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Author: Valentin K

Published on Leave a comment on HappyKojot Defeats Orós and Cerny in the Green Hell – 5 Manufacturers in the Top 6

THR TTM 2025 — Round 3, Nürburgring 24h Circuit

The first half of the season for the THRacing Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (TTM) 2025 was held in Europe. Which venue could have been more fitting to send the participants off to escape the European winter than the Nürburgring 24h Circuit? Spanning 25.4 km across the GP Circuit and the famous Nordschleife while omitting only the unpopular parking lot that is Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Green hell in the Eifel mountains in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is the longest track on the calendar by far. It's also the only TTM round that uses a double-file rolling start.

Based on the real-world weather forecast on site, the weather was cold with a stiff breeze of 15-20 km/h, but clear blue skies made for a track temperature of 14°C despite an air temperature of only 5°C - ideal conditions for rapid qualifying performances, with the race taking place the day before the first snowfall of the winter in Nürburg. Fittingly, this highlight of the season delivered fantastic and largely very fair on-track action that was brought to the viewers superbly by Microlin's great live commentary.

The streak of three-manufacturer podiums continued at Round 3. Just a single driver managed to stand on the podium more than once (after penalties) so far this season, and that's HappyKojot. The Polish Ford driver in the #727 entry of Side Heart Motorsport delivered a superb comeback drive after a weak start from the second row to win the nail-biter in the Green Hell. Marc Orós from Spain threw everything at it from Pole Position in the #45 Mercedes, but the Simruina Racing Team III driver ultimately had to settle for second place. The podium was completed by the defending TTM champion Jaroslav Cerny from the Czech Republic, who finally got through a race unscathed in the #1 BMW M3 of Asahi Motorsport.

Qualifying: Clash of Concepts

Pole Position for the prestigious round at this legendary stretch of asphalt in the Eifel mountains is coveted, and it was fought over intensely. Adding fuel to the inferno on the leaderboard, the track also offered cars with vastly different concepts and strengths to excel. Incredibly, five manufacturers qualified in the Top 6.

Mercedes-Benz finally took their first pole position of the season at the hands of Spanish driver Marc Orós from Simruina Racing Team III in the #45 entry with white mirrors and windscreen banner stripes to differentiate the car from its stablemates. Orós made the most of his ABS-equipped high downforce machine with an 8:54.133, having babied a set of new Soft tyres through a very careful 13 minute out lap to ensure their longevity for his smooth push lap.

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He outqualified the reigning champion by 0.428 seconds, but that still allowed Jaroslav Cerny from the Czech Republic to put the #1 BMW M3 of Asahi Motorsport on the front row. The second row went to the pair of drivers who clashed in the battle for the lead at the season opener: HappyKojot in the #727 Ford Sierra RS500 of Side Heart Motorsports qualified in third, followed by Kuba Palubicki in the #20 BMW M3 of Linder Rennsport. Would these two finally make it through a battle without punting each other off?

Adam Celárek put the #17 Holden of Side Heart Motorsports into 5th, followed by Attila Diner (#27 Jolly Club) in the best Alfa Romeo. The pole sitter's team mate Ayrton Titos (#46 Simruina III Mercedes) qualified in seventh place, ahead of TTM debutant Alfie Bevan in the #99 BMW M3 of FRA Simracing. The Top 10 were completed by Valentin Knechtel (#26 Jolly Club Alfa Romeo) and DJMD19 (#48 Simruina II Mercedes).

Nissan and Audi continue their struggle through the season. The venerable Skyline HR31, already boosted to within an inch of its life and even beefed up with an unrealistic 4-channel ABS system, increasingly looks to be outclassed by the newer machinery it competes with. Jayden HW delivered the best qualifying result of the Nissan entrants and ended up 11 seconds behind pole position, with the 8th row being a very unusual sight for the touring car ace who leads the Side Heart Motorsports (SDH-M) team. While the Australian drives the 2025 TTM season as a solo entrant under the Side Heart banner, his team has been outnumbering even the six cars entered by Simruina! In addition to Jayden's Nissan, the Side Heart crew has been entering four pairs (!) of drivers in the teams championship as Side Heart Motorsports, Side Heart HIFI, Side Heart Pepsi, and the undercover duo that is labeled as Linder Rennsport. Audi's lone wolf Akira qualified 23rd and over 15 seconds behind pole position, but his quattro-powered time to shine may still be to come on the twisty city circuits of Australia and New Zealand.

The race

Dramatic Kickoff in the Green Hell

In sunny afternoon conditions of late autumn, the race got underway with a double-file flying start.

Our pole sitter Marc Orós waited until the last moment possible to let the race get underway, while Jaroslav Cerny paid the price for not having brought his car into formation alongside the Spaniard before Hohenrain: a huge gap formed between the two drivers on the same row.

Seeing this misaligned starting formation with even bigger gaps towards the back, it was probably for the better of the championship that Round 3 was the only one with a double file rolling start. Behind row 5, next to nobody seems to have understood that the race was green as soon as the pole sitter hit the throttle, because almost everyone waited to cross the start/finish line themselves before flooring it. The legendary reading comprehension of Simracers showed again. Back to school with you all!

Marc Orós defended the lead through the Haug-Haken, and the entire field remarkably made it through there with no more than a few scratches. Kuba Palubicki conquered 2nd from Jaroslav Cerny and defended the inside against Jolly Club's Attila Diner. HappyKojot bogged down at the exit and got passed not only by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo, but also by his own team mate Adam Celárek in the Holden.
On his TTM debut, Alfie Bevan (#99 BMW M3) then relegated the Pole to 7th with a pass around the outside through the Ford-Kurve, out of all places. The British newcomer from FRA Simracing honours the late BTCC legend Alan Minshaw with a derivative of his red Demon Tweeks livery from the 1988 season.
Following an issue on the starting grid, D Weller (#6 BMW M3) from the USA started from the pit lane behind the rest of the field. Due to a number of withdrawals and an administrative miscommunication with a new driver who was promoted into the entry list shortly before the race, that saw the PRO3 driver getting underway in 35th place.
The first accident of the race occurred just one position ahead of Weller. In the #25 BMW M3 with the 1992 ATCC livery of Tony Longhurst, Nicolas Bonnefon from France had somehow managed to steer into the grass in the braking zone for Goodyear-Kehre for unknown reasons, and promptly barged Radu Podasca (#70 Mercedes) into the gravel trap.
What happened next is shrouded in mystery. The Frenchman waited promptly to redress the position, but began to cross over from the far left of the track towards the right when Radu Podasca reappeared behind him. Perhaps, the Romanian didn't recognize in time what was happening, and only lifted the throttle and darted to the left directly before he drove into the left rear corner of the BMW. Bonnefon then spun head-first into the tyre wall and resumed the race in last position, while Podasca continued on his way.
Marc Orós led the field onto the Nordschleife for the first time, with the BMWs of Palubicki and Cerny hot on his heels.
Adam Celárek caught big air at Quiddelbacher Höhe while chasing 4th-placed Attila Diner into Flugplatz.
Boby Vakuinof caught a good amount of air as well in his Alfa Romeo, with Adam Keefe all over his rear view mirrors in the fight for 11th place.
In the Side Heart Pepsi BMW, Jordi Sumoy tried to defend 19th around the outside against his Spanish compatriot Juanlu Gonzalez but ran wide and lost 6 positions. Behind them, the Mercedes drivers Christoph Mües (SG Stern) and Aymen Assabir (Spirit Racing Team Sprite) made contact at the exit, sending Assabir through the grass to the left of the curb in the following left-hand kink.
Following a little more mutual paint exchange with the next car in line, Assabir went into Schwedenkreuz side by side with the Ford of Florian Masse, who went through at Aremberg.
Under pressure from Adam Keefe, Boby Vakuinof locked up the brakes and went off at Adenauer Forst, denting his car and costing him 5 positions.
At Bergwerk, the time had come for HappyKojot to release the shackles on car 727. With 540 turbocharged horses pulling the Sierra RS500 up the Kesselchen, Alfie Bevan had no choice but to surrender 6th place.
No replacement for displacement: the roaring 5.0 Litre Iron Lion under the hood of Adam Celárek's Holden Commodore declared the Kesselchen a hunting ground as well, and the Czech driver snatched 4th place out of Attila Diner's hands after 2.2 bar of boost on his 1.76L engine proved inadequate to defend the position. Meanwhile, in the background, the other Jolly Club Alfa Romeo rapidly caught up to the Mercedes-Benz ahead.
By the time they reached the camera, Valentin Knechtel was alongside Ayrton Titos and advanced to 8th.
Another turbocharger, another pass: Potatohedron in the blue Sierra RS500 of Side Heart HIFI effortlessly flew past the Linder Rennsport M3 of Jacopo Hrynecko.
Pitman in the #4 Mercedes brushed the tyre wall after outbraking himself at Klostertalkurve, costing him a position that went to the Suntory Nissan of Flashor. When he tried to get back underway a little too steeply, he emerged on a collision course with the #39 Holden of Maju, who was running wider than he had intended to but with plenty of room to spare if pitman had stayed more parallel to the edge of the track. The contact between the two sent pitman back into the guardrail, and down the order by another 3 positions.
When pitman rejoined the track for the second time, he bullied Radu Podasca into lifting while he got passed by him, and then he stuck in his nose going into the Caracciola-Karussell. Their dispute about the right of way sent the Romanian spinning out.
Running 4th, Adam Celárek then overcooked it into Eschbach and lost the rear end of his Holden.
His subsequent spin gave the spectators at Brünnchen a front-row seat to not only Attila Diner's narrow escape on the left, but also ...
... to this fantastic piece of precision evasive action by HappyKojot and Alfie Bevan, both of whom managed to clear the Czech driver's VL Commodore by a hair's width at the end of his spin.
The British BMW driver then tested the slip angle limit of his M3 after putting the left rear wheel into the grass, and incredibly managed to remain in control of the car with hardly any time lost.
Given the enduring lack of success for the Nissan Skyline 2000 GTS-R (HR31) in the TTM, Flashor spontaneously decided to branch out into different motorsports categories. After submitting an application for a D1GP cockpit at Eiskurve, ...
... the German also won the Big Air Contest for Pflanzgarten I after hitting the curb on the left. However, Flashor paid for that one dearly, because he lost 4 places when he skidded through the gravel trap of the following right-hand curve.
All four wheels on the Audi V8 quattro Evo of Akira left the ground when the Venezuelan flew through Pflanzgarten II (Großer Sprunghügel). His livery was adapted from Bernard Winderickx's 1992 Belgian Procar paintjob, which undoubtedly was inspired by the Renown-sponsored Mazda Group C prototypes.
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After the boost came on a little too abruptly for Willphaizer at the exit of Kleines Karussell, the CiBiEmme Sport driver in Nicola Larini's 1990 Campionato Italiano Superturismo car (Chassis CBM005) spun out of 13th place and lost 13 positions.
The inaugural up the Döttinger Höhe led to numerous position changes. Jaroslav Cerny passed his BMW stablemate Kuba Palubicki for 2nd. HappyKojot in the Ford passed the Alfa Romeo of Attila Diner for 4th. Adam Celárek powered past Alfie Bevan's BMW for 6th. Boby Vakuinof powered past DJMD19. Florian Masse passed GranTourer25. Rolf Biber passed Jordi Sumoy. Maju passed Willphaizer, and Flashor passed pitman.
Butt-clenching moment at Tiergarten at the end of Lap 1: Jayden HW found himself on the grass at 300 km/h after he had to open up the steering halfway through the kink at Antoniusbuche during an ill-timed passing attempt for 11th place against the #9 Mercedes-Benz of Mina D'Orsi. The Australian managed to stay in control of his Nissan, and slotted in behind the Mercedes.

