Armenian Drag Racing

On June 11, I witnessed one of the greatest automotive events in Armenia, namely, a drag race contest organized by public organizations “Street Angels” and “Emotion Club”.
The aim of the contest is not only to discover new cars, but also new talents, in order to engage them in this newly developing sport in our country.

I must say, that in spite of some financial difficulties, the contest was organized at the highest level, in compliance with all safety measures. Of course, there were some minor omissions caused by our Armenian temperament- “to attain something by my own”.
There were 38 applicants with cars of various “weigh class” and engines: Mercedes-Benzes, Volkswagens, Audis, Porsches, Infinities, Range Rovers and almost the whole range of BMW (from 3 series to X6).
Surprisingly, the majority of the cars were base versions, without being specially tuned for such races-only few of them could be considered as a proper racing car.

 There were also lots of bikers at the track, who were just competing against each other.
At first, the organizers rated all the cars according to engine volume and horse power to classify contestants into equal groups. The contest was held in 4 categories. There was a special prize from Armenian State Automotive Federation. The winner in first category was Arman Badalyan with his unbelievable VW Golf!
The Second was Bayandur Danielyan and his deeply tuned Toyota Celica.
Third Prize winner was Adam Mamikonyan with BMW 325, and the absolute winner of the contest was Artak Chamasyan with his monstrous Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG.
After the official ending of the event, some of the contestants continued the show by introducing the abilities of their cars through crazy drifts. Two owners of BMW decided to compete with bikers-in order to somehow equalize the acceleration difference, the BMW drivers were given a 100-meter head start on a 402-meter track, but even this advantage didn’t help the BMWs avoid being destroyed by Honda CBR, which was equipped with 1000cc engine and was able to reach the speed 100km/h in 2.4 seconds!

I already mentioned that the absolute winner was the CLS63 AMG, but there was a guy who obstinately refused to take part in the contest with his car-that was the M6, the eternal enemy of AMG. However, after lots of attempts of persuasion, he unwillingly accepted the challenge of racing against the AMG and won.
Such an interesting day I spent at the former military airport of Nor Hachn. I really hope that this contest will be permanently held in our country.