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The Hyundai / Janík Motorsport team was the largest team in the opening round of the TCR Eastern Europe championship. The team brought four cars, two of them for preparation for the TCR Europe championship, another two with the aim of continuing in the Eastern Europe series.
You could say that the Czech team is an experienced group in touring car racing because they debuted in TCR Eastern Europe in the 2020 season with one car, then moved to TCR Europe in the next season with drivers Jáchym Galáš and Maťo Homola. Those two remained with the team for the 2022 season and headed to Hungaroring – not to score points for the TCR Eastern Europe championship, but to test and better understand their new cars, Hyundai Elantra N TCRs, with which they are going to race in TCR Europe.
“The car behaved differently than I expected it to. There were a couple of things that we had to try, and I wasn’t satisfied with the car,” said Maťo Homola during the Hungaroring weekend. It was an understandable statement because the car was brand new, transported from Germany straight to Hungary.
Although their main goal was to test their cars, Galáš and Homola are racing drivers, so they were also fighting for podium finishes. Homola was close to winning the first race, but finished second. He also fought for the win in the second race, but he was penalized after making contact with Milenko Vuković. However, there was still joy in the team after all. The winner of the second race was his teammate Jáchym Galáš.
“It was really nice to move from last place to first place during the race. I’m sorry for Maťo because the Janík Motorsport team could have ended up with all three podium places,” said Galáš after the finish.
The mission of testing the new Elantras was accomplished, allowing them to concentrate on the opening round of TCR Europe at the Portimão circuit in Portugal last weekend. Galáš and Homola finished just outside of the Top 10 in the first race. Afterwards, Galáš improved his results and finished seventh in the second race. Homola had an unlucky start and finished a lap down after an incident in the first lap.
There is also another story of two other cars that Hyundai / Janík Motorsport brought to Hungaroring. Two older Hyundai i30N TCR cars were driven by the talented Petr Semerád and team owner Václav Janík. Semerád started, thanks to the support of the ESET RaceStar project, and gave a really great performance. He finished fourth in the first race at Hungaroring, and then took second place. “Overall, I enjoyed the weekend, I’m really happy with the results, and I’m sending a big thank you to the ESET RaceStar programme, which gave me the opportunity to race here,” said Semerád at the finish.
The experienced Václav Janík has driven many cars during his career, but it was his first time in a TCR racing car. He was fast enough to fight for a place in the Top 10, but didn’t finish the first race due to a technical issue. The second race was much better and he took twelfth position.
So the weekend at Hungaroring ended on a very high note and, although two cars are on the road to TCR Europe, the Hyundai i30N TCR cars are going to stay in TCR Eastern Europe and the team is planning to take part in the second round of the championship at the popular Red Bull Ring.
