Igor Vasylyovych Skuz (Ukrainian: Ігор Васильович Скуз, born 30 May 1976) is a Ukrainian professional racing driver currently competing in the Ukrainian Touring Championship since 2007 for a family-owned MasterKart Racing Team, that also has a role of main promoter of the series since 2018. Outside Ukraine he competed in Russian Touring Car Championship, European Touring Car Cup and TCR International Series.
| Igor Skuz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality |  Ukrainian |
| Born | Igor Vasylyovych Skuz 30 May 1976 Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR Soviet Union |
| UTC career | |
| Debut season | 2007 |
| Current team | MasterKart Racing Team |
| Championships | 5 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018) |
| Best finish | 1st in 2019 |
| Previous series | |
| 2015 2011–2014 2011 2007 1984—2006 | TCR International Series ETCC RTCC Dubai 24 Hour Karting |
| Championship titles | |
| 2017—2018 2010—2012 2000 1994 | UTC UTC Karting Karting |
Racing career
editKarting
editSkuz started his career in 1984 in karting and was competing there for more than twenty years. He was competing in Soviet and foreign championships with a good results. In 1990 he was nominated as a Master of Sport Candidate, he got his first championship title in 1994. In 2000 he won the Intercontinental class championship and got a title of the Master of Sport of Ukraine. He was racing alongside his older brother Oleg in their own team, called MasterKart. Igor won more than 200 karting races.
Ukrainian Circuit Racing Championship
editIn 2007 he planned switching to Ukrainian Circuit Racing Championship, where his older brother was already racing, but before that he entered the 2007 Dubai 24 Hour, driving an A1-class Ford Fiesta for Team Rhino's Leipert. His first ever touring car driving experience had resulted in second place in his class. In the Ukrainian championship he debuted in a U1600 class driving a Fiesta as well, now for the MasterKart team.
For the first two years the team was struggling in the series, that was completely new for them, despite the good qualifying times of Igor, in the races he was experiencing technical failures. In 2008 he drove in both S2000 and Touring Lite classes and achieved his first win. His first chance of winning the championship was in 2009, when he was fighting with Russian racer Aleksey Basov, who was already a champion in his country. He got one win, but in the next round he was involved in a big crash, so his car needed a body change. He failed his last chances, when his car got a technical failure in the next round, and when later the main venue for the championship, Autodrome Chaika, cancelled the final round of the season. In the final standings he was third.
ETCC and TCR International
editIn the next years Skuz finally started getting a stable performances, winning in his class in 2010. In 2011, alongside the Ukrainian championship he started competing in the European Touring Car Cup, driving a Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V for ATM Racing in the Super 1600 division, resulting fifth in the championship.[1] In Ukraine he also to get his second championship title. That year he also appeared at the Russian Touring Car Championship rainy race at Moscow as a guest driver, driving his MasterKart Ford. He failed to get a good result, crashing in the first race and getting a penalty for ignoring yellow flag in the second one.
In the ETCC Skuz switched to the Super 2000 division for 2012, driving for Liqui Moly Team Engstler in a BMW 320si.[2] However he switched to a SEAT León 2.0 TDI run by SUNRED Engineering for the remaining rounds of season.[3] He got the fourth place in the European Cup and for the third time became a Champion of Ukraine.
In 2013 Skuz didn't get another championship title and finished the season fourth, after that he left the championship to focus on international racing. In the ETCC he switched to Campos Racing driving a naturally-aspirated SEAT León, in the new team he was seventh in the championship.[4]
For 2014 Skuz stayed with Campos Racing, but switched to a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T, he ended the season 3rd in the TC2T standings, having his first two victories.[5] In March 2015, it was announced that Skuz would make his TCR International Series debut with Campos Racing driving an Opel Astra OPC, however after the first round of the championship he switched to a SEAT León Cup Racer.[6] After a bad start of the year he switched to WestCoast Racing driving a Honda Civic TCR.[7] He got only two finishes in points and left the series before the season ended.
Racing record
editComplete European Touring Car Cup results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | ATM Racing | Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V | SAL 1 Ret |
SAL 2 11 |
5th | 7 | ||||||||
| 2012 | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320si | MNZ 1 16 |
MNZ 2 7 |
SVK 1 |
SVK 2 |
4th | 35 | ||||||
| SUNRED Engineering | SEAT León 2.0 TDI | SAL 1 9 |
SAL 2 8 |
IMO 1 2 |
IMO 2 2 |
|||||||||
| 2013 | Campos Racing | SEAT León | MNZ 1 19 |
MNZ 2 Ret |
SVK 1 9 |
SVK 2 Ret |
SAL 1 14 |
SAL 2 14 |
PER 1 6 |
PER 2 6 |
BRN 1 24 |
BRN 2 21† |
7th | 25 |
| 2014 | Campos Racing | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | LEC 1 3 |
LEC 2 1 |
SVK 1 15 |
SVK 2 5 |
SAL 1 Ret |
SAL 2 7 |
SPA 1 3 |
SPA 2 Ret |
PER 1 4 |
PER 2 1 |
3rd | 79 |
† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete TCR International Series results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Campos Racing | Opel Astra OPC | MYS 1 DNS |
MYS 2 Ret |
23rd | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| SEAT León Cup Racer | CHN 1 13 |
CHN 2 13 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WestCoast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | ESP 1 15 |
ESP 2 Ret |
POR 1 13 |
POR 2 9 |
ITA 1 Ret |
ITA 2 6 |
AUT 1 Ret |
AUT 2 Ret |
RUS 1 |
RUS 2 |
RBR 1 12 |
RBR 2 Ret |
SIN 1 |
SIN 2 |
THA 1 |
THA 2 |
MAC 1 |
MAC 2 |
References
edit- ^ "Igor Skuz career statistics". Driver Database. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Igor Skuz to race Engstler Motorsport BMW". TouringCarTimes. 3 March 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Igor Skuz switches to SUNRED at Salzburg". TouringCarTimes. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Igor Skuz's Campos Racing livery revealed". TouringCarTimes. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Önder, Skuz and Karamyshev set for 2014 ETCC". TouringCarTimes. 8 April 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Campos confirm three car Opel campaign in TCR". TouringCarTimes.com. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ "Igor Skuz defects to WestCoast Racing for Valencia". TouringCarTimes.com. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
External links
edit- Igor Skuz career summary at DriverDB.com