This year, Ecce Homo celebrated a significant anniversary, 120 years since the first race on this track. In addition, we had the 44th year of the European Championship. And so, of course, it was a time to take stock, reminisce, but mainly focus on top-notch current racing. Myths and records were shattered.
This year, the race was traditionally part of the FIA European Hill Climb Championship and the top European drivers registered to participate. And the participation was record-breaking. A total of 216 drivers from 18 European countries registered. The elite of both formula specials and high-performance touring cars arrived in Šternberk to fight for valuable points and victory on the iconic 7.8 km long track in one of the most demanding European destinations.
It was already 44th edition of the European Championship, which was held here for the first time in 1981.
Of course, the Czech racing elite was also present, which the home fans loudly support every year. Czech riders traditionally present themselves in great form at Ecce Homo and are able to significantly shuffle the cards even at the top of the leaderboard.
The current course record is held by Christian Merli with a time of 2:39.80. The Ecce Homo course is known for its technical challenges, high speed and legendary atmosphere – and this is exactly what makes it the ideal place to rewrite history. This year the course record was not broken, mainly because the rules for the top class changed significantly, with the most successful Osellas FA30 eliminated from the European points, ride height or engine power also made less friendlier for remaining car.
Thus Robin Faustini from Switzerland made such a significant contribution to the ranking of the fastest drivers that he became the absolute winner! Faustini, with his Nova NP01 EMAP Turbo, is not competing in the European Championship series, he took the Ecce Homo race more or less as a test before the Swiss Championship, where he is the reigning champion. Italian Merli,
with his Nova Proto NP01, was second, who was still testing the limits of his new car, and Joseb Iraolo Lanzagorta is third overall. He is piloting the Nova NP01. Faustini set the fastest time of the race day and it is 02:43.17.
In the European classification, Merli won, Iraola was second and Frenchman Kevin Petit was third. In the first heat, the three fastest riders were within one second, Kevin Petit was one of them. In the second race, he had trouble at the start, lost several seconds but still took important points for the European championship.
The fastest Czech rider was Petr Vítek with the Osella PA30, who took eighth place in the absolute ranking and is the winner of the Czech Championship. Vítek drove a very nice race and, together with Václav Janík, were the only two Czechs in the top ten overall.
Category I was won by Karl Schagerl, who broke a fourteen-year-old record with his unique Golf. This touring car record was held to this day by Georg Plasa, who died the same year he set the record at Ecce Homo. Schagerl did not have good training runs, but he got used to the racing ones and won both Category 1 and Group 1.
Schagerl's record wasn't the only one this weekend. The fastest woman this weekend, the beautiful young Tereza Machová, beat herself as she clocked 3:17.21 in Sunday's race, which is more than two seconds lower than the best time from the year before.
Legends are returning to the track!
Miloš Beneš, Herbert Stenger represented by his daughter Kristina, Petr Vojáček, Josef Michl and Josef Krečmer. Names that wrote the history of hill races!
This year, all of the above-mentioned drivers took to the start line at Ecce Homo in Šternberk as part of a special e-Grand Prix, where they compared their performances in a regularity ran with fully electric cars. Seeing these drivers again on a closed track and the cars borrowed from our great partners added the right touch. The winner of the brand new e-Grand Prix project was Miloš Beneš, one of the best Czech drivers ever. He drove an absolutely luxurious MG Cyberster, one of two in the country, partner Horimex cars. For the first time, our spectators had the opportunity to see electric cars on the closed Ecce Homo track as part of a regularity race.
A rich program for fans of all generations
In addition to the racing weekend itself, the organizers also prepared a rich accompanying program, which began on Friday and continued on Saturday with the traditional event on Šternberk Square, City on the Move. The main musical guest was the band O5 and Radeček.
A big novelty for the anniversary is also the establishment of a special "Targa Florio" spectator zone, which symbolically connected Ecce Homo with the famous Italian motor racing history and offered not only an exceptional view of the track, but also a stylish accompanying program and refreshments in the spirit of experiences and adrenaline, and there was also a Dakar exhibition or 1000 horsepower specials.
