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.

Volker Top Qualifier at MIBO International

As a two time winner of MIBO International, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker will chase a third win of the Czech race tomorrow from pole position after claiming the overall TQ honours will a perfect day on the carpet.  While it was Xray’s Adam Izsay who set the pace in Friday’s free practice, Volker made Saturday his own kicking off official proceedings by topping the 2 seeding rounds.  Leading away the top heat of Modified qualifying, the German then completed a clean sweep securing the TQ in Q3 before capping off the day with a fourth TQ run in the penultimate round.  With one last qualifier in the morning, Volker will look to repeat the 5 from 5 he took last year on his way to victory over Michal Orlowski.  Behind the 2016 World Champion it is Iszay who holds second overnight but three drivers recorded runs to the second fastest times and between Iszay, the reigning Stock Champion who will defend that title from the TQ, MIBO International debutant Sören Sparbier, 2025 podium finisher Patrick Gollner it is still all to play for to see who starts directly behind Volker.

Reacting to his TQ Volker described it as ‘a perfect day pretty much.’  He continued, ‘the car actually improved for the last round.  I copied one small detail from Patrick (Gollner), I also improved myself, and felt even more confident with the car.’  He added, ‘Overall I am happy that Patrick and Sören had really good runs as well and are fighting with Adam for P2.  I’m satisfied both for me and them.’  Changing his LRP powered  MTC3’s diff and spool position for Q3 asked how that changed felt he said, ‘the lap times where slower, the 5-minutes was slower but I think the track was just slower because everyone went a bit slower but the car feeling was good.’  On the change suggested by Gollner he said, ‘I changed the shock position for Q4, Patrick and Sören run it and I was running a different one.  Surprisingly it gave me even more confidence and made me feel more confortable with the car.  I was actually making driver mistakes because I was so confident with the car.  I almost pushed too hard.’

Summing up his four qualifiers, Izsay said, ‘Stock was very good, the four rounds the car was great.  In Modified I had a very good first two rounds, was close to Ronald being less than a second off in both.  In the third round we tried a set-up change and it didn’t work as well so I reworked it back to my previous set-up for Q4 and had new tyres so I broke them in for tomorrow.  Ronald already has the TQ so we’ll try to secure the second place on the grid.’  Asked if from second he felt he could put Volker under a bit of pressure in the finals, the Hungarian said, ‘It will be difficult but anything can happen.  There will be so many lapped cars, so much travel, and to be in the lead is for sure more pressure than to follow, so anything can happen for sure.’

Ending the day with his best qualifier, P2 in Q4, Gollner said that having tested different additives over the day he returned back to the normal PHUB additive and it worked out in making him more consistent that Iszay and Sparbier in round 4 and he could get a P2.  For Sparbier, having run a grey body all day, feeling the fatigue of 12-hours at the track, he switched to a 2 gram heavier body painted in his race colours scheme in order to try make it easier for him to see.  While he got another P3 for the round it would be his slowest time of the day.  Equal on points with Izsay, his rival has the current tie breaker counting a pair of seconds and a P4 so Q5 will be critical for the 19-year-old German.

Zalewski top seed in Czech Republic

Xray’s Bartek Zalewski continues to set the pace at MIBO International, the defending 2WD Champion topping Saturday morning’s seeding practice in both 2WD and 4WD.  The Polish driver set the pace in yesterday’s free practice with the Schumacher of compatriot Michal Orlowski his closest challenger after the 5-round and it was a repeat of that over the 2 seeding rounds today.  In 2WD, Zalewski had almost 3/10ths of a second advantage over Orlowski with European Champion Martin Bayer completing the Top 3 ahead of Czech racer Dominik Vlasek, Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik and Sworkz’s Micha Vidmaier.  In 4WD Orlowski was only 4/100ths off, with last year’s runner-up Kobbevik completing the Top 3 despite failing to improve on his SP1 time.  British Schumacher team driver Ben Smith seeds fourth ahead of Bayer with Vidmaier again completing the Top 6.

‘The pace is still good, both cars are working really good’, was Zalewski reaction after the completion of seeding.  The 19-year-old continued, ‘the cars are easy to drive and fast, so it’s all really good right now.’  Asked about the track layout in terms of difficulty in running an error free 5-minute qualifier, the double winner of the MKGP in the UK earlier this month, replied, ‘It’s not extremely difficult to make a clean 5-minutes on this track, so I hope it will be all good for qualifying.’

