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The Hungaroring circuit near Budapest is going to host the first event of this year’s season of the TCR Eastern Europe championship. The entry list is gradually filling up with drivers and there is a lot to look forward to.
Season 2022 will start on the second weekend of April on this popular circuit, which also hosts the Formula 1 World Championship in the summer. But at the beginning of April, the track will belong to touring cars. For the very first time, the cars will be supplied by Kumho Tyres. The South Korean tyre manufacturer has become the official supplier of TCR Eastern Europe and also others championships, including TCR Europe. The Hungaroring event will be the first TCR event driven on Kumho tyres.
Fans can look forward to a varied starting field, consisting of different car makers. There will be six car brands, namely Alfa Romeo, Audi, Cupra, Hyundai, Renault, and Volkswagen. We will see new faces and also well-known drivers from previous seasons.
French brand Renault is going to be represented by the Besagroup Vuković Motorsport team with two Mégane RS TCR models. It’s their comeback after two years. One car is for team owner Milenko Vuković. The second one is for Franjo Kovac.
Hungarian driver Levente Losonczy will be seen behind the wheel of an Italian Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR RF, and a German VW Golf GTI TCR will be prepared by family team Basenhurt A&T Racing for Tomasz Rzepecki.
Five cars are going to represent the Spanish brand Cupra. The Fullinrace Academy team submitted entries for Petr Čížek and Carol Wittke. Both drivers were really successful at the end of the season, and Carol Wittke has won both races in Brno with a new Cupra León Competición TCR. This type of Cupra will also compete for team Auto Klub Dubrovnik with driver Žarko Knego. Older Cupra versions will be driven by Sebastian Steibel from Steibel Motorsport, who is part of the ESET RaceStar project, and Czech newcomer Vít Smejkal from Expres AUTO Racing.
Four Audi RS3 LMS TCRs will be under the colours of the ASK Vesnić, CS Motorsport, and ADITIS Racing teams. Milovan Vesnić, the first-ever champion of TCR Eastern Europe in 2019, is back after missing the second part of the last season. German driver Sanel Cehic from CS Motorsport is looking forward to improving the results of his last part-time season. Team boss of ADITIS Racing, Radim Adámek, is planning to race a full season again, alongside his teammate Bartosz Groszek, who is a new hope for the ADITIS Racing team. He is a proven winner and one of the favourites in this season. He starts thanks to the ESET RaceStar project.
Another confirmed team in the entry list for Hungaroring is Hyundai / Janík Motorsport with four cars on the grid. Two Hyundai i30Ns will be driven by team owner Václav Janík and the young, talented Petr Semerád, who won the prestigious Czech rally event Prague Rallysprint in March. Semerád is also part of the ESET RaceStar programme. Another two Hyundai Elantras will be prepared by the team for Mat’o Homola and Jáchym Galáš. Both the Slovak and the Czech driver are going to compete in TCR Europe again this year. The Hungaroring event will be more about testing the cars and race trim than about scoring points in the series.
