What a last race. What an achievement for Michelle Halder. And what a fight for the championship with four title candidates in the last race of the season.
This last race of the season started with no less than four title candidates. Max Hesse, first in the ranking, lead the race after starting from fifth and the other three followed a little later too. The group of Max Hesse, Harald Proczyk, Antti Buri and Mike Halder disappeared into the distance of the rest of the field. The four title contenders really showed some class.
In the last third of the race unfortunately guest starter Sophie Hofmann lost her car and got stuck in the gravel, which brought out the Safety Car. Not the best finish to end of the season, but the young lady learned a lot for her next experience in motorsport.
But this saftey car was the start for an amazing final sprint between the leading drivers in both the race and the championship. The Finn Antti Buri drove his heart out, he passed Harald Proczyk with hard driving and hunted Max Hesse down for the finish line. Both went side by side into the last corner and Antti Buri passed the finish line with 0,011 seconds in front of Max Hesse. What a finish! Hesse and Buri were even in points now - only the number of second places put Hesse in front of the Finn, giving him the title in the 2019 ADAC TCR Germany!
Shortly after the race Antti Buri was given a five second penalty and that dropped him back to third place. Max Hesse won the championship in front of Harald Proczyk, Antti Buri and Mike Halder.
Michelle Halder had an inconspicuous race and finished it on P12 as third best junior driver. With her direct rival René Kircher behind her she won the junior championship and she will drive a new Honda Civic now as a trophy for her success. It was a good year for the young german driver with her first race win in TCR Germany and now as champion of the junior ranking, what an achivement and hopefully the beginning of more fore her upcoming career.
Her own word on Instagram:
💥 🆆🅴 🅳🅸🅳 🅸🆃 💥 ⚡️Junior - CHAMPION 2019 ⚡️