Babylon of emotions at the Slovakia Ring! That’s a brief summary of our appearance in Slovakia during the TCR Eastern Europe race weekend. While our spirits were very low after Saturday’s program, Sunday brought completely opposite emotions.
Qualifying went as it has traditionally this year. Even at the Slovakia Ring, Martin Kadlečík was unable to set a faster lap than his main rival in the title battle, Adam Kout, and finished second. Radim Adámek qualified sixth.
Saturday brought us a huge disappointment. Martin hadn’t even had time to properly warm up the tires on his Audi when, just past the halfway point of the first lap, he had to retire the car due to a gearbox failure. So only Radim continued, finishing fifth and at least partially easing the disappointment that hung over our garage.
Unfortunately, only one of our drivers started the second race. Radim provided the part needed to repair Martin’s car, thereby forfeiting his own chance to start on Sunday. The start of the second race was affected by an accident involving one of the competitors, and the race was neutralized by the safety car. After the restart, Martin held onto second place, and it didn’t look like he had a chance to catch up to Kout, who maintained a consistent lead of around two seconds. In the final lap, however, Martin did manage to close the gap and, in a thrilling battle three turns before the finish, he overtook Kout. Just as great as the disappointment had been the day before, so too was the immense euphoria that swept through our garage at the end of Sunday’s program. Martin won the second race and, with a seven-point lead, is still sitting in the first place in the drivers’ standings. The season finale at the Hungaroring in the second half of October will therefore be extremely exciting.
Since Most, we have a newcomer in our team: Martin Tóth. This talented young Czech driver competes in the Clio Cup Bohemia. Facing fierce competition, he managed to secure one top-10 finish at the Slovakia Ring, finishing ninth in the first race. In the second race, he finished 18th.