Homola scores a couple of dominant victories on home soil

Janík Motorsport Hyundai cars have dominated the TCR Eastern Europe event at the Slovakia Ring. Mat’o Homola and Petr Semerád finished 1-2 in both races and the latter reduced his gap in the standings from the leader Bartosz Groszek to two points only before the season finale at Most.

Race 1 – Three Hyundai Elantra cars topped the grid with Homola on pole ahead of Semerád and Levente Losonczy. The trio got away well at the start, while Groszek was slow from P4 and dropped behind Žarko Knego and Petr Čížek. The latter passed Knego and Losonczy, advancing to third. In lap 2, Knego slowed and dropped to tenth.

Up front, Homola built a comfortable lead over Semerád who had a small advantage over Čížek; in the close battle for P4, Groszek passed Losonczy at the beginning of lap 6 going into T1. There were no further changes in the top positions and Homola took his maiden win in the championship from Semerád and Čížek.

Race 2 – The drawing for the reverse grid placed Robert Pravdič on pole and Knego alongside. Adam Rzepecki from P3 on the grid made a lightning start and squeezed between the cars in front to take the lead from Václav Janík and Knego. The latter soon dropped down as he was passed by Homola, Sebastian Steibel, Groszek and Semerád during the opening lap; Steibel however, went wide and dropped to eighth. The leading trio cleared off, with Janík passing Rzepecki for P1 in lap 3, while the title contenders Groszek and Semerád were fighting for P4. They ran side-by-side in lap 4 and Semerád overtook his rival moving into fourth. During the same lap, Homola passed Rzepecki for second. Semerád too passed Rzepecki just before the latter went wide and dropped from fourth to ninth, but later he went off again and stopped in the gravel. Homola stole the lead from Janík who was then passed by Semerád for P2, while Groszek followed in fourth and Čížek overtook Losonczy for fifth. Janík made his best to defend the third position from Groszek and Čížek; eventually Groszek moved ahead at the beginning of lap 11 and Čížek followed him, dropping Janík to fifth. During the final lap, Čížek made a mistake as he was attacking Groszek and handed the fourth position back to Janík. The battle for P4 became tougher as Čížek, Janík and Losonczy swapped paints running abreast before finishing in the order. Homola took his second win of the weekend on his home racetrack, from Semerád and Groszek.

The championship will come to its end at Most in two-week time.

Slovakia Ring – Race 1
1. Mat'o Homola (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 12 laps
2. Petr Semerád (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 3.723
3. Petr Čížek (Fullinrace Academy, CUPRA Leon Competición), 10.577

Slovakia Ring – Race 2
1. Mat'o Homola (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 12 laps
2. Petr Semerád (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 9.021
3. Bartosz Groszek (Aditis Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 18.094

Championship points
1. B. Groszek, 156 pts; 2. P. Semerád 154; 3. P. Čížek 105 

Picture: TCR Eastern Europe