Alan Czyz, a star from the East!

With the presence of Finnish drivers Veeti Rajala and Benjamin Sylvestersson or American Ellis Spiezia the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup had a very international appearance during the past season. Furthermore, with Filip Zagorski, Aleksander Olejniczak or Tomasz Magdziarz there also is a strong Polish contingent within the Dutch-Belgian Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup. One of these Polish drivers has made quite a name for himself this season: 16-year-old Alan Czyz.

This season, the driver of the #46 Nowicki Auto Serwis Fiesta had quite some interesting scraps with his colleagues Tomas De Backer, Sen Roodenburg or Senna van Soelen. He never limited himself to the fight for the win in the Dutch Division 1. After a technically challenging weekend he took a fitting revenge during the final race, with a magnificent win, in front of Senna van Soelen and Tomas De Backer. That way, Czyc finished in third place in the final standings of the Dutch Belgian Super Star!

“There is only Poznan in Poland as an FIA homologated circuit. In the most recent incarnation of the KIA Picanto Cup it was a race within the race, and you could only take a class win”, Alan says. “After competing in karting and a test in the Italian Formula 4, other Polish drivers told us about the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup. We followed their races, and quickly understood it is an impressive championship, and its races on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit made it very attractive to us. So we decided to compete in the Dutch-Belgian Ford cup! Racing in Spa, for me that would be a dream come true!”

In the Fiesta Cup, Alan Czyz defends the colours of Nowicki Auto Serwis, the team led by his uncle Arek Nowicki, also racing in the Polish rallycross championship, with the almost permanent support of his uncle Damian, dad Artur and mum Patrycia!

“Our first meeting at Circuit Zandvoort did not go well, for due to technical issues I was unable to qualify and had to start at the back of the grid”, Alan recalls his first meeting at the Voorjaarsraces. “I managed to finish the race, but way back. And it wasn’t the end of our engine issues…”

It was only during the third meeting of the year, at his dream track in Spa, Czyc and the Nowicki crew managed to turn the tide, claiming third in Race 2 of the Spa Euro Race event, behind Roodenburg and van Soelen. Confirmation came at Assen’s Cathedral of Speed, with a pole position and a first win.

“I don’t think it’s a disadvantage for me whether I have raced on a track before or not”, Alan claims. “After two laps I know what I am capable of. The fact that I manage to adapt rather quickly to a new circuit has much to do with the fact that I am racing almost every weekend, at the wheel of very different cars. That mix of Fiesta Cup and rallycross helps me to adapt quickly to a new context and enables me to compete at the front almost immediately. Just like I had to discover the Spa track, the Jack’s Racing Day meeting was also my first time racing at the fast Assen track. Yes, I like those fast circuits. After two laps I felt already quite at ease, and I managed to set the fastest lap time overall…”

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. During Race 2 Czyc was again battling with Barewijk and Van de Craats, up until the moment the #46 car caught fire when braking for the Geert Timmer-bocht. The fire crew of the Dutch circuit had to extinguish the flames when the car stopped on the main straight.

After the Trophy of the Dunes at Circuit Zandvoort the drivers and teams headed for their second visit at track in the Belgian Ardennes. Czyz-De Backer were leading, with Roodenburg-Van Soelen close behind. The Belgian briefly dropped to third position, but in the final lap he managed to overtake the Polish and Dutch drivers again. Bad luck then almost prevented Alan to have a great finish to his first season in the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup. Before the start of first free practice of the Supercar Madness-weekend at TT Circuit Assen the #46 car suffered engine damage. The crew managed to repair the car, Czyc was able to participate in the second free practice and subsequently claimed pole position, just ahead  of – again – Tomas De Backer. In Race 1 Czyc quickly managed to create a gap between himself and the chasing pack, but new engine troubles meant he did not finish the race. Another long session of repairs – which included the ‘refurbishment’ of the previously damaged engine – was necessary to give Alan the opportunity to start from the front in the second race. It was quite close at some point, but this time Czyc managed to complete the race – and take the win!

“I really enjoyed that one”, the race winner smiled. “Especially for the team, because they never gave up. Not even on Saturday evening, when frankly we did not know what to do. This one is for them. We don’t know yet what 2023 will look like. If we would do a second season in the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup we would have to get to the bottom of those engine issues. Without all those problems I am sure I could have finished way higher than third in the Belgian-Dutch rankings.”