Orlowski summed up seeding with, ‘It was OK’.  The previous MIBO International Touring Car Champion continued, ‘we just made small changes each run.  The track is quite high grip.  It’s fresh carpet and the temperature is quite nice here so the grip is pretty high and we are trying to make the car easy but then there is a lot of twisty turns we need the steering for.  So we just making small changes from the set-up we have been running all Winter.’  Feeling both his cars are running equally good, he said, ‘Bartek is faster on 3-laps but with both cars I am able to do clean runs so we will see if that is enough for qualifying.’

Summing up seeding, Kobbevik said, ‘It was quite consistent but not I’m not at the pace of Michal and Bartek yet.  I trying to figure some stuff out which is not too far away but hopefully I can find this small adjustments that make it a bit easier & faster.’  Asked what he felt he was lacking in his buggies, the World Championship finalist explained, ‘right now it pace and also the confidence going around the track.  The track is quite open and not too difficult.  Last year it was a lot of 180s, the tabletop was difficult, now it has a lot of flow and speed.  So looking at the track you would think its easy but you need to go so quick and the first mistake its a complete disaster and from the middle of the track you can end up on the back straight.’   On which buggy he is more comfortable with, the Norwegian said, ‘maybe the are the same but the 4WD is I feel like a bit faster so that’s nice.  The 2-wheel I am doing some drastic changes every run and sometimes they are good and sometimes bad.’

Volker tops seeding at MIBO International

Defending MIBO International Champion Ronald Volker has topped Touring Car seeding in the Czech Republic this morning, the Mugen Seiki driver fastest ahead of Xray’s Adam Izsay who had set the pace in yesterday’s five rounds of free practice.  Making his MIBO debut, it was Volker’s young team-mate Sören Sparbier who completed the Top 3.  In the first of the two seeding runs on the new for 2026 Racestar’s built track, it was a very Mugen affair at the top of the timing sheets with Volker fastest from Sparbier and last year podium finisher Patrick Gollner with Izsay only managing P4.  With the track’s new carpet continuing to grip up, Volker would knock another 2/10ths off his time in SP2 with an improved Izsay the only on to manage to join him on 29-seconds for his 3-consecutive fastest laps.  Gollner will carry the No.4 for seeding ahead inaugural 2023 MIBO podium finisher Oliver Havranek with the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp, who stripped a spur gear in SP2, completing the Top 6.  In 17.5 Stock, Izsay continued to set the pace in Hrotovice, topping seeding from the Mugen Seiki of German Phil Langer and Austrian Tobias Sutrich.

Summed up his morning of seeding runs, Volker said, ‘I made some changes with the flex and it not only improved for the 3-laps but also for the 5-minutes.’  Asked if he added or took away flex he replied, ‘Let’s say my flex was too stiff for the first seeding and even with the grip getting slighter higher I made a bit more flex.  The tyres are also getting more grippy as they get older.  Normally less flex is good for high grip but I just didn’t have enough flex at all.  So I improved this for the second run and the consistency was a lot better.’  Looking to Q1, drivers getting 5 rounds which Volker managed a clean sweep of last year to TQ ahead of Michal Orlowski, he said, ‘I will for sure continue to make small changes to learn.  Adam had a pretty good run (in SP2) and Sören and Patrick have really good pace too so its good to have them close to the top.  Also it was good to see Phil Langer P2 in Stock after seeding which was a major improvement after some changes to his car. So as a team we are looking strong for qualifying to start.’

On his seeding efforts, Izsay said, ‘Stock was good, the car was working wel,l but in Modified I had some struggles in the first one but then I changed back to my P5 set-up from yesterday evening and it was good the second run.’  The Hungarian, who now lives in Slovakia due to his full time R&D role with Xray, added, ‘I think the pace is OK, Ronald is a bit ahead.  Maybe the 3-lap pace is similar but he is more consistent so I’ll try change a few small things for Q1 and hopefully close the gap to him and race it out with the other guys who are fast as well.’

Opting to run an aluminium chassis on his MTC3 while both Volker and Gollner are running a steel version, Sparbier summed up his seeding as ‘OK’ pointing out that ‘Adam was a bit faster in the last one but I think on 5-minutes I am better’.  Adding a little more glue to his tyres for SP2, on his decision to run an alu chassis, the 19-year-old said, ‘I think the steel is too easy to drive as I like the car to be a little bit aggressive which suits my driving style better.’  His first attendance at MIBO International, asked how he is finding the track layout, the German said, ‘I think it is really good.  It’s not big but I like it.’