We’ve had an interesting weekend; this was our second visit to Slovakiaring this year. It wasn’t supposed to be this way—the Hungaroring was originally scheduled to be the third race of the championship, but it was canceled due to renovations. I regret that, as I’m sure we would have performed much better on the technical Hungarian track. In any case, we returned to Slovakiaring, and this time, we were much stronger than before.
The engine upgrade for the car is finally complete, boosting our power from 360 to 435 horsepower and increasing torque from 400 to 500 NM. This is a huge step forward. But we know that with this development, we’re not done yet; there are still many areas where we’re not on par with our rivals’ cars. Not even close
The first issues surfaced during practice, with a recurring problem: the gearbox still doesn’t seem to be in sync with the car. A different controller arrived overnight, but it didn’t solve the issue either. I often got stuck in gears or couldn’t shift at all. This made me uncertain during braking zones, wondering if the car would downshift and provide enough engine braking. Overall, this wasn’t a huge problem, but it wasn’t the reason the weekend turned out the way it did.
I had several shifting issues during the first qualifying session, but I managed to put together a relatively good lap. I was on new tires again, thanks once more to my sponsors and donors!
I was nearly two seconds faster than my previous lap with the weaker engine. I don’t think anyone has ever gone faster around this track with a Lotus GT car.
In the first qualifying session, I ended up seventh in the GTX category. I wasn’t too far behind my rivals, but I had no chance against the GT3 and Lamborghini Super Trofeo cars reclassified into our category. However, I was only 1.4 seconds behind the KTM GTX championship leader. That’s encouraging.
However, it turned out that the fast right-hand corners, of which there are many on the track, put a strain on the engine, and the 36-37 degree air temperature made things even worse. This threatened the engine, so I had no choice but to drive significantly slower.
I managed to do under 2 minutes and 7 seconds in qualifying, but I had to slow down during the race.
In the first race, I fought hard against the KTM GTX for a long time and managed to keep the Sin Car behind me. I started with 2:09 laps and then moved to 2:10s. I finished in 15th place overall and 7th in the GTX category. This earned me very few points (6 points), while Adam Konopka finished second (18 points), catching up with me in the championship. The category was won by Mato Homola in a KTM GT2 car, but he isn’t a threat to me in the championship standings.
After the race, it turned out that the oil pressure and temperature were beyond critical levels. We had two options left: either not start the second race at all or drive at a ridiculously slow pace.
Before making a decision, we checked the engine for damage. Fortunately, the Toyota engine in the car is incredibly strong. No issues at all. Okay, so we decided to go for the second qualifying session and race to see what happens. It was still a serious risk because, even at a slower pace, there was a significant danger of damaging the engine. And that would be game over.
In the second qualifying session, I did just one lap to secure my spot on the grid. It wasn’t a bad lap, but nothing special. During the race, I stuck to the plan.
The surprising thing was that, thanks to good positioning, I was at one point running in 3rd place in the GTX category. But I had to gradually slow down to 2:13 laps, essentially letting almost everyone pass. In the end, what we hoped for paid off, as I still finished one position higher in 6th place, which meant an extra two points.
This time, Homola did not start, so Adam Konopka easily won the race in the GTX category, which allowed him to overtake me in the championship standings.
In the Hungarian classification, I finished second behind Antal Zsigó on both days, which was a consolation prize since I still got to stand on the podium.
There is a good chance of retaining third place in the championship, but reaching second place or the championship title is only mathematically possible; it would take a huge miracle. However, my car will be much more competitive on the technical Brno track, and if I don’t have any technical issues, we might even cause a serious surprise. That’s what I’m hoping for.
Championship standings before the season finale: