Preview: Slipstream Salzburg marks the half-way point of the season
The memorable Salzburgring circuit hosts the fifth round of the 2017 TCR International Series season this weekend, and the championship is only just beginning to heat up.
It’s the Austrian circuit’s third time on the calendar, and the short but fast circuit in the hills has been a favourite for Honda the past two years, with high-speed being the characteristic to have over a nimble chassis.
Kevin Gleason took pole and the first race victory in 2015 with WestCoast Racing, while wild card Harald Procyck planted the same car on pole position a year later, with Mikhail Grachev taking the Race 1 win, meaning Honda’s new handlers M1RA are likely to be the ones to watch out for this weekend.
Adversely, the Volkswagens struggled last year, but Jean-Karl Vernay, current championship leader, took the Race 2 victory during a surprise rain shower, with Team WRT demonstrating often they had a great wet set-up for the German cars.
They’ll need to rely on more speed and less meteorology this time however, with the early forecasts pointing to all-day sunshine at the Salzburgring.
Just behind Vernay and M1RA’s Roberto Colciago in the championship is Comtoyou Racing’s Stefano Comini, who will be bouncing back after an awkward weekend in the TCR Benelux series.
The Audi should be more suited aerodynamically to the circuit, but both drivers Frédéric Vervisch and Comini will be carrying success ballast of 20 and 10kg respectively on top of their BoP weight of 45kg, which could prove problematic at the circuit which is notoriously hard on tyres, especially in the heat.
Craft-Bamboo and their SEATs, which were given a 10kg weight break in Balance of Performance from last weekend, will be hoping to reignite their championship challenge, with the lead driver Pepe Oriola now dangerously close to having just half the score of points leader Jean-Karl Vernay.
There’s a bumper entry of 23 cars entered this weekend, with Rob Huff returning for the second time to support Vernay’s title bid at WRT, while a number of newcomers and one-offs will race this weekend as well.
Serbian driver Milovan Vesnic will bring his Audi RS 3 LMS to Austria, as will the Italian Pit Lane Competizioni team for Enrico Bettera, meaning four Audi Sport customer racing programme cars will be on the grid for the first time.
Kissling, the builders of the Opel Astra TCR, will run a car by themselves for the only local driver, Thomas Jäger, while Opel regulars DG Sport Compétition have changed their line-up, swapping Pierre-Yves Corthals for WTCC refugee Grégoire Demoustier.
The debut of the Kia Cee’d GT of Zengõ Motorsport has been delayed again, with Ferenc Ficza racing one of the team’s ETCC chargers again as he had in Belgium.
The timetable includes qualifying at 3pm on Saturday, with the two 15 laps races separated by an hour from 1pm CET on Sunday.
Entry List
No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
1 – Stefano Comini – SUI – Comtoyou Racing – Audi RS 3 LMS
2 – Jean-Karl Vernay – FRA – Team WRT – Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR
3 – Rob Huff – GBR – Team WRT – Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR
5 – Roberto Colciago – ITA – M1RA – Honda Civic TCR
6 – Frédéric Vervisch – BEL – Comtoyou Racing – Audi RS 3 LMS
9 – Attila Tassi – HUN – M1RA – Honda Civic TCR
10 – Gianni Morbidelli – ITA – WestCoast Racing – Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR
11 – Jens Reno Møller -DEN – Reno Racing – Honda Civic TCR
16 – Davit Kajaia – GEO – GE-Force – Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR
17 – Daniel Lloyd – GBR – Craft-Bamboo Racing – SEAT León TCR
18 – Duncan Ende – USA – Icarus Motorsports – SEAT León TCR
21 – Giacomo Altoè – ITA – WestCoast Racing – Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR
31 – Milovan Vesnic – SRB – ASK Vesnic – Audi RS 3 LMS
32 – Luigi Ferrara – ITA – Top Run Motorsport – Subaru WRX STi TCR
34 – Stian Paulsen – NOR – Stian Paulsen Racing – SEAT León TCR
35 – Thomas Jäger – AUT – Team Kissling Motorsport – Opel Astra TCR
36 – Enrico Bettera – ITA – Pit Lane Competizione – Audi RS 3 LMS
54 – James Nash – GBR – Craft-Bamboo Racing – SEAT León TCR
55 – Ferenc Ficza – HUN – Zengõ Motorsport – SEAT León TCR
62 – Dusan Borkovic – SRB – GE-Force – Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR
66 – Grégoire Demoustier – FRA – DG Sport Compétition – Opel Astra TCR
70 – Mat’o Homola – SVK – DG Sport Compétition – Opel Astra TCR
74 – Pepe Oriola – SPN – Craft-Bamboo Racing – SEAT León TCR
Timetable
Friday 9th June
10:00 – Free Testing 1
13:15 – Free Testing 2
Saturday 10th June
10:00 – Free Practice 1
12:00 – Free Practice 2
15:00 – Qualifying
Sunday 11th June
13:05 – Race 1 (15 laps)
14:35 – Race 2 (15 laps)
