Estonian race-car driver Markus Kajak has won the Porsche Central European Circuit Series championship after finishing second in both sprint races in Hungary.
Kajak was disqualified from qualifying for a technical breach, forcing him to start from the back of the grid at the Hungaroring. He recovered to take second in both races and win the title.
Kajak, 22, is a former karting world cup winner.
The disqualification came after he had won the qualifying sessions. "Technical inspection found that one side of our car was one centimeter lower than permitted," he explained.
That penalty meant he had to start the sprint races from the back of the grid — 12th and 10th respectively. In the races themselves, the Estonian showed strong pace and finished second in both, which was enough to overtake the driver who had led the standings and take the title.
"I made strong enough first laps in both races and didn't lose much time to the leaders," Kajak said. "That allowed me to finish both sprints second. In fact, second place in the first race already secured the title, and I also won the rookie standings overall and we took first place in the team standings. So I can be very happy with the season."
Kajak also won the 100-mile endurance race at the weekend and helped the Dream 2 Drive team to the team title.
The results close out his season successfully, but preparations for next year are already underway. "There's no final clarity for next season yet, as I don't know whether I'll continue in karting," he said. "I'll certainly continue racing GT cars, but right now I don't know where, how or in which series."
The Porsche Sprint Challenge Central Europe is an officially licensed one-make series run by Lechner Racing. All drivers compete in identical 510-horsepower Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars with no electronic aids, across six Central European countries and two 25-minute sprint races plus a 60-minute endurance race per weekend.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!