Proczyk wins incident-packed Race 2 at Spielberg

Harald Proczyk, driving an Opel Astra, took victory in the second TCR Germany race at the Red Bull Ring and so opened up a 22-point lead in the Drivers’ series over Race 1 winner Niels Langeveld.
Proczyk started from sixth on the grid, but had moved up into fourth place by the end of lap one. Pole-sitter Sandro Kaibach made a poor start and was beaten to Turn 1 by Luca Engstler, but when the Volkswagen driver ran wide Kaibach was able to retake the lead. Benjamin Leuchter then passed both men, but made contact with Kaibach in doing so and was instructed to hand the position back. Before he could do so, Proczyk had passed Kaibach and so inherited the lead when the position switch occurred.
An incident on Lap 2 involving J.C. Reynolds and Jussi Kuusiniemi saw the safety car deployed for several laps while the cars were recovered, with Mike Halder also forced to retire from fourth place after clattering over the kerbs and then heading for the pits.
While Proczyk headed for victory, Anti Buri was clearly determined to encore the second-placed finish he’d scored in Race 1. The Finn worked his way from fifth position on Lap 7 to fourth on the following lap, before soon passing Kaibach for third. On the penultimate lap, Buri then overtook Leuchter for second place and that’s how the race finished, with Proczyk’s Opel, Buri’s Audi and the Volkswagen of Leuchter making three different car brands on the podium.
Behind those three, Luca Engstler finished fourth ahead of Florian Thoma, while Luke Wankmüller finished the best Rookie in sixth place. Max Hesse, Niels Langeveld, Sandro Kaibach and Lukas Niedertscheider rounded off the top ten.
Proczyk now has 185 points and so leads Langeveld by 22 points, with Luca Engstler third, a further 4 points adrift. TCR Germany next visits the Nürburgring in early August.