By 2.590 miles long in distance, the Rijeka located Automotodrom Grobnik course which is positioned near the former legendary Opatija street-circuit, hosted last weekend the finale of the 2024 Alpe Adria Championship.
Recognised names for road racing fans competing, included Croatian road racing idol Loris Majcan (official Prize of Krizevci lap record holder – unofficial lap record holder Luka Nervo), the RST Rising Star of Tomorrow award winner at TT 2024, made his debut astride 1000cc Superstock apparatus (eighth in stock 1000 class, 16th overall Superbike Race 2).
He was supplemented by fellow Croatian roads scene aces like Antonio Ciko (P4-P5 finishes Superstock 1000 races / P6-P9 Superstock 600 Races) and Domagoj Bulat (P8-P10 finishes) in Superbike 1000 contests.
Brod Open races lap record holder, young talent Karlo Grsic from Krizevci (P3-P2 finishes – Superstock 600 races) finished runner-up in final Alpe Adria Superstock 600 series standings after his premiere season in this category.
There’s additionally Slavonski Brod’s Teo Sekulic (P11-P12 finishes – Superstock 600 races), Slovak former European Superstock 600/1000 pilot, new Supersport Alpe Adria Champion Tomas Svitok (P3-P4 – Supersport races) who showed his roads/street racing abilities this year at Trencin Airport, Dolny Hricov meets.
Last month a multiple podium finisher at Dykomury, IRRC Supersport wild card at Frohburger Dreieck, Michal Prasek picked up fourth, fifth place finishes competing against two times SBK winner last week, new Alpe Adria Superbike Champion Michal Filla (Horice roads experienced from 2010).
Superbike action also contained Prize of Krizevci star of recent years, Dominik Nervo (P8-P4 finishes) and three times 300 Curves of Gustav Havel race winner Jiri Broz (P9 – Race 1).
16 years old Luca Murgasova (Trencin Airport/Dolny Hricov races exponent this year) a rising Slovakian racing talent, was eleventh, tenth in Supersport 300 races whilst the Sport Production 125 class featured more Croat roads scene craftsmen, namely Danijel Kopric, Vilim Babic, Dalibor Maricic, Davor Buntak and Karlo Borko.
Dymokury Classics lap record holder Roman Krajco, Richard Peers-Jones, Czech road racing married couple David Schmidt and Sarka Schmidtova sampled the Classic races at Grobnik.
The ‘Klass GP’ races entry gained entries from British riders George Thomas, Andrew Sawford, Colin Sleigh, Andrew Glasgow plus Fernando Mendes and Michael Sweeney.
As I finalise this article, let’s mention that hopefully we will see more Croatian riders participating at international road races next year, following the above-showcased Loris Majcan, helping popularise further the Brod Open Races, Prize of Krizevci raced this year by esteemed French riders Morgan Govignon and Thibaud Doutre.
Photo credit Mark Corlett
Words by Jan Vavra
