When Balázs Körmöczi announced his arrival in the FIA European Rallycross
Championship with a podium finish on home soil at Nyirád back in April, some questioned
if he had been flattered by local knowledge or if his performance would turn
out to be just a flash in the pan. He swiftly put any such doubts firmly to
bed.
Although from a racing family and
already a multiple champion on the domestic scene, Körmöczi was a complete
unknown in the Euro RX3 paddock when he joined the grid for the 2023
curtain-raiser. By the end of the weekend, he was standing on the bottom step
of the rostrum, having confidently and assertively taken the fight to the pace-setting
Volland Racing Audis.
“That was the best result
of my career so far,” he acknowledged. “When we tested at Nyirád, it was clear
that we could set good times so I was hoping to be able to battle for the
podium. There were a lot of fans there and it was a pleasure to drive in front
of such a large Hungarian audience. The final was very stressful, but it was a
great feeling to finish third on my European Championship debut.”
The 21-year-old Budapest
native also made a bright start in round two at Montalegre, only to see his
charge curtailed by engine issues – with reliability woes proving to be an unfortunate
theme over the course of the campaign.
He showed strong speed once
more in Hell – the circuit he described as the most difficult to get to grips
with – but missed out on the final due to a slow getaway in the semi-final, and
then excelled at the Estering last month, leading the way in free practice and posting
top four times in both of Saturday’s heats.
A dominant performance in Sunday
morning’s warm-up suggested Körmöczi was on for a very good
result indeed in Buxtehude, but just as he was ramping up the pressure on race
leader Espen Isaksætre in heat three, the engine in his strikingly-liveried Volkswagen
Polo let him down again.
“That was the
biggest disappointment of the season for me, because we could have fought for another
podium there,” he rued. “Portugal and Germany were throwaway weekends in that
respect, and that hurt. It was an important lesson that we will need more spare parts
next year to prevent the same thing from happening again.
“Our lack of experience at this level also showed, I
think. At Volland Racing, for example, they already knew the set-up for every
circuit and had much more sophisticated technology available, which helped them to avoid
technical problems. We are still lagging behind in comparison, but we’re
trying to reduce that disadvantage.”
If 2023 was Körmöczi’s learning
year – as he acclimatised to the tracks and the calibre of competition in the
European Championship – then he is already pinpointing 2024 as his opportunity
to go on the attack, preparing to return to Euro RX3 for another full campaign with
a new engine in his Korda Racing-prepared VW.
“We thought we were going to have a more successful season
in terms of getting through all the race weekends, so that is the target for next
year when we hope to deliver a much stronger performance,” he explained.
“We will test as much as possible over the winter to try
to eliminate the problems we encountered, so that in 2024, we can concentrate
much more on getting the set-up right for each circuit. I’m sure it will be a
strong field again in Euro RX3, but while it might sound bold, our goal is to
finish inside the championship top three.”