Paint and Positions were Swapped on Lap 2

In the #42 Mercedes of SG Stern, Christoph Mües had become a little too used to the turn 1 braking point of the AMG GT4 in ACC during the weekend. The reason for that was the Nürburgring 24 Hour race of Sim2Real, where he unexpectedly achieved a 3rd-in-class finish for SG Stern together with Valentin Knechtel, David Schubert, Sebastian Holler and Pascal Reihe mere hours before this TTM race. Going into Lap 2, Mües dropped the anchor far too late and bumped Juanlu Gonzalez wide enough for Aymen Assabir to pass both of them for 19th position.
Valentin Knechtel powered past Alfie Bevan's M3 into 7th place on the run to Schwedenkreuz. Attila Diner in the Jolly Club sister car is seen holding 5th place in the foreground, with the windshield of Celárek's Holden in between.
In the battle for 22nd place, Juanlu Gonzalez and Nat Stevenson went into the right-hander that leads to Flugplatz side by side. They made contact after the first apex because Gonzalez maintained an unusually tight line that left less than half of the track width to Stevenson.
Unsettled by the contact between the two cars, Stevenson lost the rear and was hit by FMG's Suntory Nissan, which fired the #12 Alfa Romeo into the tyre wall before it came to rest facing the wrong direction.
The unlucky Alfa Romeo driver could not have been further from the Top 10 finish he achieved in Imola while waiting for a sufficiently large gap for him to turn around and get back underway safely, when our stunt driver of the day managed to sideswipe him in the other Suntory Nissan despite yellow flags. Had Stevenson not already carefully crawled back towards the tyre wall mere seconds before that, this could have been a race-ending head on collision.
The high-torque festival at Kesselchen continued on lap 2, when Adam Keefe's Holden Commodore with the iconic livery of the 1990 Bathurst 1000 winner roared past the Mercedes of Ayrton Titos to capture 9th place.
Potatohedron passed Hrynecko's M3 a little later than on lap 1, only to lose the position again moments later at Klostertalkurve.
Alfie Bevan went off and brushed his M3 along the guardrail towards Klostertalkurve to give his team some extra routine in realigning and repainting the car.
When Attila Diner carried a little too much speed into the Caracciola-Karussell, Adam Celárek gladly accepted the gift and advanced to 5th place.
Adam Keefe challenged Bevan for 8th around the outside on the run from the Caracciola-Karussell to Hohe Acht, but the BMW driver had other plans.
Having already run into the back of DJMD19 (#48 Mercedes) at Fuchsröhre earlier in the lap, Florian Masse attempted to pass the Spaniard down the inside in the same place, but the 190E driver bravely stayed alongside all the way to Hohe Acht and defended the position - for now.
Aymen Assabir and Christoph Mües locked horns at Eiskurve while battling for 19th place.
Close call in the battle for 5th: Adam Celárek got loose through Stefan-Bellof-S, and Attila Diner briefly ended up in the grass after touching the Holden's rear bumper moments after this photo was taken.
Mina D'Orsi spectacularly missed the Stefan-Bellof-S at 190 km/h in the colours that were driven by Klaus Ludwig in the 1991 Macau Guia Race, but got away with this stunt unscathed and kept 11th place.
Orós continued to lead the way ahead of Cerny at the end of the second lap, while HappyKojot in the Sierra RS500 had already eclipsed 300 km/h by the time he flew past the M3 of Palubicki with a speed difference of close to 30 km/h. With a large gap having formed ahead of Celárek's 5th-placed Holden, the set of drivers to decide the race between was down to four. At the tail end of the Top 10, Keefe had managed to stay on the rear bumper of Bevan through the flowing curves between Hohe Acht and Galgenkopf, and now he powered past on Döttinger Höhe to grab 8th place.
Another hairy situation unfolded at Tiergarten between Jayden HW and Mina D'Orsi, when D'Orsi drove into the back of the Nissan after the Australian had taken 11th place on the inside at Antoniusbuche.
Having flown across the curb, D'Orsi's Mercedes rebounded hard after hitting the guardrail on the left, while Jayden HW frantically tried to stay in command of his Nissan.
After cutting across the grass at Hohenrainschikane, he almost succeeded at keeping his car out of the guardrail, while D'Orsi smacked the Zung Fu 190E into the tyre wall in the background and lost a position to Boby Vakuinof's Alfa Romeo.

