BMW and Porsche track battle

BMW and Porsche track battle

Fight for the title in GT4 class was all about German manufactures BMW and Porsche. Sandi Jeram with Porsche Cayman from Lema Racing eventually became the champion thanks to the one more race than his opponents.

It all started in Hungaroring. Both sprint races were dominated by Matěj Pavlíček and Josef Knopp from RTR Racing. Last year´s champion Pavlíček won the first race with his KTM, Knopp was victorious in the second race. But ESET Cup wasn´t their priority for the 2022 season, so this was their one-off start.

Second in both race in Hungary was Petr Švantner from Šenkýř Motorsport Team. Actually it was his first time on the track as a racing driver and he did really well. He was a member of team´s program for young drivers from Šenkýř Motorsport track days. His rookie team mates from Slovakia Marian Bíž and Samuel Vetrák also raced at Hungaroring – sharing the BMW M4 GT4 in two sprints and finishing third in both occasions. Sandi Jeram collected important points for fourth place in second sprint. Fifth in second sprint was Andrea Fontana.

As the season continued with second round at Red Bull Ring, Šenkýř Motorsport was back as well as Lema Racing with Sandi Jeram and his team mates Predag Šainovič – Luca Panizzi, sharing Mercedes AMG GT4, and Richard Haas from MBB Racing with Porsche Cayman GT4.

Bíž dominated the first race and showed the promising speed behind the wheel. Considering that he was a beginner in motorsport, he did really well. Jeram finished second in front of third Luca Panizzi, who was the fastest among GT4 drivers, but an issue resulted into the lap down situation for him.

For second race in Austria Predag Šainovič replaced Panizzi in the Mercedes and won the race by close margin. Samuel Vetrák and Petr Švantner started in front of him, but Šainovič moved into the lead and defended his position against Švantner and Vetrák pretty well. Šainovič won the second race.

The situation in the standings was great for Šenkýř Motorsport, as Bíž, Švantner and Vetrák led the GT4 standings. However it was clear, that they aren´t going to continue, because their main goal was endurance race at Barcelona. The questions was, will Jeram take the opportunity? He missed the race in Poland, but he was back in Croatia. Jeram won the race in front of Franjo Kovac and Alexander Ober, which meant he took the lead in the standings and it was enough for him to win the GT4 standings.

Standings GT LMP ESET GT