Race Car Weekend in Most: several more wreaths, cups and points were gained |
- 14. 5. 2006, Most-The 2006 Race Car Weekend held at the Autodrom Most racing circuit in the middle of May can be considered to have been very successful for Stanislav Matějovský's INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team. The drivers in yellow overalls attracted attention in almost all of the categories. The team's collection of wreaths and cups increased again, and valuable points were gained in this year's second domestic racing circuit event not only for the standings of individual drivers, but also for the standings of teams. Mirek Forman, Juraj Šedivý and Michal Matějovský were representing the team in the probably most attractive category of Division 4 of the Racing Circuit Championship of the Czech Republic, in the three-hour endurance race. However, the beginning of the Race Car Weekend at the Autodrom Most circuit did not appear to be lucky as regards the cars. Forman, at the wheel of the AUDI A4 ST, managed to cover only three laps of the timed practice session for the Sunday sprint race of the category over 1600 cc; afterwards, he had to come back to the pits due to a breakdown of the steering mechanism. For that reason, this car could take part neither in the qualifying session for the three-hour race, nor in the second timed practice session for the above mentioned sprint race. So, its drivers were considerably handicapped in Saturday's endurance race. But, this time, after having been repaired, the car was running perfectly, and the well-thought-out strategy of pit stops and driver rotation also paid off: the yellow-silver painted AUDI finished in the seventh place of the overall standings, that is, it was second in the category up to 2000 cc. Unfortunately, the Alfa Romeo 147 GTA cars, too, were dogged by bad luck. In one of the two cars, the clutch failed, in the second one, the rear axle broke down. The mechanics did an excellent job again, and so at least one of the two cars was able to take part in the race. However, Jiří Nykodým and Stanislav Lepka only managed to cover slightly more than two hours of the three-hour race: they had to retire after completing 54 laps. The team were doing much better in Sunday's thirteen-lap sprint race. Each of the INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team's drivers that were involved in this race saw the chequered flag. In particular, Adam Lacko, for the first time at the wheel of the powerful Porsche 997 Cup car, managed to strictly set the pace of the whole race. On Friday, after coming second in the timed practice session, Adam said: 'The Porsche is a car that completely differs from those I have experienced so far. It is a fine, powerful car, but there is a slight problem in driving through curves. Moreover, the loss of weight of the fuel towards the end of the race will become evident to a great extent: the front axle weight decreases considerably, and the car must be handled very carefully.' Afterwards, in Sunday's sprint race, he was driving in an absolutely stable, exact manner. Let us leave out of consideration two DTM-series Kevlar-built cars, which were in a league of their own and claimed the first two places. Adam finished in third, while his colleague, Max Stanco, of Poland, with the same type of car, was fourth. Mirek Forman, at the wheel of the AUDI, claimed the twelfth place of the overall standings, that is, he was second in the category up to 2000 cc. Juraj Šedivý, with the Alfa Romeo 156 S 2000, came sixteenth in the overall standings, that is, he was fourth in the category up to 2000 cc. Another driver of the team, Jan Urban, with the Alfa 147, finished immediately behind Juraj Šedivý. And, we must not forget the team's new man, Filip Albrecht, whose main task was to gather the valuable racing circuit experience with the Octavia Cup car. He finished in the twenty-fourth place of the overall standings while Jiří Nykodým with another Alfa 147 car under the colours of the INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team was twenty-sixth. |
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