Composure counts and the battle for the win begins to heat up

The Bulgarian got alongside the Nissan on the run to Turn 1 because the accident at Hohenrainschikane had cost him momentum, but the Australian defended 11th place.
Battle for Top 25 positions: Akira leads FMG's Suntory Nissan and Juanlu Gonzalez's Simruina Racing Team I Mercedes through the Haug-Haken. Aymen Assabir, Rolf Biber, and Maju lurk just outside of striking distance.
Assabir muscled his way past the Nissan of FMG at Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve to capture 24th place.
The high speed acceleration of Jordi Sumoy's BMW M3 was no match for the turbocharged Alfa Romeo of Willphaizer, and the CiBiEmme Sport driver's comeback drive after his early spin continued with 19th place on the run to Schwedenkreuz.
Ford privateer Florian Masse from France advanced to 14th when he passed his US-American Ford stablemate Potatohedron (Side Heart HIFI) into Aremberg on Lap 3.
Moments later, the Frenchman mistimed his turn-in point at Metzgesfeld and crashed into the tyre wall, which allowed the US-American and Jacopo Hrynecko in the second Linder M3 to get back ahead.
His return to the Top 15 was far from smooth when he turned in too early during the run up the Kesselchen, and was launched into the air by the curb.
Bigger is better, but not when you apply it to your own impacts with guardrails while battling for positions. Somehow, Masse managed to keep 15th place despite this scary situation that would have ended his race in real life.
Juanlu Gonzalez defended 23rd place against Aymen Assabir when the two Mercedes drivers went side by side through Mutkurve.
Their duel continued until the small carousel at Schwalbenschwanz, where Assabir barged his way through and sent the Spanish driver wide.
Their battle allowed FMG to remain in striking distance until Galgenkopf, where he unleashed all 490 horses of his Nissan and passed both of them by the time he sped through Antoniusbuche.
By the end of the Grand Prix Circuit, Assabir was in striking distance to FMG again and launched the Spirit Racing Team Sprite car down the inside of the Suntory Nissan to recapture 23rd place, with contact forcing the Englishman wide enough for Gonzalez to attack him as well.
The Nissan driver put up a valiant defense, though, and took 24th after a side-by-side run into Hatzenbach had cost both of them so much time at the Everlast Holden of Maju was all over their tails now, while Rolf Biber outbraked himself in the Alfa Romeo of Swiss Buddy Racing.
Maju attacked the Mercedes with all four wheels off the ground on the way to Flugplatz, but Gonzalez knew he could carry more speed through the curve and boldly slammed the door shut to stay ahead.
Second place was a tight contest between defending champion Jaroslav Cerny in the #1 BMW, HappyKojot in the Ford, and Kuba Palubicki in the #20 Linder BMW - pictured here at Wehrseifen.
Marc Orós maintained a healthy but far from comfortable gap over Cerny's M3 as he flogged his Mercedes-Benz through Ex-Mühle on Lap 3.
The run up the Kesselchen hosted the next act of HappyKojot's turbo festival, and Jaroslav Cerny did not stand a chance when the Polish Ford youngster flew past our defending champion into 2nd place. In the orange M3 in the background, Kuba Palubicki had braked too late at Bergwerk and fell out of contention before realizing that he also had to save fuel on top of that.
The air gradually became thinner for Valentin Knechtel in 7th place when Adam Keefe caught up to him wearing seven mile boots, but this attack while climbing up the Kesselchen into Klostertal was not successful. Keefe stayed on the German's rear bumper until Galgenkopf, though, and then powered past him on the run across the Döttinger Höhe.
When Rolf Biber powered past Juanlu Gonzalez to claim 26th place, the Swiss Alfa Romeo driver cut across the Spaniard's nose too soon ...
... and sent both of them crashing into the guardrail. Norwegian Ford driver Geir Akslen gladly accepted their two free positions but performed a pit stop at the end of the lap, which sent him back to 33rd place.
Biber then outbraked himself at Klostertalkurve and drove straight into the tyre wall, allowing Gonzalez and pitman to get ahead.
The leading margin of Marc Orós completely evaporated on Döttinger Höhe, and HappyKojot had to lift at Antoniusbuche to avoid driving into the back of the leader. The Mercedes reached 280 km/h here like in the 1992 DTM season, but the immensely powerful Ford adds more than 30 km/h to that figure.
His team mate fared even worse that lap, because Ayrton Titos fell out of the Top 10 when both Jayden HW (#97 Nissan) and Boby Vakuinof (#36 Alfa Romeo) powered past him.
The Australian Nissan driver then outbraked himself into Hohenrainschikane and activated Rallycross Mode when he jumped back onto the track with plenty of opposite lock, spectacularly remaining in control once again. The momentum he then lost on the opposite curb negated any advantage that this might have given him, and the race carried on.
With both Mina D'Orsi (#9 Mercedes) and Florian Masse (#13 Ford) arriving behind them, it looked like a 5-way fight for the last spot in the Top 10 was starting to take shape.
The comeback drive of Willphaizer in the CiBiEmme Sport Alfa Romeo (#5) continued as well. After passing DJMD19 (#48 with green mirrors in the background) at Galgenkopf, he also powered past his team mate from Simruina Racing Team II on Döttinger Höhe. GranTourer25 in the 190E with yellow mirrors (#47) launched a counterattack after the Alfa Romeo driver fell into turbo lag at Hohenrainschikane. This battle for 17th place continued all the way to the lowest point of the Grand Prix Circuit at Goodyear-Kehre, and Willphaizer won it.
After he had passed Valentin Knechtel for 7th place, Adam Keefe quickly gained ground against the other Jolly Club Alfa Romeo driven by Attila Diner but threw it all away at Flugplatz, when the rear snapped sideways upon landing and he spun into the tyre wall. Knechtel was lucky to miss the spinning Holden after it rebounded from the tyre wall, and Keefe resumed the race in 9th place after Alfie Bevan had passed him as well.
Mina D'Orsi spectacularly departed the train of cars contesting 10th place after putting the right rear wheel into the grass in the approach to Adenauer Forst.

Battle for Glory and Late Skirmishes

Still in the lead but with a much smaller margin than on the previous lap, Marc Orós led HappyKojot and Jaroslav Cerny through Ex-Mühle on Lap 5.
The Simruina driver from Spain managed to defend the lead on the run up the Kesselchen.
At Wippermann, Jaroslav Cerny's BMW was all over the back of the Ford again.
Marc Orós did everything in his power to open up a gap to HappyKojot, who was able to keep Jaroslav Cerny behind himself despite the BMW's advantage through these fast curves. Would that be enough?
HappyKojot answered that question by the time they got to the Tourist Entrance on Döttinger Höhe, where the Polish Ford driver stormed into the lead.
The other Simruina Racing Team III entry driven by Ayrton Titos fared no better, because Florian Masse came flying through to 12th with his rev limiter spitting flames out of his Ford's side exhaust.
Titos's chances of a Top 10 result ended in the next braking zone. After hitting the right curb at Tiergarten, he got on the grass in the braking zone and spun into the end of the tyre wall at Hohenrainschikane, where his car came to rest facing the guardrail head-on.
When he got back underway, he found himself having to fight over 15th place against Jacopo Hrynecko, who soon managed to pass him. In the background, Willphaizer really wanted to be in the picture as well.
Battle scars all over the cars of the four squabblers fighting over 22nd place: Aymen Assabir ahead of Christoph Mües, FMG, and Maju.
HappyKojot could not shake off Marc Orós, and Jaroslav Cerny had managed to catch up to them by the time the leading trio made its way through Wehrseifen on Lap 6.
The Ford stormed off into the distance on the run up the Kesselchen, but how well were its tyres going to hold up? HappyKojot gambled with how far the 20% improvement in tyre durability across the field might be able to get him, by selecting the Hard (H) compound instead of the more durable Extra Hard (HX) tyre.
The Jolly Club Alfa Romeos turned out to be surprisingly toothless in the Green Hell, which demanded higher top speeds than the optional 6-speed gearbox could provide. Attila Diner and Valentin Knechtel went for different 5-speed gear sets and didn't have the race pace to challenge the Top 5 here. After relatively silent races, they went on to salvage 6th and 7th place.
Orós and Cerny were all over HappyKojot's rear again by the time they got to Eiskurve.
At Schwalbenschwanz, the Spanish Mercedes driver managed to stick in his nose going into the small carousel and recaptured the lead, giving himself crucial breathing room over the BMW of Cerny.
The Simruina Mercedes lifted its inside front wheel off the ground while Orós hammered it through Galgenkopf with the Ford of HappyKojot and the BMW of Cerny right on his tail.
The Nürburg watched over the action as HappyKojot immediately retook the lead on Döttinger Höhe.
HappyKojot escaped into the distance again but Marc Orós's move on him at Schwalbenschwanz had ensured that Jaroslav Cerny was too far back to pass him for 2nd place. In the background, Adam Celárek closed the gap to the Linder BMW of Kuba Palubicki but was too far back to attack him for 4th place.
Ayrton Titos continued to fall down the order. Unable to keep the pace of Jacopo Hrynecko's M3, he lost 16th place to the Alfa Romeo of Willphaizer when they passed the ED gas station on Döttinger Höhe.
The battle for 22nd place ended when Aymen Assabir stuck his 190E into the guardrails between Pflanzgarten I and Pflanzgarten II, allowing Christoph Mües to sneak through. Assabir lost another two positions on Döttinger Höhe, where both FMG (Nissan) and Maju (Holden) sped past him.
The battle for 4th position was settled on the final lap, when the Commodore of Adam Celárek bounced excessively as a result of his underdamped setup and the way he landed the jump at Quiddelbacher Höhe. That was a lucky outcome for Palubicki, who had underestimated the thirst of his BMW M3 and had to apply plenty of Lift & Coast just to get to the checkered flag.
The Czech Holden driver was lucky to emerge facing the right direction after bouncing along the tyre wall and guardrail at Flugplatz, and had to settle for 5th place.
Going into Caracciola-Karussell on the final lap, it looked like HappyKojot would be the sure winner. In the background, however ...
... Jaroslav Cerny was all over the back of Marc Orós, who had already gone to the limit and beyond when he ran wide at Mutkurve without touching the guardrail.
The defending TTM champion's attack on 2nd place ended when he ran wide in the final climb to Hohe Acht.
While Cerny barely managed to keep the car on track with his dirty tyres, he lost a lot of time and that cemented third place for the Asahi Motorsport driver.
Incredibly, the Mercedes driver from Spain then managed to melt down the lead of HappyKojot to less than a second by the time they rounded the small carousel at Schwalbenschwanz for the final time, because the Hard tyres on the rear axle of the Ford were reaching the end of their service life.
With his rear tyres wearing down to their carcass for his final pass through Hohenrainschikane, HappyKojot ended up accelerating sideways from the sudden loss of grip. With an inspiring drive that saw him fighting his way back up from an early drop to 7th place and onwards all the way to Victory Lane with the fastest lap of the race (8:58.020), HappyKojot deservedly won Round 3 of the TTM 2025 and scored Ford's first victory of the season!
Marc Orós gave it everything with a flawless performance: from Pole Position, he led the first five laps, defended successfully against the reigning champion and challenged HappyKojot on the final two laps at every opportunity. Second place was a bittersweet result for the man from Spain, who brought the 190E from Simruina Racing Team III across the line without a scratch and just 2.561 seconds behind the winner.
The reigning TTM champion finally proved the naysayers wrong: the man from the Czech Republic still has what it takes and drove a fantastic race, staying in contention for second place until shortly before the checkered flag fell. Jaroslav Cerny brought his spotless BMW M3 across the line just 4.427 seconds behind the winner, but the title defense will be an uphill battle for him.

