Photo: ETCC Media

Mat’o Homola closes back up with race two win in Pergusa

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18-year-old Slovakian Mat’o Homola closes back up to just eight points behind S2000 points leader Petr Fulín with victory in race two at Pergusa.

The Slovakian made a terrific start from sixth on the grid in his BMW 320si, not so much off the line but with his progress on the first lap, passing four cars down into Turn 7 to move up to third and then closed in and passed the two SEAT Supercopas of Nikolay Karamyshev and Mario Dablander to take the overall lead and stay there to take the race victory.

Homola was briefly under threat late in the race as Krenek Motorsport’s Petr Fulín closed, driving an identical BMW 320si. Homola came across to lap the fight for the lead of the S1600 between Team LuxMotor’s Gille Bruckner and Ravenol Team SAN’s Ulrike Krafft at the end of lap eight, which allowed Fulín to close right up to the tail of Homola’s BMW, but Fulín also had to negotiate the traffic and was unsighted by Bruckner, who forced the Czech driver wide at the second corner at the start of lap nine. With the lost ground, he fell into the clutches of Dušan Borković’s Chevrolet instead, having to defend the position for the final two laps.

Austrian driver Mario Dablander ran a quiet race from pole position, and finished fourth overall to claim the Single-Make Trophy class win. Tuenti Racing’s Jordi Oriola had taken the lead of the standings after race one, but the young Spaniard retired on lap three, which sees Dablander assume a seven point lead in the SMT standings going to the final race of the season.

After race one, Ravenol Team GENA’s Kevin Krammes had already wrapped up the S1600 class title, and didn’t even take part in the second race. His closest rival Gilles Bruckner had led the race up until lap nine, stopping shortly after the incident with Petr Fulín, which handed the lead to Ravenol Team SAN’s Ulrike Krafft, who is the first driver other than Krammes to win a race in S1600 this season.

Mat’o Homola’s win with Fulín second sees the Slovakian close up by two points and will head to the season finale at Brno, Fulín’s home race, just eight points behind in the S2000 points standings.

The final race of the season takes place on October 6th at the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic.