THE LOOK

The Russians

Bulkin and Gellman, 1964

The Russians - that is the members of the FAI teams representing the USSR -- had two dominating eras in the formative years of Team Racing. Karl Plotsin, the best of the USSR team members is an ethnic Lithuanian and is covered with his Slavic team mate, Timofeev, as a team. The Russians were, however, a group that trained for and got results in team performance. In the end of the era they swept two consecutive world championships with all Russian finals. Virtually a replay of the All Union Championships.

The first one of the first teams were uniformed in blue athletic sweat suits - not only the technical team managers (one each for T/R, Precision Aerobatics, and Speed)   - but also the aging and overweight "Team Managers" who were universally recognized as the party representatives that were concerned with whom the team members met and what they did.

As a consequence we have little insight to the daily lives and contests at home of the team members. The ones I talked to, for example, would say "I work at a medium sized factory" when asked "what do you do". And then show you a titanium landing gear strut. They were, however, generous and often gave one or more complete models to US team members. They had lots of bear hugs and signs of emotion at the victory banquet when they were allowed to relax.

One technique they introduced was the mid-air catch by the pit man. Kobets demonstrates this in the photo below. He told me they practiced as a team for nearly a month before the contest with swimming and other athletic pastimes used to keep members in shape.

Team performance and World Championships were emphasized. Look at the results!