Volker adds third MIBO International win
Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker has won a third MIBO International, the Touring Car Champion successfully defending his title with another dominant performance in the Czech Republic. Securing the overall TQ after 3 rounds of qualifying, the German kicked of finals day with a 5th TQ run before going on to win all 3 A-Mains on this year’s new Racestars designed & built track. While the former World Champion had the edge of the rest of the field, the big battle of the weekend would be really for the other two podium places with Xray’s Adam Izsay the only one to mix it against Mugen team in Hrotovice. While 2025 TITC Open Brushless Champion Sören Sparbier managed to get by Izsay for second in the opening encounter, Iszay, helped by a mistake from Sparbier, held position in A2 and again in A3 to finish overall runner-up. Making his MIBO debut Sparbier complete the podium denying team-mate Patrick Gollner a repeat of his 2025 result. While Volker notched up his third Modified title this year ahead of Iszay, the Hungarian who really impressive in the opening two Modified qualifiers, would achieve the same in Stock. Winning A1 & 2 to defend his title, Iszay was joined on the podium by A3 winner Jaroslav Kriz with Tobias Sutrich claiming the 3rd step. In FWD, Phil Langer was another to defend his 2025 win leading home Loris Buchhalt and previous FWD winner Stefan Schulz.
Summing up his dominant weekend, the German no stranger to the Sport V Hotel which has hosted many various races over the years, Volker said, ‘It was pretty much perfect. I mean even in A3 it felt even more better so I was over confident and sent if off the chicane, but I recovered and still had a great race.’ He continued, ‘Q5 and the finals the grip was getting higher and I was able to make the car a bit more drivable by applying front additive later and that was basically the main change I did today.’ He added, ‘I am happy with my own pace but it is a bit of a shame we could’nt try to get Adam off P2, but well done to him especially in the first two qualifiers when he was really strong.’ Yet to miss a MIBO International, which is organised by his former Yokomo team-mate Michal Bok, Volker concluded, ‘It was another great event organised by MIBO and hopefully I’ll be coming back when it happens again next year.’
Reacting to his strong weekend Izsay said, ‘Stock was good. I had steady drives in A1 and A2 to bring home the win. In Modified we lost a little bit of pace compared to the first two qualifying rounds so we were trying to find that back. Still I had a good race with Soren and Patrick for the second place which I could secure in the last final so overall it was a very good race for me.’ Asked how he enjoyed his Modified outing, he said, ‘I like Modified, two classes is busy to drive, it’s a challenge but it is good and I enjoy it a lot.’
While claiming a podium on his MIBO debut, it was clear Sparbier felt he should have done better. Summing up his 3rd place finish with ‘ah it’s OK’, the 19-year-old explained, ‘Adam was not so fast in the last qualifier and in the finals and in the first one I could catch him but in the second one I had a little mistake and it was P4 for me. The last final I must really brake hard for Adam and then come Patrick and we are in the middle of the pack but P3 is OK. We worked well this weekend as a team.’
View the action from the second A-Main of Modified in which the 2026 MIBO International title was decided.
View full results here.