Palubicki's Linder BMW and the Side Heart Motorsports Holden of Celárek rounded out the Top 5, followed by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeos of Attila Diner and Valentin Knechtel. Next in line was TTM debutant Alfie Bevan in the #99 BMW M3 of FRA Simracing. The Top 10 were completed by the Asahi Motorsport Holden of Adam Keefe and by Jayden HW (#97 Side Heart), who rewarded his valiant effort by scoring Nissan's second Top 10 result of the season. Audi's lone warrior Akira took home 21st place and missed out on the Top 20 by 15 seconds.

BMW finally had a strong presence in the Top 10, with the addition of Alfie Bevan enabling the Bavarians to put three cars into it - more than every other manufacturer. Both Holden and Alfa Romeo brought two cars into the Top 10 respectively. The big surprise was the armada of Mercedes-Benz: Marc Orós was the only driver who made it into the Top 15 in a car with a three-pointed star on top of the grille, highlighting that the race really didn't go according to plan for the other nine cars of the Swabian manufacturer. Maybe this could have gone differently if meisterJäger hadn't withdrawn their 11th car during the qualifying week despite an encouraging qualifying performance. Ford was a similar one-man show: they won the race, while their second best car barely missed out on the Top 10, even though Florian Masse was the top mover with 10 positions gained.

Official Top 5 Results

  1. HappyKojot (Ford Sierra RS500) — 7 laps, 64:12.275 — best 8:58.030
  2. Marc Orós (Mercedes 190E Evo II) — +2.561s — best 8:59.587
  3. Jaroslav Cerny (BMW M3 EVO3) — +4.427s — best 8:59.152 
  4. Kuba Palubicki (BMW M3 EVO3) — +15.132s — best 9:00.371
  5. Adam Celárek (Holden VL Commodore SV) — +19.990s — best 8:58.356

Next across the line: Attila Diner P6, Valentin Knechtel P7, Alfie Bevan P8, Adam Keefe P9, and Jayden HW P10.

What it means for the championship

The season uses the familiar 40‑37‑34‑31‑30‑29… points system with one drop result per driver in the drivers and teams championships, but not for the manufacturer championship that only mirrors the points achieved by each brand's top scorer of the race:

  • #727 HappyKojot leads with 77 points
  • #20 Kuba Palubicki is 2nd with 71 points
  • #26 Valentin Knechtel is 3rd with 70 points
  • #45 Marc Orós is 4th with 68 points
  • #27 Attila Diner is 5th with 66 points
  • Rest of the Top 10: Adam Celárek (64), Jaroslav Cerny (62), Ayrton Titos (53), Boby Vakuinof (53), and Adam Keefe (53). 

In the teams championship, Side Heart Motorsports retook the lead with 141 points, but Jolly Club remains in striking distance at 136. Simruina Racing Team III holds 3rd (121), but Asahi Motorsport (115) is hot on their heels. Linder Rennsport completes the Top 5 at 104 points.

The manufacturers championship after Round 3 is an intense dogfight between five manufacturers. At the top, Alfa Romeo and BMW are neck and neck with a tiny margin over Ford and Mercedes, while Holden gradually begins to fall behind with just a single podium result so far. Nissan is more than 20 points behind the Australians, and Audi marks the red lantern with only a single privateer driver on their roster.

The wild battles throughout the entire race have highlighted once more that the Nürburgring 24h Circuit is a well-deserved fixture of the TTM calendar. Florian Masse's impressive climb through the ranks showed how much can be achieved in a race despite a poor qualifying, while DJMD19, Ayrton Titos, and Juanlu Gonzalez demonstrated that a good qualifying result only gets you so far when the race doesn't work out in your favor.

Their fortunes are certain to change as the TTM circus now heads across the globe to escape the European winter for the second half of the season. At the upcoming round in New Zealand, the Turbo crowd can probably be happy just to get into the Top 10, because this is the hunting ground of 2.5 liter naturally aspirated cars and the unbeatable quattro traction of the Audi.

Next up: Wellington Street Circuit: a tricky jungle of concrete walls, hairpins, and tight junctions. Who will remain level headed enough to make it through on top?

Published on Leave a comment on Palubicki Conquers the Finnish Forest Ahead of Diner and Titos – 3 Manufacturers on Podium

THR TTM 2025 — Round 2, Horsma Raceway

The Horsma Raceway is a rustic and pure antidote to the smooth Formula 1 circuit of Imola that hosted the season opening round of the THR Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (TTM) 2025. Bumpy old asphalt patched up in various places is lined by aging concrete walls and trees. This atmosphere characterizes the fictional track based on a real location in the Itä-Uusimaa region, roughly halfway between Helsinki and Kouvola in the south of Finland. But make no mistake - this track feels as real as it can get.

Templated off of the real-world weather forecast on site, the weather was cold, overcast and windy, with a wind speed of 19 km/h and gusts of up to 40 km/h at an air temperature of just 7°C. It was a perfect contrast to the heat of battle on track, with a fully-booked grid of 39 strongly-piloted touring cars once again. This time, however, the live broadcast had to fall back to the Autocam with driver radio after the commentator of Round 1 got sick.

Three manufacturers ended up on the podium of Round 2, and all of them were new faces on this season's podium. Kuba Palubicki made up for his tainted season opener and won from pole position in the #20 BMW M3 of Linder Rennsport. Attila Diner followed in the #27 Jolly Club Alfa Romeo 75 ahead of the #46 Mercedes of Ayrton Titos from the 3rd squad of Simruina Racing Team. Regrettably, the race was overshadowed by a large number of incidents throughout the entire field, many of which were not redressed in violation of our community's Gentlemen's Agreement. Surprisingly few of these ended up with Race Control, but the thread of patience with this topic sure became thinner for several drivers.

Qualifying: 2.5 Liter Dominance

The bumpy Horsma Raceway particularly suited lightweight cars with ABS and high downforce, as there was only one medium-length straight for powerful cars to stretch their legs on. After Kuba Palubicki had lost the Round 1 win to a penalty because he had fired a rival into the gravel trap during the battle for the lead, he rebounded in qualifying for Round 2. In the forests of Finland, the Dutchman in the orange Linder Rennsport BMW M3 with yellow headlights and green window banners delivered his second pole position of the season at 2:04.718.

