On May 31, the Moscow Raceway hosted the qualifying rounds of the third stage of the Open Championship of the RDS Drift Series. This state-of-the-art racing circuit welcomed a second championship of the Russian Drift Series for the first time.
A total of 35 drivers from Tatarstan, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Ryazan, Rostov regions, Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, as well as from Kazakhstan, participated in the qualifiers.
Photo: RDS
The qualifying round was won by Mikhail Davidyants from “TransPark,” who drove a BMW E30 and achieved a perfect score of 100 points out of 100. Despite his extensive experience—having competed in more than 30 events—he only secured a podium finish for the first time at the second stage of the RDS Open in 2025. By the time of the third stage, he had surpassed both his previous achievements and those of his competitors.
Photo: RDS
Since the renaming of the RDS Open Championship (previously known as RDS Europe until 2025), Mikhail Davidyants became the first to earn the maximum points in the qualifying round. The only other driver to reach such a score was Denis Sorokopud in 2022. Following Davidyants in the qualification for the PRO category was Andrey Ryabov (STAR PЁR STARS AIMOL), also driving a BMW E30, whose 97-point score marked a personal best. Anatoly Shcherbak took third place in the PRO qualification, scoring 94 points while navigating the course in his signature aggressive style in a Nissan 200SX.
Photo: RDS
In the NXT category, Arthur Zeleny from the STAR PЁR STARS AIMOL team secured the top spot in qualifying with a BMW E92, earning a score of 93.5 points. This marks Zeleny’s second qualifying win in the RDS Open series this season. In second place was Anastasia Dandyleva, a female driver from St. Petersburg representing “Tamashi Культура Заноса 2,” who achieved a personal high of 89.5 points in her BMW E92. She successfully completed the judges’ task and corrected previous mistakes. Closing the top three in the NXT qualification was Timofey Dobrovolski (STAR PЁR STARS AIMOL) driving a Nissan Silvia S14, with a score of 86 points.
Photo: RDS
The competition of the third stage of the RDS Open will continue tomorrow, June 1st, with spectators at Moscow Raceway and viewers on RDS TV set to enjoy tandem runs in the NXT and PRO categories until the finals.
NXT TOP-8
PRO TOP-32