On Friday evening, Martin Straka's talk show titled "F1 Stars in Brno and Šternberk" took place, and Saturday evening was the premiere of the documentary Otakar Krámský - Fair Play. His loyal fans were sitting in the first row of the improvised open-air cinema, it was a sad but beautiful sight.
Additional alternative notes, views, remarks and observations
The leader of the European Championship and the winner of two of this year's races, the Frenchman Kevin Petit, arrived at the race as a big favorite. He has already started here a few times, but this year he is in great form. Perhaps the alleged close cooperation with the manufacturer of the Nova car is helping him. Although this year's model is also being driven by Christian Merli or Sebastien Petit, according to information, Kevin has the most up-to-date specification available, which our Petr Trnka, for example, is waiting for. If his car is a development box of the Nova, he is on the right track. Kevin was still full of optimism and positive energy on Friday, looking forward to the Ecce Homo track. But in the end, everything was not as he had imagined. On Friday evening, while descending the track, an unruly driver driving uphill hit him.
He drove into the opposite direction and hit Kevin so badly that the morning after the start of training, the program was briefly interrupted, when Kevin went to the doctor for a morning check-up to confirm that he could start without any problems. Kevin still drove great times, but... At the start of the second race, when he could have achieved absolute victory, his engine hiccupped at the start, the car cut the timekeeper and before he could get going, Kevin lost a few seconds.
Nevertheless, he drove an excellent ride and in the last three kilometers he drove the fastest split time of the weekend and with an average speed of almost 199 km/h, he pulled Christian Merli back by a second and a half, but he could not think of anything more than a European bronze, because this year the first three drivers are incredibly balanced. By the way, it was a really stellar split time in the last section. It even came close to Christian Merli's record run. He reached an average speed of almost 202 km/h over the last three kilometers. It's a really fast section, where the speed of powerful specials is over 250 km/h.
Spectators have become accustomed to the fact that when Christian Merli arrives, there is a fight for second and other places. However, because the new FIA rules limited the engines for tubular frames, his Osella FA30 could no longer start with a powerful engine in the European Championship. That is why the Italian multi-champion bought a Nova. For now, he is still getting to know a completely different technique. While in Rechberg he drove the car practically as it left the Nova production line, so there was no attempt to hide anything on the chassis, in Šternberk the traditional fabrics mainly covered the axle suspension.
It was precisely the restless ride that the driver drew attention to in our interview. While the entire competition, which is only 3 drivers this year, is betting on turbo engines, Christian tried to dust off the old Cosworth engine, also known from Formula 1 races. On the Ecce Homo track, it was an advantage rather in the more technical part of the track, while the last 3 kilometers of fast sections did not suit his car so much.
In comparison, the measured maximum speed in the timed section meant a decrease of approximately 10 km/h compared to the previous run with the Osella and the Zytec LRM engine. In any case, the failure of the starting procedure in Kevin Petit's car brought Christian victory a little easier than we would have expected after the first race run. After all, in an ideal time, Kevin would have won by 4 tenths. That is, if we added the best achieved split times into one ideal run.
The third man fighting for the title of European Champion is the likeable Spaniard Joseba Iraola Lanzagorta. He emphasized that for him every race is a step, where points are collected, and he patiently and humbly accepts every race weekend as a new challenge. After winning the last race of the European Championship at his home Al Fito, he was also the favorite in Šternberk.
He rode relatively inconspicuously, but with his times he was getting closer and closer to both opponents, who were pulling the shorter rope. The question is why the Spaniard regularly reached a maximum speed of almost 10 km/h lower than his rivals on the timed section? Maybe a poorly chosen gear? In any case, his race times were very fast and in total it was enough for second place ahead of Petit, who had a bad start in the second run. The Spaniard came one second closer to his personal best. And he was the only one of the European star trio who could not go faster than last year's European Champion Geoffrey Schatz. He fell behind his time by only 7 hundredths of a second.
