By The 2024 Czech road racing season gets underway this weekend at the popular Stare Mesto (translated as ‘Old Town’ abroad and additionally known as ‘Slovacky okruh’) meeting, the 20th edition of this renewed now traditional racing event.
The biggest potential favourite to break the track record (lap time 1.32.897 by Karel Pesek) will be newcomer David Datzer, overall lap record holder of Czech races in Horice and Dymokury and next week a Northwest 200 entrant.
He will have rivals in Superbike class such as Austrian Thomas Altendorfer or Czech and Slovak aces David Hanzalik, Jiri Petrla or Marek Stibor. The Supersport class has top contenders including multiple IRRC Champion Marek Cerveny.
All fans hope that the technical problems on Peter Najman’s Ducati Panigale V2 from Spring Prize Brno weekend will be solved.
Further Czech hopes in Supersport will be placed mainly on Matous Ondrusz, Petr Vajner Jr and Martin Hulin. TT 2024 participant Veronika Hankocyova will also race a Yamaha R6.
The Supersport start-list also features German Florian Glashauser and Tudor Sebastian Savu. Italy is represented by Matteo Stivanello. Already mentioned Cerveny, Najman, Hanzalik and Hankocyova will also be sampling Super Twin races with Jan Markalous, Jan Herzog, Lukas Walter, and others.
There are also well-known names in other categories like Libor Kamenicky, Moritz Nestler and Daniel Zornweg in Super Mono class plus 125 GP entrants Lorenzo Tiveron, Christopher Eder, Oldrich Podlipny and Patrik Kolar.
Qualifying/Race schedule, for the Stare Mesto Races, is as follows:
May 4th:
Local Time
08:00-08:20 AM Classic A (up to 1972) 175/250/350 Qualifying Session 1
08:00-08:20 AM Classic B (up to 1978) 125/250/350 Qualifying Session 1
08:30-08:50 AM Sidecars Qualifying Session 1
09:00-09:20 AM 125GP/Moto3 + 125 Sport Production Qualifying Session 1
09:30-09:50 AM Classic Superbike + Classic A/B 500/750 Qualifying Session 1
10:00-10:20 AM Supersport Qualifying Session 1
10:30-10:50 AM Supersport 300/400 + 250 Open Qualifying Session 1
11:00-11:20 AM Super Mono/Super Twin Qualifying Session 1
11:30-11:50 AM Superbike Qualifying Session 1
13:00-13:20 PM Classic A (up to 1972) 175/250/350 Qualifying Session 2
13:00-13:20 PM Classic B (up to 1978) 125/250/350 Qualifying Session 2
13:30-13:50 PM Sidecars Qualifying Session 2
14:00-14:20 PM 125GP/Moto3 + 125 Sport Production Qualifying Session 2
14:30-14:50 PM Classic Superbike + Classic A/B 500/750 Qualifying Session 2
15:00-15:20 PM Supersport Qualifying Session 2
15:30-15:50 PM Supersport 300/400 + 250 Open Qualifying Session 2
16:00-16:20 PM Super Mono/Super Twin Qualifying Session 2
16:30-16:50 PM Superbike Qualifying Session 2
May 5th:
Local Time
08:00 AM Classic A (up to 1972) 175/250/350 Race
09:00 AM Classic B (up to 1978) 125/250/350 Race
10:00 AM 125GP/Moto3 + 125 Sport Production Race
11:00 AM Classic Superbike + Classic A/B 500/750 Race
12:30 PM Sidecars Race
13:30 PM Supersport Race
14:15 PM Supersport 300/400 + 250 Open Race
15:00 PM Super Mono/Super Twin Race
15:45 PM Superbike Race
Photo credit: Nick Wheeler
Words by Jan Vavra
