Race 2 crash adds to disappointing weekend for Mat’o Homola in Georgia

Mat’o Homola’s first weekend at the wheel of the Opel Astra OPC TCR run by DG Sport didn’t quite go as planned, as the Slovakian’s high ambitions for the TCR International Series curtain raiser in Georgia turned into disappointment.

Contacts in both races only added to the difficulties of the weekend which, according to the former SEAT driver, are also down to the Balance of Performance measures, which are too heavy on the Astra OPC TCRs.

“Our team has the highest ambitions, therefore I can’t be satisfied with an eleventh place”, said Homola about the first race. “We made progress during the weekend, but we suffered a lot from the Balance of Performance measures imposed on us”.

In the first race, in damp conditions, a contact during the second lap of the race damaged some aerodynamic parts of the car, which made it much slower: “In the wet I was quite confident, as I was fourth in the shakedown. As the track was drying the car did not work at all, it had a lot of understeer. We need to work hard with the engineers to find the best set-up. Engine-wise we are doing well, we just need to work more on the suspension and I believe we will get there.”

In Race 2 the Slovakian was hit by Ge-Force driver Shota Abkhazava, the owner of the Rustavi International Motopark, as his Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR locked its wheels under braking and hit the Opel at the start, for which the Georgian apologised: “He came to the pits to apologize for the incident, claiming that he is used to driving with ABS and as his wheels got locked. Unfortunately he hit me hard and destroyed my race, but that’s part of motorsport. I have to focus on Bahrain.”

Bahrain will host the second event of the TCR International Series on April, 16th, the event being part of the FIA Formula One World Championship’s support package at Bahrain International Circuit.