Tõnis Vanaselja set a new track record with Kalana. Photo by Pille Russi
At the HRX Estonian Grand Prix, Tõnis Vanaselja set a new Kalana Porsche Ring track record in a supercar created by Estonian engineers. The Superbike race was won by Hannes Soomer.
Vanaselja already set a new Porsche Ring record in Friday's qualifying with a lap time of 1.09,600. In Saturday's second race, Vanaselja completed the fastest lap with a time of 1.09,111. The previous fastest lap time of 1.11,579 was set by Martin Rump (Formula Renault FR2000) in 2013.
"We came to the competition mainly to test the car," said Vanaselja. "We are at the stage of car development where we want to collect kilometres and see how the car behaves. We collect data, analyse it and then make the necessary changes."
The third round of the Estonian GP Superbike Championship was won by Hannes Soomer, with Martin Pärtelpoeg, who made a comeback, taking second place to the cheers of the fans. Hanno Velt was third.
"We went out with a solid start today," said Soomer. "On Friday we did more diagnostics to get to the bottom of the power shortage that had been haunting the bike in Austria and luckily we got rid of that problem. The bike is running well again and we didn't make any other major changes because we didn't have enough time to do any more in-depth set-up work yesterday."
Other motorcycle class winners were Superstock 600 - Jaanus Saarmaa, Supersport 300 - Selyn Kazakova, C600 - Silvester Sarapik, C1200 - Roman Rumjantsev and B1200 - Raido Leenpalu.
The Estonian Grand Prix also celebrated the 65th anniversary of Formula Estonia. Former drivers and constructors were present, and there were also two races for the Estonian Cup.
In the Historic Formula One Eastern class, the first race was won by Sten Suban ahead of Kalev Nurmik, while the second race saw the top two finish in reverse order. "The first race was a very exciting fight with Kalev. One time I was in front, then the other, and in the end I was able to get out of the way," said Suban. "In the second race, it seemed like there was a suspicious noise coming from the engine. To save the technique, I eased up."
In the Formula Mondial, both races were won by Latvian Raitis Murnieks, in the first race the best Estonian Jaak Kuul was third, in the second race his son Taavi Kuul was also third. In the second race, Taavi started in his father Jaak's car. "In the first race, the car worked well at the beginning, but on the seventh lap, a rattle came into the engine and the race had to be abandoned," said Taavi Kuul. "In the second race, I started from the back of the grid, but managed to finish third."
Kristo Krinpus won both races of the BMW 325 Cup. In the Legends class, which is the most competitive, Marko Kilpiä was the best of the 33 competitors in the first race and Leevi Lintukanto won the second.
Other class winners: Formula Open - both races Jussi Kuivakangas, BMW Xtreme - two races Juho Siekkinen, third race Kari Haavisto, GT Open - first race Tõnis Vanaselja, second Jarkko Tähtinen, V1600 - first race Miio Nurminen, second Aapo Skaffari, V8 Thunder - both races Emil Westman.
Historic Formulae on the starting grid. Photo by Pille Russi
