Hankook Carbonia Cup is coming!
Orechova Poton, May 9, 2023 - The Slovak Autodrome in Orechova Poton hosts the 2nd round of the Hankook Carbonia Cup, which enters its 13th racing season. Almost 80 vehicles are registered for several races. Hankook Racing Day is a great attraction for spectators, who can thus extend the holiday weekend.
The opening race in Most, Czech Republic took place in cold weather. May temperatures in Orechova Poton indicate much better conditions for racing. Drivers will compete in two double races, which gives them a greater chance of a better placement in the overall qualification as well as in the Hankook Cup. We have few new names on the starting grid, such as Gerhard Sedlacek with Porsche 914, the Austrian Michael Oliver is returning after a long break with his Porsche GT3, as well as another returnee, Otto Svoboda, who will race in Group B with Porsche 91.
Bulgarian driver Tsvetlan Iliev with Formula Renault will celebrate his debut in the Cup this year.
Group A (touring cars and GT cars) will welcome the largest number of drivers. In A1 group will start Manfred Fraissl with Fiat Ritmo Abarth, Stefan Scheiber with VW Derby, Josef Turban with Audi 50, and Miroslav Pešek with Ford Fiesta. Uwe Hahn with his Zastava will race in group A1.3. Gustav Niedeský with his Honda R and Jiří Zeman with Honda CRX will race in the two-liter A2 group. In the group up to 3000ccm will race these drivers: Hungarian Ivan Ivanov with BMW 330i, Tomáš Zablúdil with BMW 130i, Miroslav Peschko with BMW 330i, Dušan Vít with his BMW and another line of BMW vehicles with these foreign drivers: Stefan Rauscher and Olaf Haeusner from Austria, who attended the Cup in Most, too. The A4 group has MiVi with BMW M3 ready on the starting grid. Ferenc Taschner and Martin Tóth will race with the same vehicle. In the A5 (over 3500ccm), Gerhard and Walter Forster will race in BMW vehicles, as well as Gerhard Sedlacek from Austria with Porsche 964. In the A6, David Kratochvíl will appear in Škoda Octavia III RS. In the A7 (up to 2000ccm - more modified two-liters) Matej Chabr will race in VW Golf 3-B against two VW Scirocco vehicles driven by Jozef Dauerer and Günter Stubenrauch. In A8, the greatest chance to get points has Lotus Elise driven by Ondrej Frič and in the A9 (over 3500ccm) we will see another Lotus from Austria driven by Mario Drexler. Pavel Sovička will show his Corvette Z06 GT, Michael Oliver will drive his Porsche GT3, Jan Mareček will drive KTM X-Bow GTX on Lambo ST EVO.
Group B with touring cars will welcome fewer participants but we can expect even bigger battles. David Drugda with Suzuki Swift and Ján Bárta with Citroen will race in B1. Michal Zimmer with Honda Civic, Libor Šajner with Toyota GT86 and Miloš Merto with Subaru BRZ will give it a go in the two-liter class. Felix Hasenöhrl with VW Golf VII and Radek Zimmer with his Lotus Exige will race in group B4 (up to 3500ccm). In the strongest B5, this year's Carbonia Cup returnee Otto Svoboda with Porsche 911 will fight for his first points. His opponents will be Pavlo Sovička with Lotus Exige Cup and Tomasz Waszynský from Poland with Audi S8.
Group C with prototypes and special construction cars will welcome 17 cars. In C1, Markus Hofer from Austria and Daniel Hentschel from Germany will fight for their points with Performers. In C2 group with prototype cars (over 1400ccm) we will see these racers: Jiří Švec with Fyny SP05 Evo, Austrians Friedrich Franz with Radical SR1, Jürgen Kapeller with Radical SR3 RS, Karl Heinz Matzinger with Wolf GB 08 lingera, who will also bring his Wolf SM GB 08 prototype. Caterhams up to 1600ccm will start in C3 group, where Marko Bláha, Marko Svačinka and Jakub Kirchner will show their skills. In the stronger C4s will race Jakub and Martin Křečkoví with green Caterhams and Andrej Somogyi with Kaipan. C5 group set for KTM X-Bow vehicles will present Miroslav Šimon and Sergej Pavlovec from RTR Projects.
Spectators can look forward to a total of 16 formulas. Robert Hanžl will come to expand his circuit experience with the ex-Rieger Glória in group D1 set for motorcycle engines (up to 1400ccm). Zdeněk Petan with Tomis 99-02 and Hartmut Heidicke from Germany on Tark Kavor will race in groups with car engines (up to 1400ccm). In D2 German Nicklas Meisenzahl with Formel ADAC will race in the 1600s. Honza Rieger with Formula Renault 2.0 wants to grab some points in the two-liter class. The same plans have Jan Wagenknecht, Bulgarian Tsvetan Iliev, Ľuboš Škarda, Radek Kroupa, German Tim Rädlein, Tomáš Pavel with Martini Renault and Libor Neckář with his Formula Masters ToroRosso. Germans Frank Thalmann and Ralf Gläser, as well as Jakub Matušek from JMT Racing will drive F4 vehicles in D5.
Interesting battles await us. Do not hesitate, come and support your favorites at the Slovakia Ring on May 9, 2023 during Hankook Racing Day.
We look forward to seeing you!
Vláďa Rožánek a PET
Hankook Carbonia Cup 2023