Confirmed. For the third time this season, reigning champions Jakub Knoll and Josef Záruba leave a round of the Central European circuit championship with maximum points. At the Lausitzring, the Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra team once again dominated the endurance race in the GTC class.
„We’ve taken another step towards defending the title. I’m also pleased with Jakub Knoll’s performance — compared to last year, his lap times have moved noticeably closer to Pepa Záruba’s,” said team manager Jiří Mičánek, reflecting on the third round of this year’s Central European circuit championship.
The promoter packed the entire endurance category schedule into a single day — or rather, just a few hours. “It was demanding, but on the other hand, it helped us get into a rhythm and stay in it,” said Jakub Knoll, reflecting on the unusual format. Together with Josef Záruba, he aimed to replicate last year’s success at the Lausitzring, where their Lamborghini Huracán ST EVO2 ran among the overall front-runners regardless of class. They managed to do just that again this year, with Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra finishing third overall.
That result came despite an unusual approach by race direction when restarting after full-course yellow periods. Instead of the standard radio countdown to the green flag, officials simply waved the greens with no warning. “Unfortunately, that dropped us quite a bit back and I lost contact with the drivers I wanted to battle,” shrugged Jakub Knoll. Thanks to a strong stint, however, he clawed back the lost time, and with a perfectly executed pit stop, the Huracán fought its way into the top three. Josef Záruba then found himself battling Dennis Waszek, who shared a BMW M6 GT3 with Gregor Zsig. “I managed to keep him behind for a while, but then another full-course yellow came out, and the same situation that happened to Kuba repeated itself,” Záruba explained. Before he could react to the green flag, Waszek’s BMW slipped ahead of the Huracán. In the final classification, though, Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra ended up ahead of their rivals — promoted to third place after their competitors were handed a penalty.
„At the Lausitzring, we wrapped up the first half of our Central European season,” explained Jiří Mičánek. “We’ll be skipping Poznań due to a clash with the GT2 European Series, but we’re already looking forward to the second part of the season racing in front of our home and Slovak fans.”
