Michal Makeš late winner of Clio Cup

Dramatic moments spiced the Sunday Clio Cup race, in which for the very first time Petr Majer succeeded, dethroning the to-date sovereign Michal Makeš. However, the commissioners re-dealt the cards after the race, Majer was disqualified and Makeš scored his sixth victory out of his six starts.

The first row in the starting grid was occupied by the Mičánek Motorsport team with Michal Makeš in the pole position and Petr Majer by his side. The pair held the same ranks after start, immediately followed by Zoran Poglajen in his yellow Clio. After the opening laps Makeš formed a several-second advantage and the audience watched the duel of Majer and Poglajen for the second rank.

The dense traffic on the circuit, caused by the numerous cars of the Croatian national championship, created situations that kept uncertainty until the very end of the final lap, though. In one of the wrestles Makeš lost his advantage over Majer, who cope with the traffic better, and even took over the lead for one lap. Makeš then returned to his lost leading rank but further overtaking slower cars, and even a short trip off the track, caused his dropping to the third rank after the leading Majer and the second-ranking Poglajen.

While Petr Majer controlled the lead with detachment, Makeš first overtook Poglajen and then began a chase. He approached the first rank lap by lap, but his loss was too big to manage the final attack in the last moments of the race.

Petr Majer thus crossed the finish line under the chessboard flags in the lead, but the commissioners finally disqualified him for non-respecting the yellow flags and the stop-and-go penalisation. Thus the late winner of the race was Michal Makeš before Zoran Poglajen and Jáchym Galáš, also penalised by the commissioners for overtaking under yellow flag.

“I stopped in the pits for my stop-and-go and continued in the race. Unfortunately, my engine was overheating and could not deliver its maximum power. Otherwise he race was fine and I am looking forwards to the next ones,” said Jáchym Galáš.

The winner of the Clio Cup III category was Sebastian Kolakowski and the triumph in the D2-1600 category belonged to Dušan Kouřil in his Fiat Punto.

Clio Cup