As VGP enters its traditional summer break, half the season has already passed, with six incredible races at numerous amazing European circuits and a stateside to Daytona. Each year, VGP always strive to better the year before, in terms of production and on-track action, and yet again the Czech republic based organisation has delivered. With the GT3 portion of the season now complete, the series bids farewell to the Mercedes AMG GT3 car, as it will be replaced by the new Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo from next season. The car had a very fitting send-off, as its final stand was a thrilling race on home turf at Hockenheim. Let’s have a look at how the season has gone so far for the 10 participating teams.

Joint 9th – Benzina Orlen – 23 points

Aleš Danda – Best finish 6th
Oldřich Štěpanovský – Best finish 12th
Pavel Šeps – Best finish 15th

Entering the series in 2019, they hit the ground running by signing the current championship leader Martin Štefanko. They were 3rd in their maiden season, and champions in 2020 with Štefanko and then-rookie Erik Vizi pushing the team to the top spot, but those glory days seem a long way in the past, as recent form has seen a sharp decline since then. Currently. Benzina Orlen are joint last place in the championship, however returning driver Aleš Danda, replacing rookie driver Pavel Šeps, scored the team’s best result so far this season of 6th place at Hockenheim, and Štěpanovskýs form has been slowly improving since his debut season in 2020.

Joint 9th – PUMA – 23 points

David Urbančík – Best finish 8th
Štěpán Kysel – Best finish 11th

The sports clothing giant entered the championship this year, through different associations with VGP, and are also fielding a pair of rookie drivers to the series. In almost every round, the PUMA pair have finished within two places of each other, with Urbančík being the slightly quicker driver of the two so far. Consistency is eluding the pair at the moment as far as points finishes are concerned, but considering the quality of the grid, the newcomers have started their VGP journeys well.

8th – Navitel – 34 points

Jan Bruna – Best finish 10th
Michal Šembera – Best finish 14th

The GPS manufacturer is also a new entrant into this years VGP, along with their drivers. Whilst Šembera has struggled to see the points regularly, Bruna has finished between 10th and 12th in all but the last race, where he sadly didn’t finish. Incredible consistency from the outset for Bruna will hopefully inspire Šembera to follow suit as the series heads towards the single-seaters

7th – Big Shock – 44 points

Pavel Mareček – Best finish 7th
Tomáš Hora – Best finish 8th

Czechias answer to Red Bull, the Big Shock energy drinks brand joined the series in 2020 and has had Tomáš Hora on board from the outset. Up until this year, Hora was partnered with Štěpanovský, but this season saw the latter replaced by another of the newcomers to VGP, Pavel Mareček. Whilst Mareček has scored the team’s best result so far, Hora has scored more points for Big Shock so far, his personal best finish being 5th in the last two seasons.

6th – Carvargo – 55 points

Petr Hermoch – Best finish 6th
Miroslav Svoboda – Best finish 6th

The best of the debutants, Carvargo hit the ground running with Petr Hermoch and Miroslav Svoboda. Svoboda hasn’t had the best consistency throughout the season so far, but a superb performance at Hockenheim inside the top five for most of the race, finishing 6th in the end, whereas Hermoch has only once finished outside of the top 10 all season, showing the established names that fresh blood is ready to take them on.

5th – MECA/All4SIM eRacing – 80 points

Michal Limon – Best finish 5th
Adam Pilo – Best finish 7th
Martin Krejča – Best finish 9th

Joining the series last year, the simrig builders signed some very strong talent in the form of Michal Limon and Martin Krejča, finishing in 4th place, just a handful of points behind ESET. Limon has certainly picked up where he left off from last year, scoring the team’s best result of 5th place and only finishing outside of the top 10 once this season. Krejča suffered a motorbike injury before Hockenheim, and his replacement Adam Pilo, also a new name to VGP, manage a hugely impressive 7th.

4th – Lenovo Legion – 92 points

Martin Nejedlík – 1 win
Erik Vizi – Best finish 5th

Expectations were certainly running high on Vizis shoulders in particular, having finished last season very strong, but Erik has not rediscovered the form he showed last year. His strong became much stronger in the single-seaters last year, so Lenovo Legion could well see a resurgence from him in the second half of this year. Martin Nejedlik scored a superb win at Daytona this year and has had some strong finishes well inside the top 10 as well, but a few DNFs have hindered his results so far.

3rd – Entropiq – 149 points

Lukáš Podstata – Best finish 2nd
Martin Sirotek – Best finish 3rd

The champions from last season, Entropiq have not enjoyed quite the level of success from last season, with last season’s champion Podstata yet to stand on the top step of the podium this year. That said, he is still giving it everything he has and has seen three podiums so far, though a DNF at Donington has hurt his points haul. Sirotek has been a regular top 10 finisher for several years, and he has finished in the top five in all but one race this year so far.

2nd – ESET – 176 points

Martin Štefanko – 4 wins
Tomáš Korený – Best finish 5th
Josef Vaculčík – Best finish 16th

2017 VGP champion and Williams esports ace Martin Štefanko has been in a class of one for the last four races and finishing inside the top five for the first two rounds, however, the season has been one to forget for Tomáš Korený. Korený was disqualified after Donington and has been removed from the series for the rest of the year, his place being taken by stand-in driver Josef Vaculčík. Štefanko leads the driver’s championship by 21 points.

1st – ERT Racing Team – 187 points

Lukáš Přáda – 1 win
David Přáda – Best finish – 3rd

The Přáda brothers have been united in the same team since 2018. Lukáš has generally been the quicker of the Přáda pair, but that doesn’t stop the brothers from having a scrap over podium positions. Lukáš was the main contender to the crown last year, being narrowly beaten by Podstata, and has only missed the podium once this season so far, winning the opening round at Imola. David is regularly inside the top 10 and has seen the podium twice so far this year.

 

With the AMG GT3 now parked, VGP resumes the series in the Dallara IR18 Indy Car for the second half of the season, and it is not to be missed.