Harald Proczyk closes on points lead with victory in race two

Harold Proczyk brought himself back into title contention with victory in the second ADAC TCR Germany race at the Sachsenring, the Hyundai driver taking the lead with a strong start from the second row of the grid.

From a starting position of fourth for the reverse-grid race, Proczyk made a sublime start to lead into the lead at the second corner, having looked to the outside of front-row starter Dominik Fugel at the first corner,

Reverse grid pole man Harri Salminen had a poor start, with the Finn dropping to fourth on the approach to the first corner, as Dominik Fugel, Proczyk and Marcel Fugel sailed past his Volkswagen.

As Proczyk took the lead at the second corner, the battles at the rear of the field culminated in the Honda of Albert Legutko going off into the barriers half-way around the lap, resulting in a two-lap safety car intervention to recover his stricken Civic.

When racing resumed Proczyk was able to open up a lead of around a second over the chasing Honda of Fugel, although the gap did come down in the second third of the race, as Dominik fought to catch the HP Racing driver.

In the end Proczyk was able to manage and even open out his lead again before the end of the race, giving the Austrian his second win of the year and moving him up to just 11 points behind championship leader Fugel and second overall in the standings.

Marcel Fugel was once again on the podium, just behind his brother in third, despite late-race pressure from the Engstler Motorsport Hyundai of Antti Buri.

Buri had started the race from the back of the grid again, but the Finn was up to fifth by the end of the first lap.

After dispatching Salminen on lap five, having tried with contact at the first turn a lap earlier, Buri then spent the rest of the race in fourth, having to close down the gap to Fugel which had opened up whilst he was stuck behind his fellow Finn.

Despite a late-race attack of Fugel, Buri ran out of laps and couldn’t follow up on his podium from Saturday’s first race.

Proczyk’s team-mate Jan Seyffert was fifth, the German not fading away like he had in Saturday’s first race when he had been leading early on after securing the outright pole position earlier in the day.

Hyundai guest racer Marcel Schrötter was sixth as the motorcycle racer adapted well to touring car racing for the first time.

The second regular Hyundai Team Engstler car of Nicolas Gruber was seventh, ahead of Skuba Racing’s Dziugas Tovilavicius in eighth.

After contact between the pair on lap eight, René Kircher finished last on the road whilst Salminen retired, having twice pitted. Kircher had hit Salminen’s Volkswagen off into the gravel at the first turn whilst battling for fifth, with the right-rear wheel of Salminen’s Golf GTi requiring attention in the pits.

The next round of TCR Germany takes place at the Red Bull Ring on 16 – 18 October.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	32:10.188	1:27.615	4
2	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	21	0.740	1:27.566	2
3	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	21	3.733	1:27.687	5
4	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	4.148	1:28.227	11
5	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	25.250	1:28.940	8
6	123	Marcel SCHRÖTTER		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	26.539	1:29.367	3
7	97	Nicolas GRUBER		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	30.351	1:28.946	6
8	92	Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS		SKUBA RACING TEAM	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	21	30.890	1:29.334	10
9	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	21	43.005	1:28.860	7
R	51	Harri SALMINEN		Positione Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	DNF	1:29.372	1
R	17	Albert LEGUTKO		Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	0	DNF	N/A	9