CEZ: One event, four series

Category: April, Miscellaneous, News Posted 24.04.12 21:51 by Eddi Laumanns

The FIA CEZ Rallycross Trophy event that took place on April 21/22 at the Wachauring near Melk counted also for the Austrian, the Czech and the Polish Rallycross Championships.

The Wachauring at Melk last weekend hosted the first round of the 2012 FIA Central European Zone Rallycross Trophy series. Beside for the FIA Trophy it was also Round 1 for the championship series of Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland. To make things not complicated with our readers we concentrate on the CEZ Trophy results here. A total of 56 Starters from 5 Nations came to Melk where they faced mixed weather conditions over the weekend.

In the SuperCars category it was Master of the House Jürgen Weiß who drove his Mk1 Ford Focus to the fastest time in practice. The first qualifying heat saw reigning Austrian champion Alois Höller (Ford Focus Mk1) running away with the best time, in the second runs Weiß fought back to produce a tie situation. However, the qualification did not turn into an all-Austrian affair when Hungarian Zoltán Vass (Mitsubishi Lancer E6) claimed the fastest time of the third heat and, thereby, also bagged the pole position for the A final. Early leader of the last race was Vass, dog-hounded by Höller and Weiß. After about half of the distance Weiß was able to pass his fellow-countryman and make-colleague to concentrate on the leading Hungarian now. As the Mitsubishi driver had not been able to build up a decent advantage it did not take long for the Ford driver to catch up and to grab the lead soon. One lap later Weiß reached the chequered flag to become a by his homecrowd hailed winner.

In the Super1600 class it was Austrian Klaus Freudenthaler who set the fastest times in practice as well as in the second and third heats. Starting from pole into the A final the Škoda Fabia Mk1 driver faced no more competition to ensure himself a well deserved victory. Among the SuperNationals Czech Roman Častoral (Opel Astra G) is the one who certainly shakes people up. Fastest time in the first and second qualifying heats as well as a start to finish victory in the A final – same procedure as most of the times. A new class, but set up for the Austrian championship only, is the so-called National1600 category. A 10 starters field for the first ever event proved that there was need for a rather cheap “beginners series”, although the contenders are not all Rallycross rookies. In the A final it looked as if Thomas Strobl would run away with an easy win, but when the Citroën driver spun his Saxo on the slippery track victory fell prey to former VW Golf driver Sven Förster and his Daihatsu Charade of the fourth generation.