motorcycle ice racing - the first two stages of the Russian Championship among Super League teams, in which Bashkortostan (Ufa), Mega-Lada (Togliatti), Torpedo- SHAAZ (Shadrinsk) TsTVS-DOSAAF Sverdlovsk region (Kamensk-Uralsky) and Zhiguli (Togliatti).

The Bashkortostan team is the defending champion, but it will be more difficult than usual to continue the winning streak that began in 2020. In the off-season, 2021 world champion Dinar Valeev, the second driver of Kadyrov’s TsTVS at the end of the last season, moved to the Tolyatti Mega-Lada. In the new club, he will replace Daniil Ivanov, who completed his sports career.

As a result, the second number in our team behind the absolute leader of the Russian ice speedway, Nikita Bogdanov, will be ex-European champion Vasily Nesytykh. The new challenge gives him the chance to reveal his undoubted abilities fully. The third number in the team will be Evgeniy Sharov, whose potential is also highly assessed and whose experience is enough to fight with any driver among the leaders.

Thus, the departure of just one rider opens a window of new opportunities for half of the Bashkortostan roster. These capabilities can be demonstrated in future competitions.

The Russian Championship will begin with qualifying competitions on December 16–17. One of them will take place in Ufa, and among its participants will be all three medalists of the 2023 national championship - Nikita Bogdanov, Dinar Valeev, and Igor Kononov.

In a week, the final series will begin in Togliatti, which will last a month and a half and end in Krasnogorsk. The second stage will take place in Kamensk-Uralsky on January 6-7, 2024, the third - in Shadrinsk on January 13-14, the fourth - on January 20-21 in Saransk, the fifth - on February 3-4 in Vyatskie Polyany, and the final stage - on February 17-18 in Krasnogorsk.

The team championship will continue in the breaks between the stages of the individual title. The third and fourth stages of the Super League will take place on January 27–28 in Tolyatti, and the final fifth and sixth stages will take place on February 10–11 in Ufa.

The final of the personal Russian Cup will also occur in Ufa on February 24–25. The team final will be held in Togliatti on March 2–3. It will feature two teams that remain below the Super League winners and three winners of the Major League team championship, and the stages will take place on January 27–28 in Izhevsk and February 10–11 in Saransk. Bashkiria is represented by the sensational winner of the 2023 Russian Cup, STK Kaltasy.

Two competitions are also provided for juniors. The national team championship will be played on December 29, 2023, and the individual title on March 9–10, 2024. Both competitions will be held in Shadrinsk.

Author: Nikolay Ermolenko