Vaclav Janik and Marjan Smrdelj fastest
Saturday's programme of the Gorjanci Mountain Race was
successfully completed. All three runs of formal training took place as
planned, there were practically no interruptions and a towing service
went to the track only once. The best was Czech Janik Vaclav with F3000,
who reached an average driving speed of over 147 km per hour! The
second place went to Alan Smrdelj, who also drove F3000, while the third
was Czech Lubor Novy. Among the competitors of Slovenian National
Championship the quickest was surprisingly Sašo Horvat, before Aleš
Prek, who had some problems with his 977 Porsche. In terms of divisions,
at the top of the second was Alojz Udovč, Daniela Trani won the first
and Janko Kožman the Yugo Cup.
The first training began at 11 am, starting with Vintage ride. Worth mentioning is especially Michael Mitterer with Mazda RX3. When he raced in the past, the Austrian was highly competitive with his modern comparable car. In Division 1 of the Slovenian National Championship, the fastest was, as expected, Daniela Trani with Citroen before Manuel Dessard with MG. Denis Savič had some problems, but he still managed to catch the third place before Matjaž Mihevc and Andrej Prelc. In Division 2, the winner of the first race Alojz Udovč was not a fully justified favourite. This time, Matevž Boh was close behind him, but he had some difficulties in reaching the top of Gorjanci and that is why Slavko Zorman and Matej Grudnik managed to beat him. The competitor from Velenje raced for the first time with his new Renault Twingo and was very pleased with the progress. The primary task of his performance was the promotion of the vehicle produced by one of the sponsors of the race, Revoz, a domestic car producing company. Besides, the race also served as a preparation for the rally in Maribor next weekend. In the overall ranking of the Slovenian National Championship Sašo Horvat with Mitsubishi deservedly beat European champion Aleš Prek, who had quite a few problems with his car. This will probably be solved by Sunday and thus Prek remains the favourite of the race.
Interesting was also the fight for the top general classification of the race. In the foreground were Formula, the fastest was Vaclav Janik. In the third race, the Czech had an average driving speed of more than 147 km per hour; he beat the second, Marjan Smrdelj, for more than two and a half seconds. The third was another Czech, Lubor Novi, while the fifth was Italian Marietto Nalon. A remarkable fight was staged between Dan Michl and Nikolaj Zlatkov. Bulgarian’s Audi Quattro S1, with more than 700 horsepower was the strongest car in the race, but Michl beat it at the end for nearly 3 seconds, also thanks to being acquainted with the track. Sunday's race will be very tense; the first run begins at 10 am.
Unfortunately, Milan Bubnič did not enter the race because his Lancia Delta broke down. For the same reason, due to engine failure, also Italian Alessandro Trentini had to finish the race earlier, racing with his excellent Lancia Beta. The crash finished also the training of Jure Kovač with Yugo and Janko Kožman and Marko Mlakar with Golf, while Andrej Skrbinšek had to quit because of the car breakdown. 46 vehicles remain in the competition. On Sunday they will be joined by 10 vintage cars in the accuracy category.