Hot and exciting Grand Prix of Slovakia
Orechová Potôň, 20.8.2023 – The 14th season of the greatest car race in Slovakia, the OMV MAXXMOTION GRAND PRIX OF SLOVAKIA (August 18-20), was definitely one of the hottest ones, not due to thrilling moments on the track, but also because of really subtropical weather, which prevailed during the weekend and tested both the cars and their drivers.
A total of 130 vehicles and teams entered the races of several European championships. Racers were fighting for valuable points in the FIA Central European Trophy (FIA CEZ) in both sprints and endurance, as well as in the national circuit championships of Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Poland. Cup series were completed by Fiat Abarth Cup, Renault Clio Cup and Mazda MX-5 Cup.
Ligier LMP3 prototypes shared the victories in the sprint races of Division 5. On Saturday, the Czech racer Dan Skočdopole finished first, ahead of Slovak Miro Konôpka. On Sunday, they changed the order after the Czech driver was penalized for a false start. In the endurance race on Saturday evening, Miro Konôpka from the ARC Bratislava team finished first after a hard fight, during which contact also occurred.
We also saw interesting races in the GT3 class. On Saturday, Slovak racer Zdeno Mikuláško took a nice victory in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of the ARC Bratislava team ahead of Filip Salaquard in Audi R8 and our Štefan Rosina in the BMW M4 GT3 of the Trevor Racing team. BMW factory driver Jesse Krohn, winner of the 2020 Daytona 24h, started in this car on Sunday. Zdeno Mikuláško was able to keep him behind until the last minutes, when the Safety car came out on the track. Polish racer Korzeniowski won the race ahead of Mikulášek and Krohn.
In the endurance race, the GT3 class was won by the aforementioned Jesse Krohn in the Slovak team Trevor Racing on BMW M4 GT3. In the TC-3500 class, Maťo Homola and Viktor Mráz on Hyundai i30N finished in a nice third place.
The Sikhart siblings in the MX-5 Cup 2.0 showed good fights during both sprint races. On Saturday, Simon won ahead of Matej, Rudolf Beňo was third. On Sunday, they changed positions in almost every lap, but in the end Matej Sikhart won by 0.097s ahead of Simon. In the MX-5 Cup 1.6, Tomáš Kameništiak took two cups for his triumph, winning both days ahead of Tomáš Kazarka and Marko Kazarka.
In the Clio Cup within the ESET Cup Series, Adam Konôpka from the ARC Bratislava had a great races. On Saturday, he finished in the 3rd place behind already certain champion Martin Kadelčík and the German Michael Hulma. On Sunday, only Kadlečík was better than Adam, who beat Hulma after a good fight. In the Slovak ranking, Ondrej Fekete finished second and Radoslav Obrtal third.
In addition to the racing on the track, there were many other attractions around whole area during whole weekend. The biggest one for the spectators present was certainly the air show of the L29 Delfín subsonic fighter jet, which opened the strongest and most numerous starting field of D4/D5 divisions so far. The original Dakar TATRAs of the Kazarka team also enjoyed well-deserved attention, mostly during their rides on the race track, while children were treated with numerious attractions in the Kids zone.
The next official event at the SLOVAKIA RING circuit will be the Central European Zone Rallycross Championship (October 7-8), preceded by the traditional Powerfest event (September 1).
More information and results can be found HERE.
Photo: Tibor Szabosi
