SMP racing drivers Aleksandr Smolyar and Dmitry Arsentyev claimed victory at the phygital racing tournament. They set the best time in the phygital racing in winter karting, where drivers had a speed contest on the specially designed ice track and ran Lada Kalina in a virtual Assetto Corsa simulator.
Very first minutes of the phygital racing final were full of surprises. Qualifications winners – Ni Racing team – quickly gave up their position, while Sergey Krenev from Kamaz Master Junior came from behind and took the lead. He easily completed 20 laps despite the track complexity and vagaries of the weather and stood the opponents’ attacks. So he was the first to hand over a virtual relay “baton” to his teammate Bogdan Karimov.
“I made conclusions on the past races, had a good start and took a lead from the last line. This surface requires smooth and steady drive and speed-up only in the right moment. If you drive too slowly, there’s no chance to win,” Sergey Krenev commented on his race.
“Motorsport is not for nothing said to be a technical sport. From the very start the accelerator got frozen, so I was driving the whole race at full throttle and had to slow down the kart with the brake only. In the end, the car stalled and, what’s more, I fell,” Maksim Soldatov from Ni Racing explained the reason of losing the previous-day lead.
However, the drivers of the second Kamaz Master team didn’t manage to keep the lead. In the virtual relay Aydar Nuriev from Namus Racing was the first to catch the lead, who has experience in driving the Kazan Ring track at various races and knows its ins and outs. SMP Racing driver Aleksandr Smolyar was right after him and succeeded at the fourth lap with his Lada Kalina.
Although the third segment of the ice race witnessed a new leader – Boris Garifullin from Electro Karting – Smolyar was swift enough to overtake him on the inner circle and again brought the lead to the SMP Racing.
Dmitry Arsentyev saved the superior position in the fourth virtual segment and had a confident and victorious finish with no errors. Considering the changeable weather and tricky slippery track it was not easy at all, but there were the awards waiting for the champions at the finish – phygital flame and nearly a third of the prize fund (300,000 roubles).
Second place was taken by Electro Karting with Anvar Tutaev and the winner of the autumn racing phygital Boris Garifullin. Aleksey Kolpakov and Ostap Kravchenko from Ural Junior Kart finished third.
“Phygital format is not new to me although once again I found the competitions to be of a very high level. Everything was amazing! Can’t wait for the Games of Future. The more Russia is hosting the events like this, the better. We need to develop everything in our country, since our athletes strive for the performances. These competitions are the right steps,” Aleksandr Smolyar told.
“Teamwork is what helped us. We did a perfect job in a training session and race itself. I do winter karting professionally, so I have experience in driving such surfaces. Simulator was hard to me, as I haven’t dealt with it before, so I had to train five hours per day. Phygital Games made me excited to participate in. Weather? Super! Organizers did their best to make the competitions happen, kudos to them!” Dmitry Arsentyev commented.
Reference information:
“Games of Future” is a new-format international tournament merging the contests in 16 hybrid disciplines. Each is composed of a phygital (physical+digital) concept combining traditional sport and cybersport or VR/AR technology testing both athletes’ physical fitness and technical savvy. The Event will be held in Kazan in 2024.
Games of Future official channels:
Website
Phygital Games is a series of competitions in the phygital disciplines preceding the “Games of Future”. Kazan hosted the first Phygital Games on 21-23 September 2022 featuring four disciplines – phygital football (FIFA + futsal), phygital basketball (NBA + street ball), Beat Saber, and drone racing. The Phygital Games in racing (Assetto Corsa + karting races), wresting (Mortal Kombat 11 + MMA), and hockey (NHL 22 + 3-on-3 hockey) took place in November-December 2022. In February 2023 Kazan held the Games in cyber sport – Speerdun, Dota 2, MLBB, CS:GO, and Warface combined with laser tag.
