12
WORLD AND LIFE
TCR 2017
NEWS
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DRIVERS TEAM
Josh Files has made it very clear that
he wants to retain the TCR Germany
title at the wheel of his Target
Competition Honda Civic. After
winning the season’s opening race at
Oschersleben, Files scored a double
victory at the Red Bull Ring, already
building a 55-point leading margin in
the standings ahead of his closest
rival Sheldon van der Linde. Kris
Richard lies third, a further 15 points
adrift.
In Race 1, Files took his second win
of the season after making a brilliant
start from the fourth row of the grid.
He took the lead and his Honda was
then never headed, taking the win
by 3.6 seconds over the SEAT León of
Mike Halder, with pole-sitter Dino
Calcum’s Opel Astra finishing in third
Josh Files
the untouchable
place a further second adrift. Steve
Kirsch was fourth, with the
recovering Antti Buri fifth.
The race saw the Safety Car deployed
on two occasions: once when Buri’s
Audi made contact with Luca
Engstler’s Volkswagen that then had
to be recovered from a gravel trap
and again on Lap 6 when Sven
Markert’s Audi hit the barriers after
contact with Pascal Eberle’s SEAT.
In Race 2, after another superb start
from third on the grid, Files passed
the front-row Audi cars of Robin
Brezina and Sandro Kaibach to lead
going into the first corner of the
race and the Briton never looked
back. After a brief Safety Car
interruption while the SEAT of Alex
Morgan was recovered, Files
Results
Red Bull Ring, Round 3, Saturday 10
June
1. Josh Files (Honda Civic); 2. Mike
Halder (SEAT León); 3. Dino Calcum
(Opel Astra)
Red Bull Ring, Round 4, Sunday 11
June
1. Josh Files (Honda Civic); 2. Moritz
Oestreich (Honda Civic); 3. Mike
Halder (SEAT León)
managed the restart well and pulled
away to build a lead of over four
seconds until he took the chequered
flag to record his third win of the
season. Moritz Oestreich finished
second to give Honda a 1-2, while the
SEAT of Mike Halder took another
podium position after finishing second
behind Files in Race 1.
The Honda of Kris Richard was fourth,
half a second ahead of Calcum’s Opel.
TCR Germany will return to
Oschersleben on July 8 and 9
for rounds 5 and 6, where it
will share the bill with the
TCR International Series.