Another Central European circuit which is hosting a FIA CEZ circuit championship is Most, located in the north of the Czech Republic. This racing track also celebrated the 33rd anniversary of its opening. During this championship there had already been three racing weekends so the one in Most is the fourth. The premiere was in Hungaroring, then, two weeks later, Red Bull Ring welcomed the teams in Austrian Spielberg and one week before Most, the racing took place in Serbian airport of Batajnica where none of the “northern” FIA CEZ teams were present. For the second year, the series has been enriched by prototypes Sports Car Challenge. In Most, these cars appeared in significantly larger number than on Hungaroring. Even Aleš Jirásek with his white Praga R1 couldn’t miss the race in Most. This driver was able to win the division 5 race in Austria, even though he ran out of fuel in the last lap.
FIA Zone D2 race for the formulas will offer competition with more than twenty racers, including Antonín Sus with Dallara 302 Opel, Tomáš Chabr, Petr Samek or Petr Semerád and Tomáš Korený (all from the Czech Rebublic). The division 4 of touring and GT cars comprises only a dozen of drivers. The team Appstore Motorsport brought a new BMW Z4 for David Palmi. It is the 2015 model, last-but-one manufactured piece. Jiří Malchárek from Slovakia arrived with his new production BMW M6 GT3. However, his car had some technical issue on Friday, so his team had to quickly set off to Germany to get the spare part. Another driver from Slovakia – Miro Konopka – had sent his team to Most ahead of him, before he was able to arrive on Thursday at night because on Wednesday and Thursday he had been competing on Slovakiaring. He took part in local first ever 24-hour race which he won – this time with Seat. However, Konopka arrived to Most with his Lamborghini Huracan.
It is noteworthy that Jakub Kubas from Brno (the Czech Rebpublic) won one race not only in Hungary but also in Austria. Therefore, he would like to keep this trend even in Most. Similarly but his opponents Knoll, Malchárek and others probably have the same plan. Thus, we may expect some solid competition especially among the most powerful D4 cars. On Friday, there have already been three qualifications for all the division 4 races and also for the endurance race. On Saturday, there are going to be two sprints and the day’s programme will be finished with one-hour endurance race which seems to be a new trend for this season’s circuit races. All D4 races are scheduled for Saturday so on Sunday, the teams will be able to get home and relax…
As we had already mentioned, the racing circuit in Most celebrated its anniversary. It was built between 1979 and 1983 on the site of a former strip coal mine called “Vrbenský”. The main idea was, of course, to create it for car and motorbike racing, but the officials of that time wanted to use it for other purposes too. Thus the facility served also for testing of newly developed vehicles, training of ambulance, police or fire-truck drivers or for courses of safe-driving and racing. This role was later handed over to a new polygon which was constructed right within the vast area of racing circuit in 2005 and took up 13 hectares. The highlight of local season is a traditional race of trucks which takes place at the beginning of September. In future, the management would like to bring a few more events. According to unofficial information and unverified sources, there might be three big car races. Could it be for example DTM or German ADAC GT? Only time will tell…!
The main day of the racing weekend in Most will be Saturday. The program is starting at 8:30 in the morning by CEZ D2 qualification.
Written by: Pavel Jelínek
www.autodrom-most.cz
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