Osella driver Simone Faggioli (ITA) won the 2011 edition of the GHD Petrol EC Championship at Illirska Bistrica (SLO). Fausto Bormolini (ITA) and Jaro Krajci (SK) were the other two podium finishers.

All 3 Zele-Racing drivers finished in the top 15 from over 110 classified drivers. Hermann Waldy sen. (P11), who was 9th after the first heat reported: “ It was my aim to be around P10 so i did not push in the second heat. I could have gone faster but i always had in my mind that my home race is just 1 week ahead. So the result is ok for me.“

Marjan Smrdelj, our Teamtrukie, finished close behind Waldy on P12:“ If i had another run, i could go so much faster. I´m still getting used to the B02/50. It´s amazing how good the car is. Hermann should watch out next weekend!“

Also Nic Brebsom (P15) was all smiling after the race:“ Everything is perfect today. I improved over 10 seconds compared to last year. Slowly i start to realise how fast you can go in an F3000. Next week i hope to make another step forward in St.Urban / Simonhöhe.“

Mansell Motorsport driver Marijn van Kalmthout (Benetton Judd F1)dominated both races at the RedBull Ring. He led twice from start to finish and managed to fend off his biggest rival and multiple champion Klass Zwart (Jaguar R5 Cosworth). Ingo Gerstl (GP2/05) completed the podium in race 1, whilst P3 in race 2 went to Patrick d´Aubreby (Benetton Ford F1).

Bad luck again for Peter Milavec. After finishing solid 5th in race 1, he clashed with Gerstl at the start of race 2. Gerstl spun but was able to continue, whilst Milavec was out.

67 year old veteran and Zele-Racing client Karl Heinz Becker (Dallara Nissan V6) finished twice on the podium (P2). Just 9 weeks after a triple bypass heart surgery he was still not satisfyed with his performance.

Becker:“ I know i have finished twice on the podium. But my laptimes were shit. Ok, race 2 was better, but i´m a racer. I know where i have to improve, but i could not get my head around it. Maybe i´m not fully up to speed yet. In any case it was much better than Zandvoort 2 weeks ago. There, i was struggling with my fitness. Here it was ok. I had no problems. The car feels much better thanks to the help of Zele-Racing.“

Free Practice for tomorrow Illirska Bistrica Hillclimb (EC) was dominated by Osella works-driver Simone Faggioli (IT).

Zele-Racing drivers Waldy, Brebsom and Smrdelj were all running without problems and are looking forward for the two race heats tomorrow.

Waldy (P9):“ Everything works to plan so far. The car runs like clockwork. We tried a few things with the anti roll bars today. P9 is not fantastic, but there´s a lot of fast guys here. All i need is to be in the top 10 tomorrow.“

Smrdelj (P12):“ At the moment i have to worry too much about my daughter´s car, which is giving us problems all the time. So i can´t really focus on my own driving. We still did not receive the new ratios, so we´re geared too long. We´ll sort it out next week for Simonhöhe.“

Brebsom (P15):“ Yeah, it´s going better everytime i get in the car. I am already 4 seconds faster here than i was last year. I had really old tires on the car today and have saved the brandnew set for tomorrow. I´m happy as my car works perfect now. I hope to be a bit closer to the top 10 tomorrow.“

Zele-Racing client, German racing veteran Karl-Heinz Becker (Dallara World Series by Nissan) qualified solid 2nd in class (8th over all) for tomorrow´s race 1 of the BossGP at the RedBull Ring (Austria).

Poleposition went to Dutch Marijn van Kalmthout (Benetton Judd F1) who managed to outpace fellow Dutchman Klaas Zwart (Benetton F1) by a couple of tenths.

Becker had to quit free practice after 7 laps due to a broken pneumatic compressor on his paddleshift system, but managed to improve his laptime by over 3.5 seconds in Qualifying.

Becker:“ It´s 13 years since i last raced here at Zeltweg. I am still learning the track. I feel quite confident with my car now. The handling has improved a lot since Zele-Racing set the car up for me this week. I never managed to get some tiretemperature, but now it seems to work. I know there´s a lot more time to come from my side.“

Hermann Waldy, Nic Brebsom and Marjan Smrdelj are on the way to Illirska Bistrica Hillclimb. Very hot weather conditions are expected for this weekend, when the European Hillclimb Championship is visiting Slovenia. All three drivers are highly motivated.

Hermann Waldy: „Personally i do like this track. I believe it will suit my new car and depending how it goes we should be closer to the top times than at our last race at Lucine. Of course it will be tough as also Simone Faggioli and Marcel Steiner will be around. I will do my best. My focus is on the Austrian Championship and my home race next week at Simonhöhe.“

Nic Brebsom:“ I just returned from holidays in Italy. It´s good to be back in my F3000. Not sure how close to the top guys i can run, but the Kitzeck result was a positive sign.“

Marjan Smrdelj:“ This is my home race. I live just 10km up the road from the finish line. Of course i am fully motivated to show a good performance in front of my home crowd. We´re still struggling a bit with the ratios not being as i would like them to be, but we have already ordered some new gears. In any case, i will push this time!“

The BossGP Series will race at the RedBull Ring (Spielberg, Austria) on the 27th/28th August, means modern aera F1 cars will return to the Austrian track for the first time since 2003. Please check out the www.bossgp.com homepage for further infos.

