Author: Tomáš Vacín

Bartosz Groszek, Petr Semerád, and Sebastian Steibel entered the TCR Eastern Europe season with the backing of the ESET RaceStar project and proved that they deserve this kind of support.

ESET RaceStar looks for promising drivers in motorsport, and the opening round at Hungaroring clearly showed that the programme has chosen the right drivers.

Bartosz Groszek from the ADITIS Racing team opened the weekend with the fastest time in a wet qualifying and, in a dry first race, he led from the first lap to the last. Although he drives older Audi RS3 LMS TCR cars, he managed to defend his lead against Maťo Homola in a new Hyundai Elantra N TCR car. Groszek also finished fourth in the second race, taking the lead in the championship after the opening round.

Petr Semerád entered the event in the colours of the Hyundai / Janík Motorsport team with a Hyundai i30N TCR. He started the race from eighth position and was very soon fighting Milenko Vuković for third. Semerád tried to find a way to defeat Vuković, but there wasn’t enough room for a passing manoeuvre and he had to settle for fourth position. What didn’t work out in the first race, he managed in the second one. Semerád finished second, behind his teammate Jáchym Galáš.

Sebastian Steibel, with a Cupra TCR, started the first race right in front of Petr Semerád and moved up to third place. The driver from the Steibel Motorsport team looked very promising and worked hard to defend his position. Sadly, he failed to hold his place and, after a battle with some opponents, finished the race in seventh position. It looked better in the second race, when Steibel took the lead for a brief moment after the start; however, he missed a few opportunities during the course of the race and finished in ninth.

A promising drive from Steibel, a podium result for Semerád, and a win for Groszek prove that the ESET RaceStar project is supporting the right drivers. We will see what they show us at the Red Bull Ring in June.