Csaba Kesjár – The Allure from the East

One day, Formula 1 decided to cross the Iron Curtain for the first time, then opening up to an entirely new market, with the Hungarian Grand Prix of 1986. A year later, a Hungarian-born driver was demonstrating at the wheel of a Zakspeed. His name was Csába Kesjár, and he stayed in history.

 

Csaba Kesjár in 1986 (poster from a local magazine)

Those were the days when an "Iron Curtain had descended across the continent", according to Winston Churchill's famous 1946 speech. And motor racing was probably just a Western, capitalist sport or, at least, it was a common perception, mainly about 4-wheel racing, because there were motorcycle Grand Prix and European Rally rounds and some manufacturers, namely the Czechoslovak Škoda. However, during the early fifties, Eastern countries developed their own motor racing scene, largely ignored by their Western counterparts, with far less money and structures involved, but the same sheer passion for competition and the reuniting the best of their engineers and technicians. Thus, slowly, the Iron Curtain developed a strong rally, racing and motorcycle culture, which allowed them to (at least) try to compete with their Western counterparts… But the usually high-budget single-seater racing never mixed… (I'm aware of some exceptions, but they're so rare) until in 1986 the long-awaited dream of Bernie Ecclestone to have an F1 round on a communist country became true with the Hungarian Grand Prix. And this is the story of a Hungarian man that, against all odds, became the first driver from the Eastern Bloc to drive an F1: Csaba Kesjár.

 

A motoring-dedicated family:

Csaba Kesjár – in Hungarian sources his name appears as Kesjár Csaba, as it's usually there to write the family name before the given name – was born in Budapest 9^th February 1962. He was born in a motor-related family: his grandfather was one of the Hungarian motor racing pioneers, while his father János Kesjár Sr. was a fifteen-time Hungarian national champion in various categories, mainly achieving these titles during the sixties. His older brother, János Jr., also became a race driver, so there were no surprises when the young Csaba was born, as we say these days, a "petrolhead". Later, his nephew, also called János, raced locally touring cars and hillclimbs till he suffered a nasty accident that forced him to switch to rallies.

In a familiar structure with János Sr. serving as mechanic and manager, our man debuted in the booming kart scene as a teen in 1975. The younger boy soon became a rising star in the local scene, being third on the Junior class in his debuts, second in 1976 and finally taking his first title in 1977, with fifteen years old. Then he continued to climb the ladder in the same fashion, taking the 1978 3^rd Division title, then the 2^nd Division in 1979 and, finally, the leading Hungarian crown in 1980, thus sweeping all the national ranks… In other conditions, Csaba could have aimed for an international kart title, yet switching to the West wasn't possible, so he did another season in Hungary and won again, preparing his debuts on the local single-seaters scenario, while taking his degree in engineering on the Bánki Donát technical college, in Budapest.

A rising star (Gabriella Váradi)

             With the same familiar team, Kesjár went into Formula Easter, the main single-seater category in Eastern Countries. There were national and regional championships, and the main one, including almost all the Eastern Bloc, was the Cup of Peace and Friendship. It mainly used city circuits, parts of autoroutes or airfields. Some places that hosted rounds of this unknown but fascinating series were Most (not the permanent venue inaugurated in 1983, in Czechoslovakia), Poznán (Poland), Riga and Kiev (USSR), Schleiz (East Germany), Resita (Romania) e Albena (Bulgary). Immediately, he proved to be on his national rivals' pace, and amazingly he took the Hungarian title as a rookie in 1982! It was a dreamy debut, and he duly confirmed it on the following seasons by taking the title in 1983, 1984 and 1985, becoming the best Hungarian driver of the decade. However, on the Cup, his small, familiar structure wasn't enough to fight equally with the leading manufacturers (such as the Estonia and MTX), and Kesjár only managed to win once, at Albena (Bulgaria) in 1983, after the two drivers in front of him – Alexandr Medvedchenko (USSR) and Jiři Červa (Czechoslovakia) had been disqualified for using 1400cc engines instead of the mandatory 1300cc, even if he was a regular points' scorer.

Formula Easter's paddock had the charm 8and mud) of the 60's in F1 (unknwon)

 

The perestroika arrives:

By then the perestroika and glasnost had arrived, and gradually the East was opening to a market economy. In this context, Hungary would receive its first F1 Grand Prix at the purposely-built Hungaroring, near Budapest, in 1986. And it became gradually easier to travel across the Iron Curtain, and raise a budget for an international career. Kesjár had nothing to prove in his country and managed to find sponsorship from Hungary and abroad to jump to the Austrian Formula Ford Championship in 1986, driving a Reynard for the renowned Walter Lechner Racing. He was immediately at ease and won the championship at his first attempt.

Formula Ford was the first step to become a professional, and Walter Lechner always had a keen eye for new talents (unknown)

 

Always looking for talents, Horst Schübel signed him for 1987 to partner another young promise, Bernd Schneider, for his F3 team. Schübel's squad was one of the best on the hugely competitive German F3 series, one of the best in Europe, and this was the golden chance for Csaba. But the F3 cars were relatively harder to tame, and he knew almost none of the circuits, so it wasn't surprising that his title run finally ended. However, he used the season to adapt himself to the car, the circuits and the different level of technology and professionalism competition in the West, thus taking precious lessons to progress further on the single-seater ladder, dreaming of being the first man from the East to reach F1. Driving his Dallara F387-VW, he managed to score 12 points to finish fourteenth overall, his best placement being a fourth place; whilst his teammate took the title and would become Zakspeed F1 driver the following season. But later in the year, he took the season-ending non-championship "Rheinal Rundstreckenrennen" at Hockenheim.