Unfortunately Zele-Racing will not be present with any of it´s own cars at the RedBull Ring this weekend. However we will provide trackside support for our customers Karl Heinz Becker and Peter Randlshofer during the meeting.

Zele-Racing client, austrian hillclimb veteran Hermann Waldy, extended his championship lead with a solid 3rd place in yesterdays Lucine (SLO) hillclimb. With his Lola B06/51 having a significantly longer wheelbase compared with the Lola´s of winner Milan Svoboda (SK) and second placed Marietto Nalon (IT), both driving the older T96/50 respectively B99/50 chassis, it was difficult for Waldy to turn his racer around the numerous hairpins on the 4km Slovenian track.

Waldy:“ I knew before, that this track does not suit neither my car nor myself. My target was to finish on the podium and score full points for the austrian championship. This worked out ok. Also i always have to keep in mind that we have Illirska Bistrica and my homerace St.Urban/Simonhöhe coming up soon. It would be stupid to risk something with the next races being so close. Still, i´m very happy, the new car has so much potential.“

Marjan Smrdelj, our team truckie and owner of a beautiful Ferrari – livered Lola B02/50 showed very strong performance again. He brought his Lola home in 4th place despite struggling with not having the required steering lock available.

Smrdelj:“ In one particular corner i had to stop the car and reverse. We have to modify the nosecone to allow more steering lock. It is limited at the moment as the tires would touch the front wing endplates. Also the gears were no where near what we would need for this tight and twisty track. I am positive for the next event in 2 weeks at Illirska Bistrica (SLO). It´s my home race – i live just 10 minutes from the finish line.“

Very impressive performance also for Hermann Waldy jun. who finished 5th overall. His Dallara Opel F3 chassis was well suited for the Lucine track. In free practice he even managed to slip past his old man, which made Hermann sen. wonder big time.

Peter Randlshofer managed to seal his third consecutive title with 2 races to go. With his strongest competitor, Peter Milavec absent due to technical problems on his Panoz DP01  ChampCar, it was a walk in the park for Randlshofer to score full points at Most (CZ).

Randlshofer:“ My season started pretty bad this year with the crash i had in Hockenheim (BossGP).

With the broken ribs i suffered it was very tough to drive the car earlier this year. I never thought that i could win it so easy again this year. I have to point out that without the support of the Zele-Racing Team and the perfectly prepared car this would not have been possible. Apart from the barrell-roll in Hockenheim i had absolutely no problems throughout the season.“

Peter Randlshofer is Zele-Racing customer since 2007 and is racing his Dallara World Series by Nissan car since 2009.

Michael Zele:“ I am happy for Peter and also for my old Dallara Chassis. We ran the car for two years in the Telefonica World Series by Nissan back in 2002 and 2003. Unfortunately there was not too much competition in the Interseries this year, but Peter is a regular points scorer and reliability finally pays off as we could see once again.“

Hermann Waldy finally broke the duck with his new Lola B06/51 Judd F1 at Kitzeck hillclimb yesterday. Following a 5 race series of rainshowers and bad weather, there was sunshine and top conditions in Styria. It was a close battle in all 3 runs with hunagrian Laszlo Szasz, but Waldy managed to pull a 0,5 sec gap over his strongest competitior to seal the first overall victory of the 2011 season.

Waldy:“ I am delighted and really happy that i finally had the opportunity to race in my preferred conditions. The car is just great. I did say that before, but i have to repeat this – it´s really really good and i´m so glad to have this monkey off my shoulders.“

Nic Brebsom also showed very strong performance in heat 1, where he clocked the 5th fastest time. Unfortunately he dropped back to P9 overall but was still happy with the result.

Brebsom:“ Everything works fine and i am happy with the time i´ve achieved this morning. In the second run i went sideways and lost a few tenths. I think in the third run there was too much track temperature for the soft tire compound.“

Also Christian Tschemer was over the moon. After wrecking his Kadett GSI earlier this year he reported:“ we built the new car in less than 3 months and everything worked perfect. It took some time to get back into the groove, but in the final run i really went for it. Unfortunately something let go in the gearbox, when i went on two whels around the hairpin before the finish line. i crossed the line in 5th, the only gear i found, but the time was still pretty good. The Zele-Racing engine i bought last year is very strong and runs beautiful.“

Hermann Waldy finished on P2 in all 3 of today´s free practice runs at the St.Andrä / Kitzeck hillclimb in Austria. His strongest competitor, hungarian hotshoe Laszlo Szasz put his Reynard Formula Nippon racer on P1.

Zele-Racing client Nic Brebsom had a productive day as well and finished on P4 in class with his Lola T96/50 Zytek.

Brebsom:“ It´s going quite well now. The engine works ok and the times are not too bad either. Tomorrow we will fit a new set of tires. It would be nice to finish in the top 10 tomorrow as well.“

Another Zele-racing customer made his comeback as well today. Christian Tschemer, who wrecked his Opel Kadett E GSI 16V heavily in a hillclimb earlier this year, showed a good performance as well.