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After a disappointing season opener that showed glimpses of hope, the Mercedes-Benz drivers finally found their rhythm in qualifying and filled up the next three positions: #46 Ayrton Titos from Spain in the best of the Simruina Racing Team entries completed the first row with a 2:04.868. German privateer meisterJäger (#88) was third with a 2:04.886, followed by Titos's direct team mate Marc Orós (2:04.977) from the third pair of Simruina Racing Team entrants.

The defending champion Jaroslav Cerny (#1) finally showed signs of life with a 2:05.428 to qualify 5th ahead of the pair of Jolly Club Alfa Romeos of Attila Diner and Valentin Knechtel. The next Simruina driver completed the 4th row: DJMD19 was the last driver to undercut 2:06 minutes in qualifying. In the best Holden, Adam Celárek qualified 9th and his Czech compatriot Jacopo Hrynecko rounded out the Top 10, aiming to see the checkered flag instead of a black flag this time.

For the remaining manufacturers, Horsma's qualifying proved to be a disaster. HappyKojot put the fastest Ford (#727) into 12th place. The best Nissan (#97) started the race from 18th on the grid with Jayden HW from Australia behind the wheel, and lone warrior Akira struggled to get the only Audi (#91) up to pace in qualifying: 31st place for the Venezuelan.

The race

Wreckfest on Lap 1

The race immediately became chaotic going into Turn 1. Palubicki sprinted off into the lead comfortably, but from 2nd on the grid, Ayrton Titos in the #46 Mercedes of Simruina Racing Team III with purple mirrors and window accent stripes bogged down when he shifted up into 2nd gear too early. That allowed MeisterJäger to attack the Spaniard, who covered off the inside and then squeezed MeisterJäger to the right on the run to Turn 1, completely overlooking that defending champion Jaroslav Cerny had caught the best start of them all from 5th in his black and yellow BMW.

Surprised and startled by the appearance of Cerny's M3 on the inside, Ayrton Titos turned in a little too late while MeisterJäger turned in a little too early.
The German's Mercedes pivoted around the nose of Titos's Mercedes into the front right wheel of Cerny, who was still understeering away from the apex significantly at the time of impact. With all three drivers contributing errors to this accident, Race Control declared it a racing incident with no further action necessary.
The collision led Cerny to spin towards the inside, while MeisterJäger's Mercedes speared off into the outside guardrail, and worse was yet to come for him. Titos escaped unharmed although at the expense of several positions. Attila Diner in the Alfa Romeo with a white windscreen banner advanced into 2nd, and his Jolly Club team mate Valentin Knechtel almost spun off the road by clumsily applying too much throttle while driving across the curb and grass, allowing DJMD19 and Titos to get ahead.
After the orange Mercedes came to rest in the grass facing the wrong direction, meisterJäger was a sitting duck. At the back of the field, Nico Bonnefon (#25) first tapped pitman (#4) and sent him wide entering Turn 1, before Maju in the blue #39 Holden completed the catastrophe. He completely missed his braking point and took both of them with him, with all three of them smashing into the passenger side of meisterJäger's stationary Mercedes. Maju and meisterJäger retired on the spot, but no protests were filed for this secondary accident.
Meanwhile, the happiness of Christoph Mües was short-lived. The SG Stern driver from Germany had delivered his best ever TTM qualifying result with 11th place and capitalized on the Turn 1 chaos. In the approach for Baccarat (the second curve), he was contesting his previous season's team mate Knechtel for 5th place, when he was hit in the back by Adam Celárek. The Czech Holden driver had misjudged how early he should have set the braking point for his Holden's ice cold carbon brakes.
While the Czech Holden driver spun out following the contact, the bump also sent the German Mercedes driver on a detour through the grass, from which he returned to the track ...
... just in time for being hit by another Side Heart Motorsports driver. After a team-internal collision between Jordi Sumoy (#55 Side Heart Pepsi BMW) and Jayden HW (#97 Side Heart Nissan), the Australian's Nissan veered into the side of Mües. The German then hit the concrete wall at the exit of Baccarat at a 30-degree angle before he resumed the race outside of the Top 20.
Going into Cafe Corner, Side Heart Motorsports continued to display their talent for team-internal collisions. After a fantastic start, Samu0332 in the #56 Side Heart Pepsi BMW was running 6th when HappyKojot (#727) tapped his right rear corner.
Predictably, the Italian's BMW was spun into the grass and he lost more than 20 positions.
When Rolf Biber in the #59 Alfa Romeo backed off in response to the spinning BMW of Samu0332 that carefully made its way back towards the track at a shallow angle, Jacopo Hrynecko (#19) drove into the back of him and sent the Swiss Buddy Racing driver skidding through the grass sideways on the inside of the braking zone for the subsequent Rescue corner.
That is where the Swiss driver involuntarily skidded right back onto the track and briefly backed up traffic behind him while trying to start accelerating again. In the black and yellow M3, Jaroslav Cerny had already lost a lot of positions in the accident at Turn 1. Frantically trying to limit the loss of time behind Biber's Alfa Romeo, the Czech driver darted to the left sharply, unaware of the presence of Torbjörn Bloom (#86) on his left.
The collision with Cerny launched the Swedish BMW driver through the rear of the unfortunate Samu0332, making him spin out yet again, while Bloom ended up in the tire wall - a rough "Welcome Back" for the Swede on his return to the TTM after having contested two rounds in 2024.
By the time he arrived at the Stockmarket for the first time, Kuba Palubicki already had a huge lead over Attila Diner, followed by DJMD19 and Ayrton Titos.
In the midpack, Jayden HW swooped through the Baller Curves with five competitors on his tail.
Nico Bonnefon's second contact with pitman on the opening lap occurred at the Northern Loop's hairpin, with the contact sending our admin into the grass. The French BMW driver captured his position and did not redress it - one example of many incidents throughout the race that were not redressed by drivers in contrast to our Gentlemen's Agreement.

Composure Counts in the Pressure-Cooker of Battle

Max Solmyr guided his early battle group through the falling Stockmarket with confidence on Lap 2.
Going into the final corner, he fell victim to the unsafe defensive (!) maneuver of the driver behind him. In the blue #21 Ford of Side Heart HIFI, Rueben Souders tried to defend his position against the ABS-equipped lightweight BMW of Jaroslav Cerny. The driver from the United States braked 20 meters later than usual and simultaneously cut in front of the BMW's nose in the braking zone, which immediately rear ended him as a result of this ill-timed lane change. Souders then hit the rear of Solmyr's Holden, costing him 9 positions, and didn't redress his position to the Frenchman. Following a protest that triggered a post-race investigation, Souders was deemed to be wholly at fault for this incident and received a 17 second penalty with 2 licence points.
Mere seconds earlier, Samu0332 had driven into the back of Nico Bonnefon at the start of the braking zone for the hairpin of the Northern Loop, and fired the Frenchman straight into the guardrail and tyre wall - one of several incidents that the Italian driver did not redress during his frustration-fueled recovery after having been punted out of 6th place by one of his own team mates on Lap 1. Miraculously, neither of his victims filed a protest, but last season's penalty points top-scorer is unlikely to get away with that again next time.

While Kuba Palubicki and Attila Diner sprinted off into the distance with a growing gap between each other up ahead, the rest of the Top 5 were hotly contested.

