The seventh title is within arm’s reach

Gábor Tim has the seventh championship title of his career within an arm’s reach, he only has to complete two more races on the Brno track in the Czech Republic and can gain the FIA Swift Cup Europe 2021 championship title.

The driver from the village of Vanyarc has already won the FIA Swift Cup Europe championship title in the year 2020 and this year he prepared to defend his title. Several new rivals lined up on the grid year with Bendegúz Molnár, the champion from the year 2017, and Gergő Baldi, the winner of the M1RA #nextmichelisz program among them, but there were also several Hungarian, Polish and Austrian drivers wo were trying to snatch the title away from Tim. This could be seen on the results, but Tim took the lead already from the second weekend in the Championship.

Tim arrived to the fifth round of the Championship with an advantage of 18 points, and attempted to keep, or increase it on the Slovakia Ring, where he had to stand his ground among 23 drivers. The beginning, however, was a little bit bumpy.

„Qualy just does not work. Either I am at fault, or our settings are such, which do not work in a single lap. The tyres give maximum grip for one lap, so we spend the majority of our qualy training in the pit lane. We run one timed lap and are waiting to see what it will be enough for. I did not feel that my lap was bad, but it still meant P5. The strangest thing is that I did much better laps, but the balance of the car was not good with the new tyres” – said Tim as an analysis of the qualy.

However, nothing could be seen from this major disadvantage during the qualy at the first race. Tim kept continuously coming forward, and took the lead in the last-but-one lap and kept it until the black and white flag was waved.

„The first few laps were tough, you had to keep your head, because there were many contacts and I definitely would have liked to finish the race. So, I kept waiting. It took a lot of efforts, but I managed to come forward. Attila Bucsi and Bendegúz Molnár were fighting for the pole position in front of me. Bucsi is a junior, so he does not get any points in the international championship, but Bendegúz is an opponent. So, I had to catch him. In the end they were too much busy with each other that I could overtake both of them at the same time two laps before the finish. I could defend the last lap and came in first. The team put together an incredible car, so I am grateful” – said Tim after the victory.

The first eight drivers started the second race in the reversed order, so Gábor Tim started from P8. Because of a rather serious accident after the start, the Safety Car came onto the track and the drivers were not allowed to at race-speed nearly until the middle of the race. After the re-start Tim advanced to the third place and waited until the black and white flag was waved and did not try to fight with the two drivers up-front. This way he received the points for the first place in the international evaluation.

„It was a strange race. In the first round I saw the mass accident behind me and I believed that this would be an automatic red flag and the race will not be continued. Instead, we had to drive for several rounds behind the SC. This had absolutely no sense. There was a lot of rubble on the track and there were some, who had a problem, or were forced to give up the race because a piece of rubble or scrap pierced the cooler. I was lucky enough to avoid that and came to P3 after the re-start. Gergő Rácz and Maciej Banas were in front of me and were battling for P1. As we are talking about junior pilots, who do not get points in the international evaluation, I stayed out of their battle. If there were more rounds to go, I would have tried a safe overtaking, because it is it is still better to finish first, but this way there was no sense in taking a risk. I could not have gotten more points with a win” – said Tim about the second race.

With that Gábor Tim finished the Slovakian weekend with two wins according to the FIA evaluation and increased his 18-points-lead to 49 points, however, all racers drop their two worst results, thus Tim has a 39-points lead according to this calculation. 43 points can be gained at the last weekend in the Czech Republic.

„This year’s championship title can only be lost mathematically, I will finish first already in the first race, if even in the worst scenario, I finish at P12. Of course, anything can happen, but I cannot do anything, I am a racer. This means, I will not fake the weekend, I will push like in other races. Of course, I do not want to break the car into pieces, but it would be good to finish in the top three and celebrate winning the championship.” – said Tim about his chances.

The 2021 season of the Swift Cup Europe will be organised at the Brno Track in the Czech Republic on 3^rd-5^th. September

Championship titles Gábor Tim has won so far:
2006 – Magyar Go-kart Champion K100
2011 – Suzuki Swift Cup Champion
2014 – RCM Cup Champion
2016 – Skoda Octavia Cup Champion
2017 – MARB Rally Northern Champion
2020 – FIA Swift Cup Europe Champion

The Standing of the FIA Swift Cup Europe Championship: