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Category: TTM 2025

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.