Ayrton Titos with purple accents on his #46 Simruina Mercedes and the Alfa Romeo of Knechtel soon made their way past DJMD19 (#48 Simruina Mercedes with green accents), who then got under fire from HappyKojot (#727 Ford), Marc Orós (Simruina 190E with white accents), and Adam Keefe (#16 Holden).
After both HappyKojot and Marc Orós made it past DJMD19, Orós managed to capture 5th by outbraking HappyKojot into All-In following a mistake by the Ford driver, and then applied pressure to Knechtel.
The German managed to stay ahead of Orós and just outside of striking distance to Titos until he lost the rear at the exit of Baccarat, causing him to fishtail into the front left wheel of Orós ...
... who then ended up in the grass and brushed the concrete wall.
Knechtel made up for it by waving Orós by in the approach to Rescue, and stayed ahead of HappyKojot.
Soon afterwards, the leader tried too hard. Kuba Palubicki smacked his M3 into the guardrails in the same place after he had swung too far to the left before turning in for the curve. With two wheels in the grass, there was no way to keep the car on the tarmac.
His car survived and carried on with plenty of battle scars, and he retained a healthy lead over Attila Diner.
For Boby Vakuinof who had taken 5th in the first race of the season, Round 2 ended with a sizeable shunt after taking it too far at All-In after 25 minutes. In the meantime, technical breakdowns on their respective PCs had already ended the races of Mika Hakala (#73 BMW) and pitman (#4 Mercedes). Together with the two Turn 1 casualties, five drivers retired from the race, and Vakuinof was the last of them.
Marc Orós rapidly escaped Knechtel before catching and passing his team mate Ayrton Titos for 3rd, but then he overcooked it at Cafe Corner. With two wheels in the grass, he could not get the car slowed down in time ...
... and spun out of Rescue corner. He only managed to get back on track behind Knechtel, who struggled to shake off the Ford of HappyKojot.
Shortly afterwards, the Polish youngster darted into the pits for new tyres. On the Ford and Nissan, none of the tyre compounds provided by the tyre suppliers were durable enough to make it through the race nonstop at this track, leading most of their teams to opt for a 1-stop strategy with the Hard compound. To make themselves heard after the race, the Ford and Nissan teams contacted the trackside representatives of the tyre suppliers in the paddock using opinion amplifiers that they had carved from locally-sourced raw materials.
Orós immediately challenged Knechtel for 4th again in a spectacular battle ...
... but went off in the Baller Curves.
Orós narrowly avoided the tyre wall before slotting in behind DJMD19 again to resume his chase.
A couple of laps later, Orós had caught up to the Alfa Romeo driver yet again. After Knechtel spent his entire Dictionary of Defense on repelling the Spaniard's attacks, he missed a gear while accelerating through the Hill Kink, and that was exactly what Orós needed to get alongside into All-In.
The two stayed side by side all the way through the Bear's Nest ...
... but Knechtel had to surrender 4th place to Orós for good on the brakes at Stockmarket.

The run to the flag

Despite three setbacks, Marc Orós was undeterred in his attempts to get on the podium. Incredibly, he caught up to Ayrton Titos once again on the final lap, and daringly sent his car down the outside in the braking zone for the Northern Loop's hairpin. However, he put his right wheels on the grass and exchanged some paint with his team mate while trying to regain control of his car, forcing him to surrender 3rd place for good. With Ayrton Titos in 3rd and Marc Orós in 4th, this race was a valuable result for the Simruina Racing Team III in their bid for the team championship.
Attila Diner kept his nose clean at Turn 1 and drove a smart race where he kept the car without a scratch en route to 2nd place, with a healthy margin of 9 seconds over Ayrton Titos.
Although Kuba Palubicki carelessly stuffed his car into the guardrail at one point, he was the man to beat and drove home a convincing start-to-finish victory with a winning margin of 18.75 seconds. Linder Rennsport has a bit of work on their hands ahead of Round 3, as both he and his team mate Jacopo Hrynecko (whom he lapped just before the finish) brought their cars home with multiple dents.

The strongest Holden result was achieved by Adam Keefe in 8th place on HX tyres. Happykojot was the top-finishing Ford in 10th place despite pitting for new tyres halfway through. Jayden HW topped the list of Nissan drivers in 17th place, and Akira climbed to 19th in the sole Audi entry. Having gained 12 positions, he was one of the top movers in the race, beaten only by Willphaizer (13 positions gained en route to 9th) and Aymen Assabir, who climbed 15 positions en route to 21st place.

For the defending champion Jaroslav Cerny, Turn 1 was a major setback in his title defense campaign, but he managed to achieve some degree of damage control by recovering to 7th place. The manufacturers that brought the most cars into the Top 10 were Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo, with 3 cars each. BMW had the pace to achieve the same, but their drivers lacked the consistency to bring it home.

Official Top 5 Results

  1. Kuba Palubicki (BMW M3 E30) — 29 laps, 61:41.290 — best 2:05.832
  2. Attila Diner (Alfa Romeo 75) — +18.754s — best 2:06.561
  3. Ayrton Titos (Mercedes 190E) — +27.854s — best 2:07.325 
  4. Marc Orós (Mercedes 190E) — +28.729s — 2:06.386
  5. Valentin Knechtel (Alfa Romeo 75) — +30.822s — best 2:07.501

Next across the line: DJMD19 P6, Jaroslav Cerny P7, Adam Keefe P8, Willphaizer P9 (coming from 22nd), and HappyKojot P10.

What it means for the championship

The season uses the familiar 40‑37‑34‑31‑30‑29… points system with one drop result per driver. That means that after Horsma Raceway, the drivers and teams championship are only fed by each driver's top result, whereas the manufacturers championship doesn't have any drop results:

  • #20 Kuba Palubicki leads on 40 points (drop result: 31)
  • #26 Valentin Knechtel also has 40 points (drop result: 30) 
  • #727 HappyKojot has 37 points (drop result: 25) 
  • #27 Attila Diner also has 37 points (drop result: 25)
  • #17 Adam Celárek sits at 34 points (drop result: 23)
  • #46 Ayrton Titos matches the 34 points (drop result: 15)
  • Rest of the Top 10: Marc Oros (31), Boby Vakuinof (30), DJMD19 (29), and Nat Stevenson (29). 

In the teams championship, Jolly Club move up into the lead at 77 points, while Side Heart Motorsports remain at 71 points after a bad second round. Simruina Racing Team III advances to 3rd with 65 points, and Asahi Motorsport (55) hangs on to 4th. The top 5 are completed by Linder Rennsport (53).

After Round 2, two manufacturers are starting to fall by the wayside. The Nissan teams and the lone Audi driver were unable to deliver strong results yet this season. The midpack is hotly contested between Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Holden. Alfa Romeo continues to lead the way with 77 points, while a lone ace has been ensuring that BMW remains in striking distance at 71 points.

The mayhem of the opening lap highlighted how little it takes for a driver's race to fall apart, and the impressive climbs from Akira, Willphaizer and Aymen Assabir highlighted just how important it is to remain level-headed in the heat of combat.

Next up: Nürburgring 24h Circuit: High stakes, Green Hell. Let's dance.

Published on Leave a comment on Knechtel inherits win ahead of HappyKojot and Celárek after Palubicki penalty – 4 brands in the Top 4

THR TTM 2025 — Round 1, Imola

Imola’s 1992 layout has a way of exposing the brave, sparking drama, and rewarding those who stay out of trouble. The season‑opening round of the THR Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (TTM) 2025 ticked all of these boxes in dramatic fashion. Mild conditions with 20°C under the autumn sun in the Emilia-Romagna region set the stage for the clash of a full grid of 39 strongly-piloted touring cars, which was expertly commentated by Microlin100 on the THR Live Broadcast.

Kuba Palubicki crossed the line first under controversial circumstances in the Linder BMW M3 from pole position, chased all the way home by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo 75 of Valentin Knechtel. Following an early collision during a heated battle for the lead, the unfortunate HappyKojot in the Ford Sierra RS500 of Side Heart Motorsports completed the podium after fighting his way past his team mate Adam Celárek (Holden VL Commodore) and Boby Vakuinof (Alfa 75). When the checkered flag came down after 32 laps of elbows-out fights, four manufacturers were in the top 5.

Qualifying: a four‑brand front row fight

Four makes in the first two rows, and within 0.6 seconds: this is what the TTM 2025 is all about. [Photo: Florian Masse]

The drivers who had narrowly missed out on the drivers title last season set the tone in qualifying. Kuba Palubicki from the Netherlands had missed out on the drivers title last year by just one point while racing under a pseudonym. Trading last year's Mercedes cockpit for the #20 BMW of Linder Rennsport paid off, and translated to a dominant pole position with a 1:51.021. Next up was the man who had achieved the same points score as Palubicki last year, but one race win less had sent him to 3rd. Adam Celárek from the Czech Republic stayed faithful to the mighty Holden VL Commodore and was four tenths off at 1:51.437.

His Side Heart Motorsports team mate HappyKojot underlined the duo's ambitions to defend the Teams Championship in the TTM. Now in a Ford Sierra RS500 after having driven a Mercedes-Benz 190E to 5th place last season, he flogged his new car into third place with a 1:51.559. The second row was completed by Valentin Knechtel (6th of the TTM 2024) with a 1:51.647. The German had also departed a Mercedes-Benz cockpit (from SG Stern) and teamed up with his compatriot Attila Diner (4th of the TTM 2024 in a Holden) to form the new Jolly Club team. On the debut of the new Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo Evoluzione S1 in the TTM, he led the charge for the Italian brand by just a tenth over privateer Boby Vakuinof from Bulgaria.

