2010. April 17. 02:21  author: Viktor Adorján

More than a decade has been passed since the Zengő Motorsport entered its first race but in 2010 the operation fulfil a long-standing dream and step into the top level of touring car racing under the name of Zengő Dension Team.

Founded in the middle of the ‘90s by team principal Zoltán Zengő to become one of the leader motorsport operations in Hungary at the beginning of the 2000s. Zengő Motorsport was originally established to back Zoltán Zengő’s racing ambitions mostly in the Hungarian touring car championships. This included multiple seasons featuring the iconic Mercedes C Klasse DTM racecar but after the initial years, the outfit started to expand and to look at a bigger picture. In 2001 Zengő Motorsport took over and rescued Hungary’s first and then dying single-brand championship, the Opel Astra Classic Cup. The company reinforced the organization and become the commercial rights’ holder and successfully ran it until the end of the 2005 season.

The Opel Astra Classic Cup became a very important point in the Hungarian motorsport history, because it opened up the gates towards a bigger percentage of drivers to race in professional circumstances. 2003 marked another landmark, when the operation expanded its activities and launched its first own single-brand championship, the Renault Clio Cup. The company delivered a total 40 cars to its customers. Every Clios were prepared to race by the team; they served until the end of the 2009 season. 2003 saw another major step, as Zoltán Zengő teamed up with the local distributor of the SEAT cars to form adRenaline Racing Team using the first edition of the SEAT Leon Supercopa. This campaign didn’t last long, as Zengő was elected as the head of the circuit racing division of Hungarian motorsport federation (MNASZ) that prevented him to race in Hungary until 2007, but the link was kept up between the parties that resulted the launch of the Hungarian SEAT Leon Super Cup with the second generation of the Supercopa.

Hungary became the fourth country to start a local SEAT cup with Zengő Motorsport being the organizer behind the project. Two championships were successfully completed before the global credit crunch damaged the financial climate and the series itself but it was enough for the team to setup its international racing operation in the newly-established SEAT Leon EuroCup featuring the team’s long-standing lead driver Gábor Wéber and rising star Norbert Michelisz.

Norbert Michelisz’s talent was discovered by the team at a test back in late 2005 when the young driver was given a Renault Clio Cup racecar thanks to Wéber’s recommendation as the two used to be rivals in online simulation races. Michelisz has been supported by Zengő Motorsport since 2006, he has won the 2006 Suzuki Swift Cup, the 2007 Renault Clio Cup, and in 2008 he scored 4 pole positions in a row in the SEAT Leon EuroCup, won a race and gained the chance to be the first Hungarian driver in the modern era of the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

In 2008 it was proved that Zengő Motorsport is capable of being successful in international level but the final step was missing to become a truly world class operation. At the beginning of the 2009 season Zengő Motorsport and Dension Ltd. joined forces, this enabled the team to start a more intensive season in three different single-brand championships. The experience the team and Norbert Michelisz gained through the big amount of running made it possible to win the 2009 SEAT Leon EuroCup including a second outing in the FIA WTCC and a guest appearance in the FIA ETCC with SEAT’s latest world champion technology, the Leon TDI.

The 2010 season bring an unprecedented challenge for the now renamed Zengő Dension Team, as Dension decided to increase its involvement in Zengő Motorsport’s racing activities to make it possible for the team to step up to the top of the international touring car racing: to become a full-time runner in the FIA WTCC.