Mat’o Homola chasing more kilometres after mixed first test

Mat’o Homola made his World Touring Car Championship debut in testing at the Slovakiaring, but had very little time to work on set-up after running in a new engine as well as suffering with a seating position issue in the Campos Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

Campos Racing are fielding a third Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 this weekend for Homola, who becomes the first Slovakian to take part in a WTCC race. The car is the one that Dusan Borkovic raced last season, which was damaged in testing at Paul Ricard three months ago and has needed to have a new engine fitted, although this is the older specification RML Chevrolet engine which is used only by Stefano D’Aste of the other Chevrolet drivers.

“It was such a short session,” said Homola to TouringCarTimes. “In 30 minutes I had to check the new engine and so I just had two normal laps. I was trying to push, and I was trying to adjust the seating position as it was really bad.”

“The steering wheel, the pedals, the seatbelt and so on needed to be adjusted to make it comfortable for me. During the session I realised it was very wrong and I couldn’t feel the car through the fast corners and I was worried as I didn’t want to make a mistake in the first session, so tomorrow we will make some changes in the set-up and seating position, and then I hope it’ll better.

Looking ahead to what the Slovakian, who is also racing in the supporting European Touring Car Cup in a SEAT León Cup Racer this weekend where he finished first and second in the two practice sessions, said:

“My aim is to be comfortable and to get used to the car and how the car works. I need as many kilometres at the moment as possible. I know the SEAT, I can just jump into it and drive fast laps, but with the Chevrolet, it’s not possible today. Tomorrow we first have to get comfortable and then work to find a set-up that’s suitable for me.”