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Just two points separate the two championship contenders before the final round of the TCR Eastern Europe championship. Petr Semerád is right on the tail of current leader Bartosz Groszek, thanks to his podium finishes at Slovakia Ring. For a brief moment, he was even in the lead of the standings.
Petr Semerád started at Slovakia Ring with a new Hyundai Elantra and the ultimate goal for him was to score more points than Groszek. He successfully did that in both races, also thanks to the fact that Groszek started with the heaviest car in the field, carrying 40 kilos of weight ballast. However, Groszek had a superb pace and managed to keep his Audi close to Semerád, who was carrying an extra 30 kilos.
Semerád finished both races in second place. Groszek came in fourth in the first race and third in the second, which has resulted in minimal points damage for him, meaning that he is still leading the championship – as he has been since the opening round at Hungaroring in April.
It’s needless to say that Groszek was penalised for dangerous driving in the second race and received a ten-second penalty after the finish. For a brief moment, he fell to seventh position and Semerád took the lead in the standings. Groszek and the ADITIS team filed a complaint against the steward’s decision and successfully overturned it.
The hero of the race weekend was definitely Maťo Homola, who started in front of his home crowd and won both races after a dominant performance. He scored pole position, led from start to finish in the first race as well as the second, and moved from tenth into the lead within a couple of laps. He also set the fastest lap times in both races. For him, another one-off start in TCR Eastern Europe was marked with maximum success.
Petr Čížek scored his third podium finish this season. He sits comfortably in third place in the standings and is very close to his besting his own career position in TCR Eastern Europe. He has also matematical chance to win the championship, as he is 51 points behind Groszek and maximum points drivers can score is 55 points.
A nice performance was given by Levente Losonczy at Slovakia Ring. The young Hungarian driver debuted with a Hyundai Elantra from Aggressive Team Italia and finished fifth in the first race. There have been a lot of hard fights across the entire field and it is expected that the season finale at Most will be every bit as interesting as the weekend at Slovakia Ring, especially because of the battle for the championship win.
