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Bence Boldizs, a Zengő Motorsport driver, has summed up the opening round of the season at Grobnik in our official interview.
Bence, this year, you will be racing for Zengő Motorsport in WTCR. But you also raced in the opening round of the TCR Eastern Europe season at Grobnik, Croatia. You managed to finish in 4th and 5th positions. How did you enjoy the race weekend in Croatia?
Me and my team are very happy with the results. But Grobnik was not about that, it was most importantly an opportunity to test. I did not race with a TCR car before, and it was also my first race with the new team. So, everything was new, and I had to get used to it. Last year, I raced with a Suzuki Swift, that had 100 bhp and this is a huge jump forward. The good thing is, that I was improving by every session. In Race 2, we had a better pace thanks to the team and engineers. If I had a better start, we could have even aimed for a podium. But it’s very difficult and complicated to get the start right with these cars, so I need to practice that more.
Do you think you have learnt something ahead of your WTCR debut? Do you think that the TCR Eastern Europe series is a good place to learn something for the WTCR? Would you recommend the series?
Most definitely. It was the third time ever I was in a TCR car. Every time I get behind the wheel of this car, I learn a lot. The TCR Eastern Europe series is very good for rookies. There are many young guns but also experienced racers like Dušan (Borkovič) or Vesnič. And the whole starting grid had 18 cars, which is very exciting.
How would you compare the TCR Eastern Europe series with others? What future do you think it has?
To be honest, I can’t compare it to any other series I’ve done in my career before. I only used to race in Hungary with Suzuki Swift and semi-slick tyres and that wasn’t too fast. Here, you can’t even take a coffee break on the finish straight (laughter). In the TCR car, there’s much less time for everything, it’s much faster.
The new WTCR season starts at Salzburgring in September. But before that, the TCR Eastern Europe has two more rounds at Slovakia Ring and in Brno. Also, the final round of the season at Hungaroring does not collide with WTCR. Do you plan to take part in any of these races?
For now, we definitely plan to race also in other TCR Eastern Europe rounds. Like I said before, Grobnik was a great experience and the team really enjoyed the time there. It helped me a lot to gain more experience.
What are your ambitions for the rest of the season? Do you think you can aim for the podiums or even victories?
We’re still learning. I need to do as many kilometres as possible to be ready for WTCR. As I said, it’s not about results, but of course, it would be nice to get to a podium or two. I’ll be testing various setups because every driver has a different style. We improved a lot at Grobnik and our pace was very good, especially in Race 2. So, it’s looking promising.
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