Photo: ADAC Procar Series

Johannes Leidinger takes seventh win of the year in Slovakia

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Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Johannes Leidinger has taken his seventh win of the 2013 ADAC Procar Series in the second race at the Slovakiaring and keeps his slim title hopes alive, reducing the gap to rival Jens Weimann to 14 points before the season finale at Hockenheim.

The opportunity to reduce the points gap even further to Weimann was lost in race one, after the race was called after just two laps following a major accident at Turn 2 for the Peugeot of David Griessner, with no points allocated for the race.

In race two, Leidinger led the way from start to finish, pulling out a 15 second lead over Jens Weimann’s Thate Motorsport BMW, who was quick to dispatch Leidinger’s team-mate Tim Schrick at the first corner for second place at start.

The main battle of the race was therefore in Division 2. Griessner’s car was so heavily damaged after his crash in race one that he couldn’t take part in the second race, which meant Ralf Glatzel only needed to finish in the top two to keep the championship fight open to the final weekend.

It looked as though Griessner’s team-mate Andreas Rinke was going to play a key part in helping Griessner wrap up the title this weekend, passing Glatzel for second at the start, but Glatzel was able to get back ahead of Rinke on the second lap, before his Ford Fiesta suddenly slowed and headed into the pits to retire with a technical issue, which handed Griessner the title despite a disastrous weekend for the Austrian.

After Glatzel’s retirement, the Liqui Moly Team Engstler Ford Fiesta of Thomas Krebs began to charge through the field, passing Rinke’s Peugeot at Turn 2 on lap three and then getting past class leader Yury Krauchuk’s Ford at the first corner on the following lap.

Rinke moved up to second in class on lap seven, passing Krauchuk into Turn 1, whilst Pascal Hoffman was able to grab fourth from Julia Trampert in a daring pass at Turn 3 on the final lap.

Griessner now leads the Division 2 standings on 104 points by 26 points over Glatzel, with just 20 remaining at the final race meeting at Hockenheim in two weeks’ time.

Leidinger’s win in Divison 1 saw the 27-year-old German reduce the gap in the drivers’ title to 14 points behind Weimann, meaning the Engstler driver will have to hope for some problems to befall the reigning champion at Hockenheim in order to win his second title at the season finale on September 29th.