Leadership of Janik before Michl, Nalon’s Accident
After the first run of the Gorjanci Hill Race, Vaclav Janik is
expectedly in the leadership. The Czech, who was the fastest already
yesterday, reached the time of 1:44, thus beating out his competitor Dan
Michl. The third time was set by Slovenian Marjan Smrdelj. A great
result was achieved also by Aleš Prek, who finished the race as eighth,
despite having difficulties with the vehicle. Unfortunately, the
experienced Marietta Nalon had a heavy accident which resulted in pretty
badly hurt vehicle, but fortunately left him completely intact.
In the first of the three planned races 57 drivers competed, as those with vintage cars joined them for the category of accuracy. Among the vintage sport cars, the best was again Austrian Michael Mitterer with Mazda RX3, driven by a rotary engine. A very interesting outcome was seen also in Division 1 of the Slovenian National Championship. As expected, it was led by Daniele Trani, but the second place of Matjaž Mihevc with Škoda was a great surprise. Manuel Dessardo and Andrej Prelc followed him behind; a bitter disappointment was Denis Savič in the fifth place. In Division 2, Slavko Zorman, Matej Grudnik and Alojz Udovč were pretty close together. Despite the difficulties with the vehicle, Aleš Prek remains in the leadership of the Slovenian National Championship, leading for one and a half seconds before Sašo Horvat.
In the general standings of the race, the first favourite competitor fulfilled expectations. Vaclav Janik did a great job and led the first track, but Dan Michl in the second place came as a pleasant surprise, beating over both, Marjan Smrdelj and Lubor Novy. But the differences are small and in the second or third round can bring changes.
Unfortunately, there was a break before the end of the first run because Marietto Nalon drifted from the track. An Italian driver, who remained completely intact, said that he had lost the control over the back part of the formula and consequently crashed into a tree. He then turned around and crashed the front part of his racing car, which is now pretty badly damaged. However, Nalon remains confident and promises to have his vehicle repaired as soon as possible.