The Swiss Robin Faustini entered the absolute ranking called the Šternberk Mayor's Cup. A driver we have seen in Šternberk several times, including behind the wheel of a Reynard 01L (2x), an Osella FA30 or a Norma M20FC. He achieved his personal best last year in a single non-rainy race with a time of 2:49.85. This year he moved his maximum to 2:43.17. This is a huge improvement, which ensured him the position of a true leader over his rivals starting with cars according to FIA regulations throughout the weekend. What was the advantage of the Swiss? In particular, he did not have to deal with a rev limiter or ground clearance. He was not limited by the performance factor.
The result was a fantastic time that surpassed all personal records with the exception of two names: Merli and Faggioli. Only these two drivers have managed to drive Ecce Homo faster in its entire 120-year history. And Simone Faggioli was even faster in only one year, 2021. For me, it's probably a shame that the organizers didn't include the Swiss in the Austrian Championship, for example, which is international and where his car would fit in just fine according to the regulations. The performance was amazing and his name will forever remain among the winners of Ecce Homo in the absolute ranking.
Sebastian Petit rides a bit in the shadow of his rivals in the strongest Proto1 group of the European Championship. Perhaps that's why it's definitely encouraging that this Frenchman managed to improve his personal best by almost a second, and he's already started here in six different years. Unfortunately, this year, in addition to the reigning champion, who couldn't get competitive tires for this year's European Championship, Geoffrey Schatz, we also miss our Petr Trnka, Correntin Starck, and we also missed out on Alexader Hin, who is only starting in the Austrian championship.
He is also waiting for the new Nova car to join the Proto1 group, which is currently only a branded Nova cup, together with our Petr Trnka. The problem with the tires is a big exclamation point for the entire ME category 2. Pirelli makes a limited amount of tires practically only for the Faggioli team, as a factory rider Pirelli has them at the disposal of Iraola, Merli received only 4 sets per season and with each one he has to save more than we were used to.
The others are dependent on older stocks, whether Pirelli or Avon, which has basically disappeared and despite the fact that the successor announces new tires as soon as possible, they still are not there. Hoosier is pushing forward, but so far it is largely about gaining trust among the riders. Thanks to our riders, they managed to do quite well there in the weaker prototypes of the Proto4 group.
An interesting and at the same time last chance for European points for older F3000 cars is offered by the Proto2 group. This year these single-seaters can compete for the last time and, as the experienced Fausto Borrrmolini shows, they do not have to play second fiddle at all. Despite the hours and the loss of points in the opening event in France after Ecce Homo, Fausto takes over the reins and jumps to second place in the European Championship standings, losing only 1.5 points to Merli. It is quite possible that thanks to the battles in Proto1, Fausto, for example, will become a champion, who after courting Nova returned to his proven Reynard. He said that he never really got used to Nova. He tried everything possible, and finally consulted Simone Faggioli on the settings.
However, he easily won the hill climb race in a borrowed car, but then Fausto saddled it and it was not the same again. Finally, after last season, he decided to sell the car. Now he has a very promising season ahead of him. Although he did not break his personal record this year, he confirmed the historically fastest single-seater Reynard with a time that was faster than we remember from the time of Ander Vilarino or Lionel Regal. We mentioned the Proto4 group.
There we had a representative in the European Championship and at the same time a direct duel in the two-liter class of the domestic sports prototype championship. Overall, prototypes are reigning supreme on the domestic hills again. An interesting duel took place over the weekend between the sovereign of this year's Czech Championship Václav Janík and Petr Vítek. While the domestic Janík previously drove the Ecce Homo under 2:50, now he is happy with times under three minutes. His focus on hill races is gone, and he also uses a different engine. There may be more factors.
If we add to this the top form of Petr Vítek and his Osella PA30, it was a truly captivating fight. The experienced Vítek took the Ecce Homo start for the sixteenth time. This was his ninth time driving the PA 30 model. One would expect that he had already reached his maximum, and on fresh wheels. The opposite is true. He beat his personal record from 2022, which was 2:57.12, twice, with a final time of 2:54.37! The beauty of this time is confirmed by historical statistics. After all, it was the second best time in history for this type of car.
Only Alexander Hin was faster in a special PA 30 with a central seat. But Petr left behind the best times of Cyrille Frantz, Faust Bormolini, Sebastien Petit, Adrian Zerla and others. Václav Janík was second. Anyone who expected Jiří Špalek to be third would have to be disappointed. The perfectly prepared Zdeněk Chudoba set times that brought him not only the victory among the two-liter cars, but also third place overall in category 2 of the Czech Championship.
