The Aprilia Bokor Cup took place at the very beautiful village of Bokor (located in Hungary) on the long weekend of August 24-26. This was the very first international money award buggy race in Hungary. Drivers from Czech Republic, Lithuania, Italy and Germany participated to compete together with the Hungarian drivers for the huge prizes:
- 1st place: Aprilia Scooter
- 2nd place: €1500
- 3rd place: €1000
Main prize (click to enlarge)
Team XRAY was well represented and set the pace right from the beginning with its team drivers from Czech Republic (Martin Bayer, Martin Pater), further strengthened by Hungarian Gergely Cseko who switched to off-road for this event. The XB8EC cars were performing very well with the standard setup and only slight setup changes were neccessary as track conditions changed.
On Friday morning, the start of the open practice was delayed because of a huge storm that hit the track the previous night. The organisers did their best to recover so we could start practicing at noon. We finished the day with the first round of qualifying.
Cseko Gergely's car w/o body (click to enlarge)
On Saturday the other 3 rounds of qualifying were scheduled. The top 4 drivers went directly into the 45min main final. It was a very close racing and at the end it was Martin Bayer(CZ) who set the TQ by winning the 2nd and 4th rounds. Martin Pater(CZ) finished second with 4 points by winning the 3rd round with the best overall time and finishing 3rd in the last round. In position 3rd it was Gergely Cseko(HUN) with 4 points by finishing 2nd place in all qualifiers. Ifj. Orsovai Dezső(HUN) grabbed 4th place with 4 points by winning the 1st round and finishing 3rd in the second round. This was a really great result for XRAY with XB8EC cars sitting in the first 3 positions of the starting grid!
Cseko Gergely's car (click to enlarge)
After all qualifying rounds were finished there was a party in the evening for all drivers and their mechanics where the organizers prepared plenty of different foods and drinks. The cost of this dinner was included in the entry fee (€20) together with a nice T-shirt specially designed for this event and a Pro-Line inner decal for buggy bodies.
After the party instead of sleeping I decided to rebuild the whole car to check everything. I changed the bearings in the hubs and also rebuilt the diffs and shocks. My RB Concept C6BBT7 engine also got a fresh glowplug. During wrenching my father (who is my mechanic) and I discussed tyre and fuel strategy for the final, as consumption was quite high.
Martin Bayer's car (click to enlarge)
We decided to run with Pro-Line Crime Fighters in XTR compound and refuel for every 7.5min. We went to sleep at 3:00AM knowing that everything was ready for the 45min race.
On Sunday they started with the lower finals. In between the lower finals we had practice for the top 4. I felt that the car was performing very well after the rebuild despite the track becoming slower and more difficult, especially the washboard and fast long sweeping corner after the straight. I was confident before the main final, feeling that a podium finish was possible if I didnâ™t make big mistakes.
From 1/2 A final the following drivers bumped up:
- Andriolo Hermes (ITA)
- Frank Andreas (GER)
- Gyurics Tamás (HUN)
From 1/2 B final the following drivers bumped up:
- Dworschak Patrik (CZ)
- Miroslav Jurenka (CZ)
- Taurius Sinkevicius (LT)
Martin Pater's car (click to enlarge)
The main final started at around 2:00PM. Because of the temperature and the longer distance we richened the engine slightly in the 3min warmup period to prevent stops and/or running too lean in the 2nd part of the final. This turned out to be very good decision in the end. At the 30sec mark all the drivers lined up on the grid. Around 20sec to the horn Martin Bayerâ™s car suddenly stopped; he restarted his car in time but had to start from the 11th position. The start went well for the first 3-4 cars than there were some accidents in the middle of the pack. In the 2nd lap I overtook Martin Pater in a tight corner and took the lead. Meanwhile, Martin Bayer showed why he was the fastest during qualification and by the 4th lap he was in 3rd place. I opened the gap on Martin Pater but a bit later made a big mistake coming onto the straight, getting stuck into the curb and having to be marshalled. I continued in 3rd position with Italian Andriolo Hermes in very close 4th position. A few laps later Martin Bayer and Martin Pater had a crash and both cars had to be marshalled.
Just before the start of the final (click to enlarge)
At around 5min mark most of the drivers came into the pits for refueling. This was the moment where I knew I would have a very good chance by making 2-3 less pitstops than the others. I came into the pit first at the 7min mark since we had to make almost one full lap before we reached the timing line after the start. After the first fuelstop Martin Pater had some engine stoppages and lost a lot of time. Martin Bayer was leading the race by a few seconds ahead of me while Andriolo was 3rd right behind my rear wing. After the 2nd pitstop I tried to save tires and fuel knowing that there was still 30min to go. Martin continously increased his lead with Andriolo in 2nd place. At the 30min mark I was in 4th and started to push; a few minutes later I was in 3rd place again. At around 40mins Andriolo ran out of tires and lost a lot of speed so I could overtake him for 2nd place. With only 1min to go Martin Bayer had really bad luck while he was leading by about 30sec when his engine suddenly stopped; he lost a lot of time and finish 3rd.
Main final results:
1. Gergely Cseko (HUN) XRAY XB8EC
2. Andriolo Hermes (ITA) 3. Martin Bayer (CZ) XRAY XB8EC
4. Ifj. Orsovai Dezso (HUN)
5. Frank Andreas (GER)
6. Miroslav Jurenka (CZ)
7. Dworschak Patrik (CZ)
8. Taurius Sinkevicius (LT) 9. Martin Pater (CZ)XRAY XB8EC
10. Gyurics Tamas (HUN)
Podium (click to enlarge)
I would like to thank Unico Modellsport for the sponsorship, my father for being my mechanic and supporting me for a long time now, and the owner and head organizer (namely, the Szebelledi family) who make this event happen
This is an annual event, so be prepared and check http://www.bokor-ring.hu/ Web site for the latest updates! Hope to meet you there next year!
