The 2023 season will be written in our team history as a good one. Two of our drivers have qualified themselves for the biggest event in the TCR World - the TCR World Final, Radim Adámek together with Bartosz Groszek won the overall championship of ESET Cup Endurance and Tobias Poschik will be awarded as a best junior in the Trophy category of the TCR Eastern Europe championship.
Also in 2023 we made a decision to continue racing in The TCR Eastern Europe championship, which had a very strong competition this year. We also agreed to continue in cooperation with the ESET RaceStar project. Thanks to it we had welcomed Bartosz Groszek in our team, who won the championship the year before in our black-blue Audi. This time out, the project brought the experienced German driver Sebastian Steibel and the young go-getting Austrian junior Tobias Poschik into our garage. Those two were completed by the steady member of our driver's squad, Radim Adámek, who is a steady member of the TCR Eastern Europe championship as well.
We didn't even have to say goodbye to Bartosz, though. He offered us the possibility to coach our new drivers during the race weekends, which we were very happy to accept. He also made a deal with Radim to compete in the ESET Cup Endurance races.
The 2023 season started quite early, on the second weekend of April, in the new location and with quite cold weather. Despite all mentioned above we stood on the podium in the very first race weekend of the year thanks to Tobias Poschik. Ha had a great getaway into the second race in Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and took the lead of the race even before the first turn. Even though he was driving an outdated car, he managed to keep all the drivers except two behind himself and he brought the car home in 3rd place. In terms of the result, the start of the Endurance season went also well because Radim with Bartosz won the opening race. At the same time it was important to put all the new team members together and find a collective approach for all the tasks. A big challenge was particularly to get on the same wave with the team of Sebastian Steibel, which lasted for the whole season.
The second race weekend at Hungaroring was probably the most challenging one in terms of sport, but also in terms of cooperation in the team. Radim didn't manage to have a good start even once. Despite that, he enjoyed good battles with the other drivers. Sebastian was struggling with the car setup without team support until qualifying. Then we finally made a deal regarding the collective cooperation which caused a great recovery race from 15th place into the 8th. Thanks to the disqualification of one car classified higher, Sebastian moved one place higher, which guaranteed him to start from pole position into race 2. He was able to use the advantage of the first row just partly, when he finished 6th. Unluckily, he was penalized by a seven seconds penalty for the track limits and he dropped down the order to 10th place. Tobias finished 11th and 9th. Winning the Endurance race was just a small boost for the team spirit.
The third race weekend at Red Bull Ring brought another podium to us thanks to Sebastian. After a great start into the second race he kept the pace with the leading driver and it was one of the most beautiful battles in the whole season of TCR Eastern Europe. Sebastian didn't manage to overtake the leader, despite that the second place was still a great result. Radim didn't finish race number one due to the broken half-axle and in the other one he gave the best performance of the season. It was a shame that he made a slight mistake at the end of the race and dropped two positions down. At the same place he made a mistake also in the Endurance race which caused our duo Groszek - Adámek got overtaken by one of the competitors and finished the Endurance race 2nd.
Even the Slovakia Ring event didn't go according to our visions. Not a single race was finished by all three of our cars. One DNF went to both Sebastian and Tobias. Radim was classified 12th, which was his best result of the season. Even that fact hadn't made his impression about the season better, because he expected even more at his favorite track. He repeated the 12th place also in the next race weekend in Most.
After the Slovakia Ring race weekend, our line-up has changed dramatically. Neither Sebastian Steibel nor Tobias Poschik were able to continue in the season, so two of our three cars remained without a driver. For the Autodrom Most race weekend we made a deal with home hero and the best touring car driver in the Czech Republic, Petr Fulín. According to our expectations, Petr delivered the first 2023 win in TCR Eastern Europe for Aditis Racing. In the second race, he wasn't patient enough and tried to overtake the leading driver maybe a lap earlier than he should. The broken car as a result caused an end in the race for him.
Petr was of a huge benefit to our team, so we wanted him to race for us also in the last race weekend of the year in Brno. We weren't able to manage it, though, because he was penalized very strictly for his “aggressive” driving in Most by five places at the start of the first Brno race, which caused that Petr made a decision to not start in Brno.
The last race weekend of the season took place at our home track. The beautiful weather promised a great event. Especially since Bartosz returned to our line-up for TCR Eastern Europe. On the other hand, Radim had to retire from the weekend even before its start due to some health issues. It was the first ever TCR Eastern Europe event without Radim. Bartosz, thanks to the Endurance races, didn't lose the touch with Audi, which brought him 3rd and 7th place in his single entry start in TCR Eastern Europe 2023.
Bartoszs single-event entry had one more purpose. He wanted to gain some points and stay high enough in the TCR World Ranking to get the possibility to get qualified for the TCR World Final. He managed to reach that goal and if everything will play into our cards, we will have two drivers taking part in the biggest TCR event of the year. Also Sebastian Steibel is in the position which secures a place in the TCR World Final for him.
Despite the absence in the last two events of the year, Sebastian ended up in 10th place in TCR Eastern Europe 2023. Tobias Poschik, with the same handicap as Sebastian, ended up 13th overall and he will be awarded the best Junior in the Trophy category. In teams we won 3rd place overall and 2nd in the Trophy category. That's why we rate the season as a good one in terms of results.
On top of that, Bartosz and Radim together won the Endurance championship. Despite not taking part in two races, they secured their title in the TCX category in the ESET Cup, Czech Championship and the Central Europe Zone Championship.
Despite the tiny partial problems, the 2023 season turned out successful for Aditis Racing. For evidence, see the list of achievements below. We would like to thank all the team members for their effort during the whole season, all of our families for supporting us in our passion and our thanks also go to all our fans and supporters. Thank you!
The 2023 season
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16 races
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172 points
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Endurance title (ESET Cup, MČR, CEZ)
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10th a 13th place in the drivers' standings of TCR Eastern Europe
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1st place Junior Trophy
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3 team in TCR Eastern Europe
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2nd team Trophy TCR Eastern Europe
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2 places in TCR World Final