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TCR Eastern Europe continues with the fifth round of the season this weekend. The fast Slovakia Ring circuit offers plenty of opportunities for passing and the results of the two championship contenders will be more important than ever.
Bartosz Groszek, with an Audi RS3 LMS TCR belonging to the ADITIS Racing team, and Petr Semerád, with a new Hyundai Elantra from the Hyundai / Janík Motorsport team, are hot candidates for the title. Groszek has led the standings since the first race of the season, but there is only a 13-point gap between him and Semerád.
The biggest disadvantage for Groszek will be racing with 40 kilograms of weight ballast at Slovakia Ring, where speed is crucial in fast, sweeping turns. Czech driver Semerád also has to carry some weight ballast. The mechanics will add 30 kilos to his Elantra. Until now, Semerád has entered all races of the season with a Hyundai i30N, but for the Slovakian round, the team has offered him the chance to race with a newer Elantra, which Janík Motorsport fields in the TCR Europe championship for Jáchym Galáš and Maťo Homola.
Homola is a local racer and he will use the opportunity to start in front of his home crowd. He’ll be Semerád’s teammate and it’s going to be interesting to see how they finish the races – with home driver Homola at the front, or with championship contender Semerád?
A third Hyundai Elantra will be driven by Hungarian racer Levente Losonczy, who has exchanged his Alfa Romeo for a Hyundai. The main goal of the young racer is to try out the car and see how everything works for future events.
Losonczy is coming back after missing the last two rounds, and another returnee to the series is Vít Smejkal, who debuted with his Cupra at Red Bull Ring. The Czech driver is once again part of the ADITIS Racing team, which means that their mechanics will be taking care of cars for Groszek, Smejkal, and Radim Adámek, driving the team’s newest Audi RS3.
Adámek sold his old Audi to the Basenhurt A&T Racing team, so Adam Rzepecki will sit behind the wheel of Audi instead of Porsche 911 GTC. His brother and now teammate Tomasz will be starting once more with a VW Golf GTI TCR.
The first race at Slovakia Ring will take place on Saturday, and the second one on Sunday.
