Proczyk wins Race 2 and closes the gap in the standings
Harald Proczyk scored his second victory of the season in TCR Germany, beating Dominik Fugel in the Sachsenring’s second race. This helped the Austrian driver to reduce his gap in the standings to 11 points from Fugel. The third title contender, Antti Buri recovered from his starting position at the back of the grid but couldn’t pass Marcel Fugel for P3 and so dropped to third in the drivers’ championship, 22 points behind the leader.
Harry Salminen was on pole, but he was passed at the start by Dominik Fugel, Proczyk and Marcel Fugel. During the opening lap Proczyk passed Dominik Fugel for the lead, but then Albert Legutko crashed, and the safety car was deployed.
When racing resumed in lap 4, Buri was quickly recovering after starting from P11 on the grid; the Finn passed Nico Gruber and guest bike rider Marcel Schrötter, advancing to fifth. One lap later Buri attacked Salminen for P4, they swapped paints in a few turns until Buri managed to move ahead.
At the beginning of lap 10, the Volkswagen Golf cars of Salminen and René Kircher made contact; Salminen crawled back to the pits after a trip onto the gravel trap, while Kircher dropped at the back of the field.
Dominik Fugel was able to close the gap to Proczyk and began putting the pressure on the Austrian, and so did Buri with Marcel Fugel for P3. While Proczyk was able to keep a small but safe leading margin ahead of Dominik Fugel, during the last three laps Buri was biting on the tail of Marcel Fugel’s car. Despite all the efforts from the Finn, Fugel didn’t open the lesser gap and held on to the third position until the end.
TCR Germany will resume at the Red Bull Ring on October 16th/18th.
Race 2
1. Harald Proczyk (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N), 21 laps
2. Dominik Fugel (Profi Car Team, Honda Civic Type R Fk7), 0.740
3. Marcel Fugel (Profi Car Team, Honda Civic Type R Fk7), 3.733
4. Antti Buri (Engstler Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 4.148
5. Jan Seyffert (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N), 25.250
Championship points
1. Dominik Fugel 140 pts; 2. Harald Proczyk 129; 3. Antti Buri 118
Picture: ADAC Motorsport