Formula 3 was a steeping learning curve, but Kesjár was leaning fast (Gyenis Csaba)

 

By then, he was already a pioneer in his own way. Before the Hungarian GP, Zakspeed team owner Erick Zakowski invited Kesjár to a demonstration run with one of their 871 Turbo before the race. It would be an excellent way to improve Hungarian F1 fanbase and attract local sponsors. Csaba sat in the car after Friday practice, but the rules didn't allow the cars to leave the pitlane between official practice sessions, so the run was aborted. His opportunity came three hours after the end of the GP when he finally started his Zakspeed and drove three demonstration laps around the circuit – Zakowski told him not to go beyond third gear to avoid any mishaps. Kesjár duly complied, even if he almost lost the car at the first turn of his first lap, saying he didn't know F1 brakes worked so well when cold…

 

The great day arrives... (unknown)

Tragedy struck:

Horst Schübel kept him in 1988, but this time the team was a one-car effort so Kesjár could benefit from all the attention and the budget to leave his mark on the championship. The new Dallara F388-VW wasn't properly the car to have, Reynard taking the edge on the championship. Still, results started to appear. By mid-season, he had already 33 points, more than doubling his score in half a season comparatively with the previous one, till the caravan arrived at Nürnberg, the F3 round being the primary support race of the WSC 200 Mile of Norisring. The narrow circuit always provided classic races, and it was often one of the most attended rounds of the season, in particular, due to its allocation alongside an international championship, and Kesjár could shine in front of potential sponsors and employers.

Nürburgring 1988: Franz Engstler leads Csaba Kesjár (#1), Andreas Buhk, Michael Bartels and Jeosef Bertzen (Karsten Denecke)

 Sadly, it all came to an end on the 24^th July when, late on the second Friday practice session, Csaba went past the start/finish line at approximately 200 km/h trying his last chance to improve his time. Yet, when approached the narrow Dutzendteich hairpin, the car just went head-on into the tyre barriers at full speed, being thrown in the air and landing upside-down on the other side of the rails, among the woods. Kesjár had suffered massive head injuries and was pronounced dead on the spot. The accident shocked the F3 community, as the Hungarian was really popular among his peers, so the session was immediately stopped and, despite all the pressure by the sponsors, the drivers managed to convince the organisers to cancel the race in respect for the poor Csaba. Just for the stats, he was classified nineteenth overall, with the 33 points he brought to Nürnberg.

It was a strange crash that soon raised conspiracy theories. The official reports concluded that the Dallara had suffered a brake failure, but as he was at full speed and never tried to change direction it was rumoured that he had a blackout while driving, and even that he had committed suicide!! To feed these freak rumours, stories circulated on the paddock saying he was quite unwilling to drive that weekend but was pressed into it by his sponsors and the team.  Probably the absolute truth will never be known, but two things can be taken as confident – apparently, Kesjár had suffered a seizure days before the race, and it was hypothesised he could suffer from epilepsy – which could explain his lack of will to drive that day, and the brake pedal was split in two, probably due to the efforts of the driver to stop the car – now if he tried to brake due to another seizure, or just because he felt there was something wrong with the car is the question that will remain…

Csaba Kesjár may have never reached F1. All of us know how hard it is to become part of that limited club, and talent rarely is enough. But he undoubtedly had potential to become a professional driver, and who knows if that Zakspeed drive could have materialised in something more significant, as it was rumoured he would have a proper test end of 1988. Still, there weren't permanent test drivers on the small teams so the major chance for Csaba would have been F3000 in 1989, as he had impressed the establishment, and had found more substantial backing.

Nevertheless, he was a pioneer. Even when the Iron Curtain fell definitively later in 1989, it took more eleven years till another driver from one of those countries entered an F1 race – the Czech Tomaš Enge. And two more years to have a Hungarian driving on a Grand Prix – Zsolt Baumgartner. So, undoubtedly, it was Kesjár that paved the way to these men to become international F1 drivers – it was his great legacy. Nowadays, he's still a popular figure in Hungarian sports history, even if in the West he remained widely unknown till the web re-discovered him. Let's remember the man and the driver…

 

 

NOTE: Competition in Eastern countries is relatively unknown, and there are few sources in English, which makes so crucial the knowledge of national languages and, most of all, Russian, because it was taught on almost every country under Soviet influence. Unlike most of my works, this one isn't so detailed during Kesjár's "Eastern" career because that research implies far more time and knowledge I haven't. Still, I think it is interesting to tell you this exciting and unknown motor racing history piece.  

I publish this article in first place on the renewed version of my website because it was the first work of this kind I did and published. It was a labour of love, sheer curiosity, and represents a lot to me because it was a creation from complicated days. And I sincerely thanks my Russian contacts which kindly translated this work and published on Facebook and VK groups related to the Cup of Peace and Friendship and other racing activities.