The last September weekend the circuit at Brno hosted the final round of Czech National Championship races. They were supported by Pedrazza's Sports Car Challenge races that were also counted towards the new Austrian Sports Car Championship. Since it was the only opportunity to see the real prototype racing at the Brno track, Racing Sports Cars took the opportunity to visit the meeting and bring to you some photos and reports from the sports car race and also from the three hour endurance race for touring cars and GTs.
The two main events were supported by National Formula races and BMW 1 Challenge, which is a new Czech single make championship. While the National Formula race brought some interesting battles (the second position was decided just a few metres before the finish line where Lesinsky overtook Chabr) and a field full of variety, the BMW race was a boring example of commercial modern racing concept. Not only that all cars were the same but they were also all painted white. In the BMW Challenge tent there were several other cars left during the time of the race, so there probably was not enough available drivers for all rental cars, so the field was rather sparse...
Sport Car Challenge - race 1
So let us pay attention to the main races. The Sports Car Challenge attracted a field of 15 powerful spyders, most of which were entered in the smaller division 2. Only four cars fit the division 1 rules. Among them two big favourites of the championship, British Tony Sinclair, last year champion driving a unique Jade, and a current championship leader Wolfgang Payr in a special wide PRC. It seems that only these two drivers are capable of winning races this year as the other drivers in the big division were slower than the top division 2 runners.
Gerd Beisel, usually third in the big division this year, was not able to run faster than Puis Truffer and Emanuel Pedrazza, the small division drivers that occupied the second row on the grid. Gerd Beisel ran another wide PRC special but in other race meetings he was also trying SR2 Norma S2000 BMW that raced in Grand-Am and Le Mans in the past. A little surprise of the entry list was a SR2 Lucchini SR2001 chassis 145 that took part in last year's Le Mans Endurace Series with Mauro Prospero and Denny Zardo. Unfortunately at Brno it was driven rather purely by Renzo Merenghetti, who appeared to be the slower participant of division 1. During the race he had a bad luck and after being pushed off twice by Emanuel Pedrazza finished the very last but still on the big division podium after his main and only opponent Gerd Beisel retired already during the first lap. Pedrazza himself was slowed down by his way of racing too. In the second lap collision he lost four positions. Then he collided with Merenghetti again and while Emanuel continued without being delayed, officers sent him to the pits for stop and go penalty. By that time he almost gained his original position but after that pitstop he had to catch the cars again. Finally he was not a lucky man too. In the final lap when he overtook almost all cars that were behind him on the grid, he came into troubles while overtaking a single Norma in the field and did not finish the race at all. He was still classified eigth though.
After Pedrazza's problems and collisions, the second division was an easy affair for Puis Truffer, who finished third overall, running almost at the same pace as the two leaders. Other small cars were either less powerful than the two mentioned above, or were driven by an old and slow driver, which was a case of another PRC driven by Peter Kormann who inherited second place in his division but with a huge margin of fifty seconds. It means that the division 2 leader gained five seconds each lap over his nearest opponent, which was really amazing effort.
We still owe you the overall result. There is not much to report though. Sinclair in Jade was one second per lap quicker than Payr and kept the pace throughout the whole race so the difference nine seconds in the finish was an expected result of the day.
Other notes of interest:
- The only Norma in the field driven by German Gerhard Muench was the first car of the make ever racing at Brno and finished sixth.
- There was another Norma in the results sheets but it was obviously an error in official records. It was listed next to Beisel who in reality drove PRC.
- There were two specials in division 2 called MRP. They are the cars that were originally being built by a group of Czech mechanics and drivers around Jaroslav Vorel. They were never finished or raced by original creators. Last year one of these cars appeared in the SCC race too, being called Sharon GT by then. One of the cars retired after the preliminary lap, the other finished seventh (driven by Thomas Volfert as the last year).
- The most common make in the field was PRC with 12 cars in provisional entry and nine of them really present in Brno. One them however became a non-starter. It was the car of Karl-Heinz Matzinger.
- There were as many as ten Porsches in the provisional entry list but none of them took part in the Saturday's race as they probably prefered to run the endurance race only. Three of them appeared in Sunday's race, best results of them being recorded by Kurt Peter, tenth in the finish.
- Tony Sinclair in Jade was the only competitor to set the fastest lap under two minutes. He also became the fastest driver of all categories over the weekend.
- Sunday's race (without our presence) was won by Payr after Tony Sinclair did not take part in. Gerd Beisel was more successful this time and gained the second position overall by less then a quarter of a second ahead of Puis Truffer.
Czech Endurance Championship - 3 Hours race
The longest race of the weekend featured almost forty cars ranging from traditional winner Mercedes CLK DTM through some GT cars including a single Ferrari Modena, winged BMW M3 GTRs and quick two litre Audis A4 to Seat Leon, Ford Focus, Alfa Romeo 147 and number of Renault Clios. The usual special Tatra Ecorra was also present but more than a quarter of the field was formed by the Porsche machinery. All of them were various versions of 996.
The Mercedes driven by Charouz, Nimc and Jarek Janis showed its dominance already in practice when took the pole position by more than eight and half seconds better time than Machanek Racing Porsche GT3-RS, which shared the front row with the Mercedes trio. Senkyr and Dolak were third and best of the BMWs. In the top ten we had also another BMW GTR - in the seventh position, the Ferrari was 9th and the Tatra 10th. Two litre Audis shared the sixth row while all other cars up to 17th spot were only Porsches.
Immediately after the start the Mercedes driven by Jarek Janis took the lead and during the first half of an hour lapped the entire field but one Porsche (only to lap it a lap later...) and continued in its pace. Additional positions were taken by Porsches, Machanek's and Renauer's GT3-RS types in the front. Both Audis had some troubles in the early stages of the race. One losing several places to Porsche Cups, the other dropped down to the end of the field.
Machanek's Porsche maintained the second position throughout the first and second hours but at about half hour before the finish another two Porsches appeared in top 3 spots. They were Konopka's ARC Bratislava Porsche and the fastest Cup car driven by Bezak and Studenic. While Konopka ran pretty slowly at the final part of the race and found himself soon out ot contention for the podium finish, Machanek's Porsche was catching very well running Cup Porsche of Bezak/Studenic (Stadler Motorsport). In the end Machanek with Racz were successful and finished second behind the Mercedes. Mercedes had some problems in the final hour, moreover they got stop and go penalty, so they lead wasn't that big as might have been expected after the first hour - it was just one lap and almost two minutes.