But where was the defending champion? Jaroslav Cerny stayed faithful to the black and yellow BMW M3 that earned him the 2021 THR DTM and the 2024 TTM drivers titles, but he struggled to find his rhythm at Imola. The Asahi Motorsports driver from the Czech Republic emerged from a disappointing qualifying session in 21st place - a testament to the competitive density of this year's TTM grid.

The race

Launch and lap‑one needlework

The opening lap was classic touring‑car theatre. Palubicki had a superb start from pole position in his BMW, while time stood still for the PCs of Celárek and HappyKojot when the lights went out, causing both of them to struggle to get off the line.

Knechtel immediately threaded the needle between the two Side Heart Motorsports cars and hunted down Palubicki through Tamburello. [Photo: FMG]

In front of Alfa Romeo's roaring home crowd, the German flew past Palubicki's BMW on the right side on the run to Villeneuve, while HappyKojot's 540 bhp Ford briefly made it a 3-wide for the lead on the left before slotting in behind them again at Villeneuve. The second of the Jolly Club Alfa Romeos achieved an even better start: from 12th on the grid, Attila Diner (#27) had already processed half of the cars ahead before Tamburello.

Knechtel defended the lead into Tosa but slightly overshot the entry, allowing Palubicki to get alongside before 2.2 bar of boost pushed the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo back into the lead on the run up to Piratella.

Attila Diner tangled with the Ford of Florian Masse at the exit of Tosa after the Frenchman had lost traction and made contact with Celárek's Holden while fighting over 4th place, sending both Masse and Diner back down the order by several positions. This handed 5th place to Boby Vakuinof, but the Bulgarian driver in the #36 Alfa Romeo had to earn it by outaccelerating the #79 Mercedes of Aymen Assabir, who made a fantastic start from 10th on the grid.

In the Nissan Skylines of Team Suntory, FMG and Flashor had already expected a difficult first race of the season but carefully hinted at the target of a Top 10 result. FMG was off to a great start in the blue Skyline when lap 1 had saw him climbing from 16th to 8th place, but that happiness was short-lived. Going into lap 2, he had a huge moment at Villeneuve where he understeered into the grass. Unable to get the car slowed down sufficiently for Tosa, he had to drive through the gravel trap. The pit wall had just finished their sigh of relief after FMG got back on track in 11th place, when his German team mate went off in the same place in even more spectacular fashion. Flashor one-upped FMG's mistake and spun the golden Suntory Skyline into the Tosa tire wall after capturing 27th from the SG Stern Mercedes of Christoph Mües, and lost 8 of the 9 positions that he had gained since the start. Still: could be worse!

The TTM debut of the pole sitter's team mate was a race to forget about.

Having qualified the #19 Linder BMW with blue window banners into 9th on the grid, Jacopo Hrynecko from the Czech Republic jumped the start, earning him a drive through penalty. He attempted to serve it at the end of lap 1 and pulled into the pits. The TTM rookie was unaware of how to serve a drive through in Assetto Corsa when the automatic pit speed limiter is disabled on the server (stay under 80 km/h by yourself). After botching two attempts to serve his drive through penalty, Hrynecko got disqualified.

Battle for Glory (Laps 3–8)

The top 3 emerged nose to tail from the 2nd lap, with Knechtel still leading the way in the Alfa Romeo. Happykojot then powered past Palubicki after Tamburello and threw the fast Ford into the apex of Villeneuve, directly ahead of Palubicki.

The BMW driver immediately launched a bold dive bomb around the outside at Villeneuve in a bid to recapture 2nd at Tosa, daringly putting 2 wheels on the grass and forcing his 4-channel ABS into overtime.

After the BMW barely stayed on track without torpedoing the leading Alfa Romeo, the Ford pulled alongside Palubicki again approaching Piratella. The BMW driver prevailed around the outside and defended 2nd place, and Celárek's Holden caught up to form a 3-car battle for 2nd place.

Knechtel held on to the lead until lap 5, when Palubicki managed to compromise the German's run through Variante Alta with a mock dive that allowed him to stay close enough to throw his M3 down the inside at the next braking zone. Busy fighting to limit the flat spotting of his front tyres without ABS, the German could only watch helplessly how the BMW driver took the lead out of his hands at Rivazza.

The two rubbed fenders, and the pole sitter was back in the lead. Although Knechtel got alongside again on the run towards Villeneuve on the next lap, his Alfa Romeo was no match for the BMW in the curved braking zone for Tosa, and he slotted back into 2nd place trailing a cloud of smoke from the locked-up front right tyre. A subsequent mistake at Acque Minerali saw the Alfa Romeo driver lose 2nd place to Happykojot, before almost forcing the Holden of Celárek into a spin while slamming the door shut. The Czech driver regained control, and outbraked Knechtel into Rivazza after the German had made another error at Variante Alta.

The battle for the lead boiled over on lap 8. Having hunted down the leading BMW of Kuba Palubicki, HappyKojot took the lead on the run from Tamburello to Villeneuve. Having already succeeded with a risky counterattack through Villeneuve and into Tosa on lap 3, Palubicki decided to play with high stakes again, but this time it went wrong.

Palubicki's BMW slammed into the back of HappyKojot's Ford and fired it off into the gravel trap on lap 8.

The furious Polish Ford driver got back underway with smoking tyres and 6 seconds behind Palubicki, barely holding on to 5th ahead of the best-placed Mercedes driven by Aymen Assabir from Spirit Team Sprite. HappyKojot's team mate Adam Celárek inherited 2nd place.

Composure counts

The Czech Holden driver remained just outside of striking distance to the leader until after 21 minutes, when he lost the rear upon arrival at the Acque Minerali chicane and dropped back to 5th place.
Teething troubles for Asahi Motorsport: after contact with his new team mate Adam Keefe (#16 Holden) while battling for 10th place with a little under 20 minutes to go, the defending TTM champion Jaroslav Cerny found himself in the gravel trap at Tosa. The duo barely managed to stay in the Top 15.

With the race settling, the Top 5 looked like a rolling car brochure: BMW, two Alfa Romeos, Ford, Holden. Knechtel’s Alfa had only qualified 4th, but by half‑distance he was the leading BMW’s most consistent shadow. Meanwhile, HappyKojot regained his composure, keeping his team mate in the Holden behind him while both of them began to apply pressure to Boby Vakuinof.

For a long time, it looked like the Bulgarian Alfa Romeo privateer could defend the last step on the podium, but he cracked under pressure from HappyKojot with 13 minutes to go.

After the Alfa Romeo driver overshot the entry into Tosa, the Polish Ford driver was able to stick in his nose before the Bulgarian could shut the door again, and the resulting contact opened it up far enough for both of the Side Heart Motorsports drivers to sneak through.

While the race duration was only an hour, this race was also about endurance. In addition to the early disqualification of Jacopo Hrynecko (#19 Linder Rennsport BMW), three other participants retired from the race:

  • Jayden HW (#97 Side Heart Nissan) never made it out of the pits: the Australian overslept the race and will be subjected to a registration acceptance delay for Round 2
  • Mika Hakala (#73 privateer BMW) from Finland retired after 21 minutes with an audio output failure after his PC ran out of virtual memory
  • Laci Fancher (#78 Spirit Team Sprite Mercedes) from the United States blew up her engine

The run to the flag

Although fatigue gradually melted down Palubicki's lead throughout the final laps, he kept the BMW calm in the chicanes, ensuring fantastic traction out of Variante Alta. Having set the fastest lap of the race earlier on at 1:52:331, this was enough to keep Knechtel's Alfa Romeo just outside of striking distance, and to cross the line first.

Bearing the marks from the fateful collision on lap 8, Palubicki rescued a lead of 1.17 seconds across the line but the resulting 11 second time penalty handed the win to Knechtel. HappyKojot (+4.261s) and Celárek (+5.233s) completed the podium, while Vakuinof (+11.05s) missed out on inheriting 4th by a hair's width.

The strongest Mercedes result was delivered by Aymen Assabir in 7th place - two positions ahead of FMG in the best Nissan, who lost a drag race to the checkered flag against the Swatch Ford of Florian Masse. The manufacturer that brought the most cars into the Top 10 was Alfa Romeo (P1, P5, P6, P10), while the lone Audi privateer Akira (#91 Viasa Racing) from Venezuela finished in a disappointing 23rd place.

