The Hunguest Raid of the Champions marked the last race of the 2025 M1 Flotta Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship. The season’s final round posed a serious challenge for the competitors of the Hungarian, CEZ and Italian championships, as the technical, rhythm-changing stages took a toll on both drivers and cars. It was not uncommon to see crews on the very edge: balancing on two wheels, sliding wide in the mud, or saving the car from a rollover at the very last moment. The season-closing rally delivered intense battles at the front, but the duo of Csucsu and Márk Mesterházi proved unstoppable, securing victory with confidence and two stage wins.
Friday:
On 14 November, after the official test, the nearly 50-car field set off with the prologue, where Adam Kus clocked the fastest time with the Taurus T3 Max Evo. Only seven-tenths behind, Zoltán Garamvölgyi’s crew finished second; they had already secured the T4Nat category title in the Hungarian championship but were still fighting to keep second place in the CEZ standings. Csucsu’s crew completed the top three, clearly showing that – after their Nyír1 Baja victory – they would be aiming for another win here as well.
In the evening, the three fastest crews of the prologue received their awards, and the top ten competitors chose their starting positions for the next day.
Saturday:
On the morning of day two, as the first cars left Parc Fermé, Tapolca was still covered in fog, which only cleared from the stages by the time the third afternoon special began. Garamvölgyi dominated the opening stage with more than a one-minute advantage, followed by Csucsu in second place and the Polish duo of Grzegorz Gasiorowski in third. On SS2, Csucsu took the stage win, while Garamvölgyi also remained in the top three, only 22 seconds off the fastest time. Mariusz Wiatr climbed to second with his T1 Ford.
On SS3, the Polish competitors took over: Gasiorowski set the fastest time again, Wiatr finished second, and Marcin Nasilowski third. Before the final stage, the gaps between the top three in the overall standings were just 6 and 20 seconds, meaning the fight for the podium was wide open. Csucsu delivered the fastest time once more, followed by Nasilowski, with Kus completing the stage in third.
The overall CEZ and Hungarian championship winners, as well as the champions of the Challenger category, were Csucsu and Márk Mesterházi, who also received the special cake award given to the fastest duo. The Hungarian pairing secured a confident victory and achieved their main goal: to beat their strongest rival using the same prototype, Adam Kus – who had previously proven quicker on home soil in Poland with the Taurus.
“I’m really happy with how well the stages went. We tried to push a little more whenever possible, although in some places we may have overcommitted slightly – but luckily, it didn’t cause us any issues. Based on Friday, I expected the terrain to be drier, but most of the track was still quite slippery,” said Csucsu.
In the CEZ classification, the consistent Polish duo of Marcin Nasilowski and Maciej Giemza finished second, while their compatriots, Mariusz Wiatr and Lukasz Laskawiecz, collected the trophy for third place.
In the M1 Flotta Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship, Miroslav Zapletal and Marek Sykora secured second place overall with their T1+ Ford and also won the Ultimate category. With this, they not only claimed victory at the event but also captured the 2025 Hungarian championship title – marking their seventh consecutive national crown.
Third place went to the Challenger category crew of Richárd Bruzsa and Máté Tóth, who finished second in their class.
In the SSV category, Szabolcs and Dorottya Kollár claimed the win, while in T4Nat, Zoltán Garamvölgyi and Antal Takács lifted the winners’ trophy.
“We achieved what we had been fighting for: keeping our second place in the CEZ championship. We had some luck, and toward the end we found ourselves in a few tricky situations. On the final stage we struggled with technical issues and even broke a driveshaft, but we managed to reach the finish – slowly, but safely. It was a very hard and exhausting, yet enjoyable rally to end the 2025 season, in a fantastic location here in Tapolca,” said Zoltán Garamvölgyi.
In the UP category, victory went to Tomas Tóth and Emil Kiss, while the first winners of the introductory Power Race Cup series were Dorián Kovács and Matthew Zohreh.
Competitors of the Italian Championship were classified separately, with Alessandro and Marco Trivini taking the win.
The Hunguest Raid of the Champions was a worthy finale to the 2025 M1 Flotta Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship. The Tapolca-based event drew large crowds who cheered on the competitors not only in the service area but also along the stages. The field now heads into a longer break – but excitement and fresh content surely won’t be lacking in the meantime.
Source: Terep-Rally.hu
Disclaimer:
As a service to the sport we all love and follow, Rally-Raid Network posts numerous media releases from a wide variety of sources on our website. Due to the large number, and some times short time available, it is nearly impossible to review each public release. These articles are written by reporters or press officers who work for various organizers, teams, drivers, riders, and other parties, and they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rally-Raid Network.