Behind Špalek was David Dědek, who also scored full points in the final European Championship table, just like Merli. David drove great and it was he who praised the new Hoosier tires and the times achieved give his words credibility. The famous Josef Hlavinka, who has been doing magic this year with his old Ligier JS49, was not enough for him this time. But the time duel, which he took care of, and other drivers Jaroslav Surówka, who was waiting in vain for rain, Karel Berger with a weaker engine, Jiří Svoboda, Lukáš Studený and Zdeněk Kráčmar, who was already lagging behind,was a great attraction.
It doesn't matter that the last prototype, the former factory-prepared special Peugeot Spider of driver Michal Kužma, was losing a minute to his rivals. The aforementioned Karel Berger, like David Dědek, set a record in his group, i.e. Proto3. He also scored full points when he beat his Austrian rivals. Our guys simply like it in category 2 and have great results. It would be nice to add Petr Trnka to the tank. But the engine in the current car is not repaired there and the new Nova is still not ready. Also because Petr is waiting for the complete 2026 specification, including the halo system, which all cars will have to be equipped with next year, including this year's Nova models.
In the touring car category, David Komárek stood out from the first practice sessions with his McLaren F1 special. It was very likely that the legendary Georg Plasa's long-standing record would also fall. After all, there was talk of breaking the three-minute mark, because David's practice run was excellent. But then the tables turned and a black Sunday came for the top Komvet Racing.
In the first race, the traditionally incredibly fast Kristýna Fillová did not finish due to a technical fault, and just a few moments later, her hopes of breaking the record for cars with a roof ended when David's axle shaft gave out. However, there were more fast drivers among the "tourists". After David withdrew, it was Karl Schagerl who was able to drive the fastest. And he finally managed to break the record! In the first race, the famous Šternberk clock stopped at 3:00.81! Reto Meisel, who tried the start four times in total on Sunday, also improved significantly.
Perhaps thanks to these repeated runs, he finally set a beautiful time of over 3:03. Our iron in the form of Dan Michl fell short of optimistic expectations. Dan did not follow up on his performance from Rechberg, but he did not even come close to his personal best in Šternberk. That was 3:06.69 and this year at least 3:08.71. In total, he was third in Europe behind Karel and Reto. In the PF2 group, one of our best, Martin Jerman, with his newly purchased Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo, was in fifth place behind the winning Karol Krupa and others.
In the PF3 group, another triumph was expected for the sovereign Italian Antonio Migliuoli. He was a little worried about our track, so he had the most aggressive map loaded into the control unit. But perhaps that also turned out to be fatal for him, because he withdrew from the race. The winning Milovan Vesnič took advantage of it the most.
The silver position was won by the ever-faster Marek Rybníček, whose Škoda Fabia has starts at the World Rally Championship in its pedigree and the work of the sacred hands of the former factory pilot of a similar car, Roman Kresta, in preparation. Jindřich Pluhař was very happy to come third in the PF5 group with a Nissan Sunny. The Spaniard Antonio Penido Lopez won there in a Renault Clio.
The drivers of vintage cars traditionally offered a beautiful spectacle. Josef Čermák was the first to start with an ex-Napione Osella PA20S. Despite minor technical problems, he was ultimately the second fastest driver among the vintage cars, right after the Italian Osella PA9/90 of driver Piero Lottini. Čermák's car was driven on the European Rally Championship tracks by Renzo Napione in 1998 and 1999. He was in Šternberk twice and achieved the best time with this car in 3:11.60.
Our Josef managed to do it 26 years later in 3:25.95 at his first start. Of our competitors, we would like to mention Vladimír Konicar's third place, Petr Strnad's silver, Robert Brož and Jaroslav Mikeš's bronze, and finally Petr Tykal's gold and Aleš Gänsdorfer's bronze in their respective groups belonging to the European Championship of historic cars. Aleš had a hole in the engine block after the thorn. I don't even know how he and his team managed to get another engine overnight and replace it. But they did it.
