Little is known about the Pioneer-class racing competition in the USSR during 1952 until 1962, when the project was cancelled. What we found out is that in the beginning cars were built and raced by students of Dzerzhinsky Military Technical Academy and Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization, with other USSR Technical Academies joining the competition later. Due to numerous accidents, after 1955, only senior experienced military personnel were allowed to pilot the immensely powerful vehicles.
All tracks were strip-type, meaning they were basically just long, hard surface, sometimes stretching up to 100 miles. Shorter tracks (up to 3 miles) were paved, while longer ones were constructed on dry lake beds or frozen lakes.
In an effort to popularize the sport many race tracks were built, complete with grand stands and VIP boxes, but quickly feel in dismay due to remoteness of the venues. Most of USSR citizens simply could not afford to travel to a remote venue in the middle of Siberia or Kazakhstan.
In 1962 the Pioneer project was canceled and some of the cars were reworked for speed records. On 1 September 1963, using one such car, engineer Ilya Aleksandrovich Tikhomirov, achieved a speed of 311.419 km/h (193.506 mph) for the measured kilometer at the Baskunchak dry salt lake, setting a Group VIII record and making it the fastest car in the Soviet Union at the time. Reworked Pioneer 2M continued to set records in the Soviet Union until 1972.