DMV Tourenwagen Challenge

On the last weekend in June, the Tourenwagen Challenge series continued with another racing event, this time at Hockenheimring, Germany. Our team naturally did not miss the opportunity to take part in a race at this F1 circuit, and the three drivers under our colours contested the podium spots in the end.

Laura Hájková attended this event with an Octavia Cup car, while Daniel Skalický could be seen with an Alfa 147GTA. And, Petr Fulín was driving a fine-tuned Octavia car of the first generation. Right away in the qualifying for the first race, our drivers proved that they stood a good chance of success: Petr claimed the second place, while Daniel and Laura were third and fourth respectively. The placings in the second qualifying session were almost identical except that Petr Fulín had to retire on lap 2 due to a failure of the gear-shifting mechanism in his light-weight Octavia car. As it was not possible to repair the car on the spot, everything suggested that Petr would not be able to take part in the races.

So, the first race was contested only by Daniel and Laura. Throughout the whole race, Dan was competing in a fantastic manner with an older BMW. Laura, too, was busy overtaking her rivals and, towards the end of the race, she improved her lap time, even surpassing that of Daniel by several tenths of a second. The fine performance earned each of the two drivers a podium spot. Dan came second, with Laura in third.

For the second race, Petr had had a spare Alfa 147GTA car prepared, and started the race last on the grid, that is, from the 40th place. After three laps, he drew level with his colleagues who made way for him to continue his amazing chase drive. Petr crossed the finish line 18th overall, that is, second in his category. Laura and Dan most probably remembered the battle they had fought at the Brno circuit and chased each other during the last third of the race as if they were not colleagues. At first, Laura passed Dan and managed to withstand his aggressive attempts for about two laps. On the last lap, however, Daniel squeezed through along the inside track of the bend in front of the grandstand, leaving his team-mate behind. He claimed the third place, while Laura came fourth in the end.

The next event of the German DMV series takes place in two weeks' time, once again in Germany, at the state-of-the-art circuit at Oschersleben.