Orlowski adds MIBO International to tally
Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added the MIBO International race to his 2024 winning tally with victory ahead of 2023 Champion Ronald Volker. The current benchmark in both onroad and offroad carpet racing but unable to do offroad at the unique Czech event due to a lack of mechanic, Orlowski dominated proceedings in Modified Touring Car. Taking TQ honours after 3 round of qualifying, but completing the clean sweep by taking Q4 & 5, in the opening A-Main he checked out early his prototype Schumacher finishing 2.5-second clear of Volker’s Mugen. A2 would start with Volker looking a lot more of a challenger and running close enough to give Orlowski the first bit of pressure of the weekend. A tyre additive driven improvement, unfortunately the advantage faded in the second half of the race and Orlowski again cruised to win and the overall MIBO International from Volker with Xray’s Jan Ratheisky completing the podium in Hrotovice.
Summing up his finals, Orlowski said, ‘I’m very happy to get another win for the new prototype chassis. It works good everywhere we go so far and it’s a good start to the year given it’s a Touring Car Worlds year’. The Pole continued, ‘we used Q4 & 5 to try some different things with the set-up as conditions here are different to GP3F and ETS.’ Now working with Italian racer Mattia Collina as his mechanic for electric touring car, describing him as ‘what Francesco (Martini) is to Bruno (Coelho)’, he said while Collina had racing commitments this weekend they did a lot of set-up work together over the phone and the changes for Q5 were ‘really good’ and they just carried that set-up into the finals. On Volker being closer for A2, he said, ‘Ronald tried a different additive and that gave him a good car at the start but I stuck the safer choice of additive and glad I did stick with what I have’. With the prototype chassis, which is a completely new design from the British manufacturer, attracting a lot of attention given Orlowski winning spree, asked about a release date he replied, ‘It is still a few months off release’.
Asked about his finals, Volker said, ‘In A1 I basically lacked grip and I was nowhere near to challenge Michal.’ The former World Champion continued, ‘For A2 I ran a different set of tyres and used a different additive and was right there. I was able to put a little pressure for the first 2-3 minutes but he made no mistake. It was a well deserved win for him’. Happy with his cars performance in A2 he would run the same again in A3 taking the win to secure the runner-up spot at the Michal Bok organised race.
In the other Touring Car Classes Ratheisky added to his Modified podium finish with the overall in win 17.5 Stock. Having taken the TQ from Xray team-mate Stefan Schulz, the German would secure the overall victory after wins in A1 & 2 with the A3 win giving Schulz the runner-up spot ahead of Austrian Tobias Sutrich. Securing the TQ in FWD, Schulz managed the same feat taking the title in A2 to add to his recent win in the Snowbird Nationals in Orlando. Making it a hat trick of wins for Xray on the onroad track British driver Luke Lee to the win in Formula.
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