Celárek Wins at Adelaide as HappyKojot Takes the Title
Adam Celárek scored his first victory of the Championship in the Holden, beating Marc Orós to Adelaide's 37-lap decision. Third place for SDH-M ~ HappyKojot was sufficient to secure the Championship crown.
A new winner at the front
The last race of the six-round Championship brought Adam Celárek the result he had been seeking all season. The Czech driver took the Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV to victory at Adelaide, setting the fastest lap in 1:39.001 and carrying the fight to the front when it mattered.
Ayrton Titos had headed Celárek until the tenth lap, when the Holden moved ahead. From there, Celárek made his opportunity count. There was no flourish to distract from the essential point: a first Championship win, earned in the final race, and one which changed the shape of the leading group in the table.
Marc Orós brought the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II home second. His fastest lap of 1:39.019 was only 0.018sec slower than Celárek's, an indication of how little separated the principal pace of the day. Orós had been second early on, but an incident at Wakefield Road on lap three dropped him to third. He nevertheless recovered the runner-up place and ensured that Celárek's maiden success was not a lonely affair.
The champion's measured third
For HappyKojot, the greater prize lay beyond the race winner's trophy. The Polish driver's Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth reached the flag third, and that was enough to settle the Championship in his favour.
It was a drive with its own sustained pressure. From the second lap until lap 27, HappyKojot ran in a compact group with Jaroslav Cerny and Florian Masse, the three remaining within five seconds of one another over a long and demanding middle portion of the race. The Sierra and Cerny's BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution were particularly closely matched. Cerny held the advantage at one stage, only for HappyKojot to move ahead by the end of lap four; their contest remained close through the opening three quarters of the distance.
Cerny ultimately finished fourth, with Masse sixth in another Sierra. Neither could dislodge HappyKojot from the place that mattered. In the context of a title finale, third was a notably composed answer to the claims being made around him.
The battles behind the podium
The leading order was not settled by simple procession. Attila Diner's Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo Evoluzione S1 and Titos's Mercedes were never far apart through much of the race, their contest remaining within two seconds for a sustained spell from lap 10 to lap 30. Diner gained the place by the end of lap 12 and went on to finish fifth, while Titos took seventh.
Between them came Florian Masse, while FMG brought the Nissan Skyline R31 2000 GTS-R home eighth and Jacopo Hrynecko's BMW was ninth. Boby Vakuinof recovered from an early loss of ground - five places went at the end of lap five amid incidents at Dequetteville Hairpin, Senna Chicane and Foster's Corner - to take tenth in the Alfa. His was one of several races within the race at Adelaide, but it was the disciplined work at the front which gave the afternoon its definition.
The final reckoning
HappyKojot began the race as Championship leader, and the final classification confirmed him as champion on 176 points. Orós's second place in the race secured second in the Championship on 169, while Celárek's victory lifted him from sixth before Adelaide to third overall on 163.
Thus the winner's success had a double significance. Celárek reduced his deficit to the Championship leader from 19 points to 13 and made a substantial final advance in the standings, even if the title itself belonged to the Sierra driver. The dropped-score regulation formed part of the final reckoning, but the official positions left no ambiguity over the first three.
Adelaide therefore supplied two fitting conclusions: Celárek at last on the top step, and HappyKojot on the Championship throne. One race produced a new winner; the season's six rounds had produced a deserving champion.