The first winners of the region's largest car and motorcycle circuit FeltCar Estonian Grand Prix were announced on Friday at the Porsche Ring in Pärnu. Qualifying was held in the motorcycle classes, where Hannes Soomer was the fastest in the Superbike competition.
The fifth stage of the Estonian Historic Formula One Championship was won by Sten Suban (Estonia 23) in the Eastern class with up to 1.3 litre engine capacity, who finished the 12-lap wheel-to-wheel race ahead of Kalev Nurmik (Estonia 21) by 0.07 seconds. Third place went to Italo Alšins from Latvia.
"At the start, I managed to overtake Nurmik, but I made a gear change mistake and he passed me," said Suban. "I had to start trying. That's how we fought, one in front, then the other. It was possible that the tyres started to overheat, the car was sliding quite a lot and you could feel that you should have filled up with more fuel."
In the Formula Mondial, the two highest places went to the Latvians, with Andris Grikis best and Raitis Murnieks second. Taavi Kuul was the best Estonian to finish third in the up to 1.6-litre class. The Estonia 21 was the vehicle of choice for all three.
"The car wasn't quite what it could have been. It didn't have a really good feel and rhythm," said Kuul. "The lap time wasn't directly bad, but it could have been better."
Superbike class qualifier Hannes Soomer (BMW) wanted to test his bike a bit more on his only weekend of racing in Estonia this year, but illness changed his plans.
"However, it seems that we got over the electrical faults that annoyed me at the last IDM stage in Schleiz. The bike is working, 1.12,884 in qualifying on a relatively old tyre is a good time, everything feels very good today," said Soomer.
"Tomorrow we'll try some things for next weekend's Assen race, to improve the bike for the qualities we need in Assen. Some set-up changes, 10-12 laps is a very good time to check that. I just hope it keeps dry, because it's more annoying in the rain for me and the spectators."
Hugo-Brent Freimann (Yamaha) set the fastest time in the Superstock 600 class. B1200 class qualifying was won by Latvian Davis Briedis (BMW), C1200 class fastest was Latvian Edgars Kruminš (BMW), C600 class best grid position will go to Brandon Blank (Yamaha).
Friday's best in the other car classes were Romet Reisin (BMW 325 Cup class, BMW 325i car) and Finns Nestori Virtala (Formula Open Finland, Tatuus F4), Petri Haavisto (BMW Xtreme, BMW 325i), Miio Nurminen (V1600, Kia Ceed), Leevi Rajavuori (V1600 Cup, VW Lupo GTI) and Emil Westman (V8 Thunder, Chevrolet Camaro).
The race will continue on the Porsche Ring on Saturday at 10.00. There will be no races on Sunday according to the updated schedule.
For cars, the FeltCar Estonian Grand Prix is a stage of the Finnish Championship and the Estonian Cup, for motorcycles it is a stage of the Estonian and Latvian Championships.