FMG and Willphaizer (P11) gained 8 and 9 positions respectively. The reigning champion Jaroslav Cerny quickly gained 10 places from 21st on the grid, but ultimately he had to settle for 14th place following contact with his team mate Adam Keefe - an early blow to his title defense. The most successful charge of the race was delivered by the THR founder.

With just 30 minutes of practice after skipping qualifying, pitman started from dead last (39th) and gained 12 positions to finish in 27th place. [Photo: Florian Masse]

Official Top 5 Results

  1. Valentin Knechtel (Alfa Romeo 75) — 32 laps, 60:31.955 — best 1:52.744 
  2. SDH‑M ~ HappyKojot (Ford Sierra RS500) — +3.091s — best 1:53.413
  3. Adam Celárek (Holden VL Commodore) — +4.063s — best 1:52.494 
  4. Kuba Palubicki (BMW M3 E30) — +9.83s (due to 11s penalty) — fastest lap 1:52.331
  5. Boby Vakuinof (Alfa Romeo 75) — +9.88s — best 1:52.773

Next across the line: Nat Stevenson P6, Aymen Assabir P7, Florian Masse P8, FMG P9 (coming from 16th), and Attila Diner P10.

What it means for the championship

The season uses the familiar 40‑37‑34‑31‑30‑29… points system. After Imola:

  • Valentin Knechtel leads on 40. 
  • HappyKojot sits second on 37. 
  • Adam Celárek is third, at 34. 
  • Kuba Palubicki (31) and Boby Vakuinof (30) complete the early top five. 
  • Then come Nat Stevenson 29, Aymen Assabir 28, Florian Masse 27, FMG 26, Attila Diner 25. 

In the teams championship, Side Heart Motorsports take an early lead with 71 points, closely shadowed by Jolly Club (65). Asahi Motorsport (41) hang on to 3rd despite a team-internal collision in a mediocre race for both of their drivers. The top 5 are completed by Simruina Racing Team III (37) and Simruina Racing Team II (35). Linder Rennsport (31) threw away a first match ball with a DNF and a time penalty.

One round in, the headline is parity: BMW, Alfa Romeo, Ford, and Holden all proved that they had the pace to win at Imola. Mercedes-Benz showed glimpses of promise and Nissan salvaged an acceptable score at a track that doesn't suit them particularly well, while the lone Audi disappointed.

The clashes at the front on the first 8 laps showed how fine the margins are and how quickly fortunes can turn, and the no‑nonsense climbs from Willphaizer and FMG showed how much the midfield can be reshuffled in a race. If Imola is any indication, TTM 2025 will be decided by whoever can string together speed, discipline, and survival instincts best in this pressure cooker of competition.

Next up: Horsma. Different rhythm, same cast—bring it on.

Published on Leave a comment on THRs TTM 2025 and TCTM 2025 Championships start this weekend at Imola 1992
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The TTM grid is overbooked but we can still offer cockpits for the TCTM round on Saturday.

The Clio Rookie Trophy gives beginners a taste of the action on Thursdays of all TTM weeks.

All rules and further information can be found following this link:

TTM Season 2025

Published on Leave a comment on Official Report: THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025

We could not have wished for a more sensational start to the 2025 season of historic simracing at THR. Once again, we embarked on a grueling 6 hour race - this time with three classes - around a period-correct representation of the world's most famous endurance race track. Using a quadruple time progression multiplier, our participants got a compressed taste of what it could have felt like to participate in the world's most famous 24 hour race in the 1960s.

With a record crowd of 135 drivers from 10 communities sharing 52 historic Prototype & GT race cars from the mid-1960s, the THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025 has surpassed last year's edition as the biggest endurance race in THR history. Unbelievably, the entry list had run out of vacant slots within just 3:40h of opening the registrations, rapidly necessitating the addition of a waiting list.

Welcome to the official report of a race for the history books.

Expression of Gratitude

None of this would have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of drivers, teams, and countless supporters. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who took part in this event. Whether you were behind the wheel, supporting a team, or simply watching and cheering from the sidelines, you played a vital role in making this event a success.

A special thank you also goes out to our incredible commentators (PirateLaserBeam, Akashic, Guido, Thomas, and Jascha), who brought the race to life with their expert analysis and engaging coverage. Their efforts made both the English and German live broadcasts highly enjoyable for our audience. Additionally, we are especially grateful to GPLaps, who not only participated in the race but also streamed the event from his Matra's cockpit, bringing the excitement of historic endurance simracing to an even wider audience. Syndicate Motorsport's team Hawk additionally provided a front-row seat into their early hour-long fight for 2nd place, livestreaming from the cockpit of their #98 Chaparral 2F.

These streams combined had amassed an incredible 26,000 views within just a week and eclipsed more than 30,000 views at the time of this report's publishing, highlighting the strong appeal of vintage sim racing and the growing interest in this genre.

Seeing such enthusiasm and engagement is truly fantastic!

We also want to thank our generous sponsors for their amazing prizes that were raffled after the victory lane interviews with the podium finishing teams:

ALL OF YOU made this evening special for us!

Yours,
THR Orga Team

Here comes the full report to tell the story of this amazing event, featuring plenty of screenshots & videos provided by the participants. Sit back, grab your favourite beverage of choice, and enjoy the read!

...continue reading "Official Report: THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025"

Published on Leave a comment on THRacing Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

Heated battles in the pinnacle of Group A touring cars: can you stay cool enough to prevail here?
Click here to find out more about the THRacing Tourenwagen Meisterschaft 2024

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Published on 1 Comment on Official Report: THR 6 Heures du Mans 2024

The 2024 season of historic Assetto Corsa simracing at THR started on 21st January 2024 with the biggest endurance race in THR history. An enormous field of 114 drivers from 6 communities shared 48 Prototype race cars from the mid-1960's and embarked on a grueling 6 hour race with two classes around a period-correct representation of the world's most famous endurance race track. Using a quadruple time progression multiplier, participants got a compressed taste of what it would feel like to conduct a 24 hour race.

A huge thank you goes out from the entire THRacing team to our friends and fellow competitors that joined us on track from the following communities:

  • Cockpit Racing Simulation (CRS)
  • Revival Series (RS)
  • VintageAC (VAC)
  • Virtual Racing e.V. (VR)
  • virtueller Asphalt (vA)
  • ... and teams from several other communities who joined on short notice

Our special thanks in particular go to:

  • Gero from the Virtual Racing e.V. community (VR) for making the German live broadcast possible, and to Dennis, Guido, Florian and Sebastian from VR for entertaining the German-speaking audience with their awesome German live broadcast with interviews
  • Syndicate Motorsports community for stepping in 4 days before the event to make an English live broadcast possible, wherein PirateLaserBeam and King-Kodiak entertained the international audience with a great English live broadcast that even bridged the delay with a hugely creative pre-event coverage, as well as conducting a lot of exciting interviews including the victory lane interviews
  • All participants and broadcasters for staying with us throughout the 1:42h delay caused by technical issues before we all finally managed to get underway and had an amazing race together, both on and off the track
  • 3DRAP for kindly sponsoring the post-race raffle

ALL OF YOU made this evening special for us!

Yours,
THR Orga Team

[Continue reading for the full report on the event with plenty of screenshots, videos & official results]

...continue reading "Official Report: THR 6 Heures du Mans 2024"

Published on Leave a comment on Official Report: THR 4-Stunden-Rennen Deutschlandring 2023

The 2023 season of historic Assetto Corsa simracing at THR started on 22nd January 2023 with the biggest endurance race in THR history. An enormous field of 72 drivers from 7 communities shared 36 Group 3 GT cars of the mid-1960's and embarked on a grueling 4 hour race.

A huge thank you goes out from the entire THRacing team to our friends and fellow competitors from:

  • Americas Sim Racing League (ASRL)
  • Cockpit Racing Simulation (CRS)
  • Classic Vintage Racers (CVR)
  • VintageAC (VAC)
  • Virtual Racing e.V. (VR)
  • virtueller Asphalt (vA)

Special thanks in particular go to Virtual Racing for hosting both live streams, to Dennis & Thomas for narrating the German live stream, and to Microlin100 & Alfoyb for narrating the English live stream. ALL OF YOU made this evening special for us!

[Continue reading for the full report on the event with plenty of screenshots, videos & official results]

...continue reading "Official Report: THR 4-Stunden-Rennen Deutschlandring 2023"