The Serbian racing driver dominated on the 4,100-meter-long track near Split during qualifying for the 27th “Radošić–Malačka St. Dujam Grand Prix 2024,” which counts toward the Central European Hill Climb Championship (CEZ). A total of 79 competitors from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Hungary, and Serbia are taking part. Uroš Brkić, the only representative of Serbia in this year’s CEZ hill climb championship, dominated the qualifying session at the wheel of the “Norma M20F” prototype, taking first place overall and in the CN E2/SC class. His time of 2:21.51 minutes in the first official practice session was the fastest overall.
“I had an almost perfect day,” Brkić said after qualifying, thereby announcing a push for victory in Sunday’s race. “From the first unofficial practice I was running at a high pace. I managed to maintain the leading position. I hope for an even better result in Sunday’s race and new points that will help me get closer to the top of the Central European Championship standings, where I currently hold second place in my class.”
Brkić encountered misfortune on the track during the final run, but it did not prevent him from finishing on top. “Due to technical problems with the competitor who started ahead of me, I was stopped by the marshals in the ninth corner. Qualifying was interrupted until the organizers cleared the track. I remained there for about three minutes. Afterwards, it was decided to allow me to drive the car to the finish without a restart, since this was a practice session and not a race. Although I wanted to set an even better time in that final run of the day and resolve all remaining doubts so I wouldn’t have them in Sunday’s race, the interruption followed. The time from that run was not valid,” Brkić explained. He also took the opportunity to thank everyone who supports him during this year’s competitive season, above all his family, the support team, the general sponsor – the company “Marinković-Hofmann,” the Galax Auto Club from Belgrade of which he is a member, as well as his sponsors and all motorsport enthusiasts.