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The GT Cup Series returned to Slovakia Ring last weekend, bringing together a colorful mix of sports cars across multiple categories. The standout performer in GT3 was home hero Rudolf Beňo, who claimed victories in the sprint and in endurance.
Saturday’s program began with the traditional sprint race, followed by the evening endurance contest. Olimp Racing brought their Ferrari 296 and Krystian Korzeniowski had already secured GT3 pole position earlier in the day with the Italian car. He converted it flawlessly into victory, ahead of Rudolf Beňo in a BMW M4 GT3 and Petr Fulín in an Audi R8. They were followed home by Piotr Wira (Mercedes), Antal Zsigo (BMW) and Gregor Zsigo (BMW).
By the second sprint, the Ferrari was absent and qualifying suggested a nail-biter. Petr Fulín set the fastest lap, just 0.057 seconds clear of Beňo. The short sprint promised intensity and Beňo wasted no time at the start, muscling past Fulín and then carefully defending his lead. Fulín remained behind his rear wing, ready to pounce on any mistake, but Beňo drove superbly and pulled clear to win by 2.5 seconds. It capped a perfect weekend for the Slovak, who had already take victory with Richard Gonda in Saturday’s endurance race. He left Slovakia with two winner’s trophies in hand.
Meanwhile, Grega Šimunović scored a double sprint victory in GT4 with his Audi R8. He was unstoppable in both Saturday and Sunday races. In the opener, Petr Koukola’s Aston Martin stayed close and finished right on his tail, but in the second race Šimunović’s pace proved untouchable. On both occasions, Andrej Makarović in a Mercedes completed the podium in third.
Šimunović and Makarović are teammates at Lema Racing, and the team enjoyed further success in endurance thanks to Miha Primožič and Matthias Lodi. Their win didn’t come easy, though the green Aston Martin shared by Petr Koukola and Václav Janík kept them under pressure throughout.
In GTC1, sprint glory went to Bob Bau in his Porsche Cup car, but the endurance race produced a different outcome, Jan Birsa came out on top ahead of the pairing of Robert Lucák Jr. and Dan Skalický, with Bau in third. Over in GTC, the endurance win went to the Lamborghini duo of Jakub Knoll and Josef Záruba.
The biggest grid, GTX, produced a variety of winners across the weekend. Saturday’s sprint was taken by Dennis Waszek in a Lamborghini, finishing ahead of fellow Lamborghini driver Coach McKansy and Jack Russel in a KTM. On Sunday, McKansy put another Lamborghini on top, followed by Ondřej Rokos in a Mercedes and Jack Russel. The endurance race then belonged to McKansy and Gerhard Tweraser, who shared driving duties in their Lamborghini and beat the pairings of Max Grip/Reinhard Kofler and Ondřej Rokos/Petr Lisa.
