Michal Orlowski was the man in A1 of the Modified class. The Schumacher lead driver executed a clean race from his TQ spot and saw Bruno Coelho crashing out in lap eight of the run.
Coelho was riding the curb at the very end of the infield a bit too much and rolled his Hobbywing powered Infinity car onto the roof. It was a very costly mistake for Coelho (lost four seconds) who then needed to fight his way back to second in an intense fight with the Mugen of Ronald Völker, and the Xray of Alexander Hagberg.
Hagberg was running in second place after Coelho`s mistake and it looked like he could get a P2 from this final until a ballstud in his car came loose – bad luck for Hagberg who was out of the race after three and a half minutes.
Meanwhile, Coelho was showing great patience behind Völker and after the Mugen driver was riding a curb to hard, Coelho was able to pass and get his second place back. Before this scene, Coelho once touched Völkers car but immediatley waited for Völker to continue in the same order again – great sportsmanship!
Out front it was the Michal Orlowski show. He broke the Hudy Arena track record (16.207) and had not a lot of pressure in the last two minutes of the race. He was able to control everything until the end. The finishing order in A1 was Orlowski, Coelho, Völker, Lauter, Collina, Greiner, Rheinard, Havranek, Brunet, Wilck, and Hagberg.
Ratheisky converts TQ spot into A1 victory for Xray – Bultynck defends his second place
The first Pro Stock A-Main was a great show of Pro Stock racing throughout the field. TQ Jan Ratheisky converted his pole position into a start to finish win ahead of Ollie Bultynck (fastest lap of the race 18.883) and Jaroslav Kriz. Adam Izsay lost a position (dropped from P3 to P4) after he had put a lot of pressure onto Ollie Bultynck during the early stages of the final.
This helped Ratheisky for sure to maintain his lead out front. In the end, Ratheisky had an advantage of 1.8 seconds over Bultynck and Kriz when he crossed the finish line after five minutes. Adam Izsay and Oliver Havranek completed the top five.
Van Gog executes a perfect first A-Main in Slovakia
Top qualifier Robin van Gog had a clean start off the line and was leading A1 ahead of Kevin Schmid and Gergö Valent. After three laps, Valent made a mistake and dropped down to fifth place while van Gog and Schmid were pulling a big gap over the rest of the field. But when Schmid also made a mistake after 3 minutes, it was Czech racer Filip Bortoli who found himself in second place which he needed to defend until the end of the race against Ethan Southall.
Somehow, Southall and Valent found their way around Bortoli in the last lap and took P2 and P3 over thew line. Robin van Gog brought home an unchallenged win in A1 ahead of Southall, Valent, Bortoli, and Schmid.
Dominant Ehrbar leaves no doubt who is the BOSS in Trencin
On the sound of the tone, TQ David Ehrbar was putting his head down and checked out immediately from the rest of the field. He already had an advantage of 1.1 seconds after the first lap and his teammate Renè Kölbel had no chance to match Ehrbar`s lap times while running in second place. Michel Zierold was running in third place, followed by Toni Mateo and Patrick Sommer.
The field was pretty much sorted and not a lot happened in this final which David Ehrbar won by a very impressive gap of 3 seconds ahead of Renè Kölbel, Michel Zierold, Toni Mateo, and Patrick Sommer.
Amazing pass earns Kuschnarew the win in A1 – bad luck for Hois afterwards!
Stefan Hois brought the field around the first lap and had the mirror full of David Kuschnarew`s ARC, and Ben Gerhardt and Filip Bortoli followed them also in striking distance making it a four-horse race on top of the field. Hois had a lot of work to do to not miss any apex but in lap 6 it happened. Hois was a bit wide in the sweeper before the straightway and Kuschnarew made a clean and very nice pass on the inside to take over the lead.
Hois lost a bit of ground in the following lap and got involved in a crash as well which dropped him back to fourth place. Kuschnarew had a huuuge lead ahead of a hard fighting Max Weffers who defended like a lion against Dutch racer Richard Oversloot. After an intense race, Kuschnarew brought home the win in front of Weffers, Oversloot, Hois, and Mick Lätsch.
Hoch takes A1 in style and leads impressive Xray 1-2-3
The first A-Main of the Matrix Formula class was fully in the hands of top qualifier Lukas Hoch and his Xray car. He drove a clean race and took the win with a gap of one second over Martin Hudy who had a great battle with Jacques Libar. Jitse Miedema and Luke Lee completed the top 5 on Saturday evening with two more finals to come up on Sunday.
