Procar Season Review – Part Two

The second Touring Car series in Germany had a difficult season. After a hard season in 2006 with only 8 cars the German sports television DSF didn’t want to broadcast the races any longer, leaving the organisation and competitors without a television station. But things were to change in 2007.

A few big German Touring Car teams, like Engstler Motorsport and Kissling Motorsport, were on the grid for the fight over the 2007 title. Due to the new regulations that only allows S2000 cars build before 2005 to race, more and more cars joined the series over the course of the year.

In this article you can read the second and last part of our review of the 2007 Procar season.

BMW dominates at the Eurospeedway
Two thrilling races again ended with two race wins for Franz Engstler. It was an important step to the title. Two second places by Vladimir Labazo and two third places by Engstlers teammate Andrej Romanov showed the real potential and perfomance of the BMW’s.

After losing points at Assen Philip Geipel scored two 4th places at the EuroSpeedway. Maria de Vilotta Comba lost important points in the championship after she finished in 6th and 8th place. With two fifth places, Peter Rikli kept the fight over third postition in the championship alive. After this round in the Lausitz region, Engstler had a big chance of securing his second Procar title since 2000 at the next race at the Nürburgring.

De Villota wins and Engstler is 2007 champion
After a brilliant and dominating season for Franz Engstler the Wiggensbacher secured his second title since 2000, when he also won driving a BMW. After Vladimir Labazov’s retirement in race 1 the Russian youngster was unable to catch Engstler in the last 5 races. With a win in race 1 and the championship in the pocket, Engstler wasn’t very sad he failed to finish race 2. It was Engstlers first retirement from a race this season, enabling Maria de Vilotta Comba in the ex Larini works Chevrolet to drive to her first win in the ADAC Procar. In the first race she had already taken a podium by taking second place.

The Toyota drivers Geipel and Stahl, who made his second guest start of the season in the Corolla s2000, had a good day as well. Geipel scored a 3rd place in race 1 and took 2nd place in race 2. Stahl drove to his second podium finish in only his third race of the season by taking 3rd place in race 2. In the first race he had an interesting fight with Andrej Romanov over 4th place, which was won by the german in the end. Again, the Nürburgring race brought bad luck to Rikli. After failing to score some points at the Eurospeedway the Swiss driver finished in 8th place in race 1 and had to retire in race 2. With these results he lost important points to De Vilotta Comba and Romanov, taking over 2nd and 3rd in the championship.

Thrilling fight between De Vilotta Comba and Romanov
While Franz Engstler had won the title at the Nürburgring, the fight over second place in the champiosnhip had only just begon.

Three drivers still had a chance on taking this runner up spot; De Vilotta Comba, Romanov and Labazov. BMW driver Romanov started off on a flyer in race one by taking second place, but he lost important point in race when he only managed to finish in fifth. Labazov lost important points too after finishing 5th in race 1 and crashing out in race 2. This left De Vilotta Comba as the big winner of the weekend. She claimed a 3rd and a 2nd place, taking important points in the fight over second place in the championship.

It had been an “interesting” weekend for Philip Geipel. After he destroyed his Toyota by crashing into a tyre wall on friday, Franz Engstler gave him a BMW for the races on Sunday. In the first race he had some handling problems with his new car, but he still managed to finish in 6th position. In the second race the driver from Plauen was one with his car and finished the race in a fantastic 3rd place, just ahead of Peter Rikli. Rikli had had a solid weekend with two 4th places. And who was the race winner? Franz Engstler dominated the races again and finished both races in first place.

A thrilling season finale at Oschersleben
It was the third race for the Procar drivers at Oschersleben this year. After Engstler won the title two events earlier, the fight over 2nd place was still wide open. Romanov could only take this runner up spot if he was getting help from his teammate Franz Engslter. De Vilotta Comba in her Chevrolet had the best cards in hand. She took her first pole position of the year but after colliding with Labazov the Maurer driver only finished in 8th. Engstler won the first race, Geipel finished in second, Labazov 3rd and Romanov 4th. It promised to be a dramatic second race. Engstler again drove a solid race in first place. Behind the champion Geipel and De Vilotta Comba had a thrilling duel with some place changes untill Geipel crashed into de Villota Comba.

Not soon after that Engstler let Labazov and Romanov pass in order to allow Labazov to claim his second win of the season. Romanov took second position in the championship because of Engstler’s action. Behind the three BMWs Rainer Bastuck had a good end of the season with his Opel by finishing in 4th in front of Russian guest starter Rustem Teregulov.