Harald Proczyk takes opening win at Oschersleben as Mike Halder penalised
Harald Proczyk withstood a late safety car intervention to claim the first TCR Germany victory of the season at Oschersleben.
The Austrian inherited the lead of the race when pole-sitter Mike Halder served a drive-through penalty for his opening lap contact with fellow front row starter Florian Thoma.
Both Thoma and Halder got even starts as the lights went out, with Thoma edging his Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR race car slightly ahead of the Honda Civic.
There was not enough room for the pair of the them though and Halder tapped the Swiss driver into the retirement and bringing out the safety car.
Halder continued to lead for eight laps before receiving his penalty for avoidable contact. The Team Honda ADAC Sachsen driver eventually retired in the closing stages.
After being deployed to recover Thoma’s car, the safety car was brought out again after Dominik Fugel’s Profit-Car Team Halder crashed out in spectacular fashion.
Rain had hit the Oscherleben circuit prior to the start but stopped when the race got underway. Still, the conditions off line were tricky, notably for LMS Racing driver Antti Buri who ran wide onto the wet grass exiting the fast turn seven before collecting Fugel.
This sent Fugel’s Honda Civic into the barriers at high speed, causing significant front-end damage to the Honda.
Proczyk’s HP Racing International Opel ran second following the first corner contretemps and made the most of Halder’s demise to lead for the remainder of the 18 lap encounter despite coming under severe pressure from the charging Niels Langeveld in the Audi RS 3 LMS.
Once back racing, the race settled down with Proczyk out in front from Langeveld. The Austrian was never truly under threat from Dutchman Langeveld, despite the lead never growing to more than half a second.
The leading duo stayed that way until the end with Proczyk executing a superb final safety car restart – brought out after Max Hesse and Marcel Fugel came together at turn three – to gap Langeveld by nearly a second to comfortably take the flag.
There was great racing throughout the 28-strong field with overtaking aplenty in the mid-field. Frenchman Théo Coicaud and Sandro Kaibach battled hard for ninth place, with the former securing the position with a superb dive-bomb up the inside of Coicaud into turn three.
The pair ran side-by-side through the fast “Triple” corner before Kaibach made the move stick. French F4 graduate Coicaud ultimately dropped outside the points after an off-track excursion in the closing stages.
Behind Langeveld, Luca Engstler brought his Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR home third ahead of Buri’s Audi RS 3 LMS.
Simon Reicher was fifth ahead of Kaibach’s PROsport Performance Audi RS 3 LMS, Luke Wankmuller of HP Racing International and Petr Fulín. Completing the top ten were Niko Kankkunen in the second Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR and Benjamin Leuchter.
Race two takes place tomorrow at 10:00 CET.
