LADA Sport Rosneft Team Principal Victor Shapovalov has been honoured with the awards of Russia’s ‘Motorsport Man of the Year’ in Moscow on Saturday.
Spaovalov has been involved in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) since 2007. First racing a BMW for the Russian Bears Motorsport team in 2007, Shapovalov introduced the LADA brand to the series in 2008 when the team ran a trio of LADA 110s, gaining works’ support from LADA in 2009 when they moved to the Priora model.
LADA took a hiatus from the series in 2010 and 2011, returning for select outings in 2012 before a full-time works commitment resumed in 2013 with Shapovalov at the helm.
Since then the team, with drivers James Thompson, Rob Huff and Mikhail Kozlovskiy, have gone on to score two wins, with Huff taking the first in Argentina in 2014.
Shapovalov was bestowed the award at a ceremony in Moscow on Saturday by the Russian sports media judging panel.