No change at the top

Isachsen, Petrakovits and Častoral go fastest in the first heat.

Resumed after the fire that damaged Morte Bermingrud’s Citroën, the first heat was topped by Sverre Isachsen who used the Joker Lap section to pass Frode Holte who had led the race after rounding Isachsen in the first corner. Davy Jeanney and Toomas Heikkinen had battled for the lead of the heat in which Bermingrud’s car caught fire, and when the race was re-run after the mess was cleared up, it was Jeanney who won the duel. The Frenchman also did enough to leap up to second place in the heat, just three-tenths behind Isachsen with Holte and Heikkinen next up.

Liam Doran, Mats Lysen and Pavel Koutny non-finished, all three caught in the new gravel trap that lines turn one at the PS Racing Center and which appears to have proven its efficacy this afternoon. Jos Kuypers was also a non-finisher after losing rear-drive in his Focus II, while Csaba Pallag-Bozsak did not take the restart of the Bermingrud race, his Focus having already succumbed to engine troubles.

In with a shot at sealing the Super1600 championship here – a top three finish will do the job – Andreas Bakkerud made a very strange decision in the first heat; leading the race he took the Joker Lap in the opening tour and then lost out in his gamble as Clemens Meyer and Ulrik Linnemann both managed to remain ahead when they took their turns in the alternative later in the race. Meyer set fifth fastest time, Linnemann seventh and Bakkerud was left down in eighth place and staring at B final territory…

None, however, could match home star Christian Petrakovits who is making the most of his local knowledge, and driving superbly. Fastest by just over three-seconds, the Austrian’s closest rival is Russian newcomer Vadim Makarov who again looked very good and finished ahead of birthday boy Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme, 19 today, and Jaroslav Kalny, who is a bit older!

The only drivers to non-finish in Super1600 were Daniel Holten and Krzysztof Skorupski who both retired with broken steering after some pushing and shoving in the first lap of their race.

There is definitely a change in TouringCar, Castoral again setting fastest time, this time 1.7s faster than Derek Tohill who was 0.4s up on Lars Øivind Enerberg. All ten starters in the class finished in the first heat.

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