Transilvania Motor Ring: twelve years of building a track on Cerghid hill

On Thursday, 28 December 2017, Péter Ferenc, chairman of the Mureș County Council, announced at a press conference that the racing circuit on the hill above the village of Cerghid was ready. He did not sign the acceptance of the works, however: the same day a section of the slope next to the track slid, and acceptance was suspended for 90 days. It was the last obstacle on a construction project that had lasted twelve years from the first decisions and had led through a dispute with an Italian contractor, the loss of part of the EU money and a bailiff on the building site.


Location	Cerghid no. 1/G, Ungheni town, Mureș County, Romania; about 20 km from Târgu Mureș, 4 km from national road DN 15 (E 60)
Type	permanent asphalt circuit; alongside it a supermoto loop 1620 m long (1245 m of asphalt and a 375 m off-road section)
Length and width	3708 m, width from 11 to 14 m, start straight about 700 m
Construction	contract with the contractor in August 2011, works completed in December 2017
Opening	10 November 2018, demonstration competitions for cars and motorcycles
Cost	over 58 million lei, from the Regional Operational Programme 2007–2013 and the county budget
Owner and operator	Mureș County (Județul Mureș); administered by the county council (Consiliul Județean Mureș)
Infrastructure	11 double pit garages, a grandstand for 1428 spectators, a medical centre, a landing pad for two helicopters
Key events	Romanian Endurance Series (first round at this track in May 2019), an FIM Supermoto World Championship round (September 2024), an announced night round of the Romanian drift championship (June 2025)
Status	active; national homologation for car competitions since 2019, no international homologation

Racing from the streets to the hill

Thomas Moldovan, who ran the track in its first years, said in 2021 that motorcycle and car competitions had been organized in Târgu Mureș since the 1960s. He named the brothers Gyula and Attila Tóth, who won eight national champion titles in sidecar motorcycle racing. Before the track existed, people raced on the city streets and at the airport. The idea of a permanent venue for official competitions is attributed to Edita Emőke Lokodi, who in 2006, as chair of the county council, started work on the project.

The site was a hill at Cerghid, between the villages of Cerghizel and Cerghid. In 2006 the county council took over more than 34 hectares there from the Ministry of Defence and commissioned a feasibility study. The project received the official name "Parc auto pentru sporturi cu motor", that is, a park for motor sports, and according to today's operator its aim was to be "niche" tourism, aimed at motor sport enthusiasts. The model was the Hungaroring, the Formula 1 circuit near Budapest, only on a smaller scale.

The money was to come from the European Union. The application to the Regional Operational Programme 2007–2013 was filed at the end of 2008, and on 13 May 2010 a funding contract was signed for about 58.1 million lei, of which 20.5 million lei was the EU grant. In September 2012 the then chairman of the council, Ciprian Dobre, visited the building site and was told that the works were 34 per cent complete, on schedule. The project then envisaged a loop 3505 m long; Dobre proposed carving out of it also a shorter variant of 800–1000 m, and pointed out the lack of parking places.

The contractor removed by a bailiff

The construction contract was signed on 23 August 2011 with a consortium led by the Italian building cooperative Cooperativa Edile Appennino, alongside two Romanian firms, Kasim Emaka and Morani Impex. The site was handed over on 28 September 2011, and the track was to be ready after 24 months, on 23 September 2013. The consortium leader, as the local service msnews recalled, specialized in building airport runways and asphalt racing tracks.

In March 2013 the contractor reported problems with the ground, which was sliding on the slope. In September, on the contractual deadline, the works were 62 per cent complete; the council agreed to extend the deadline to 30 November, and then to 30 June 2014. After the second extension the level of completion was 67 per cent. The council terminated the contract, but the contractor refused to hand over the site and kept working until October 2014. Lawsuits began.

At the start of 2016 a court ordered the building site to be vacated: according to the msnews chronology, the Court of Appeal in Târgu Mureș ruled on eviction on 8 January, and on 4 February a bailiff removed the contractor. Because of the delay the council lost nearly half of the EU funding and decided to finish the track from its own budget, so as not to have to return the money already spent. The works were resumed by a consortium of local firms. According to msnews's calculation, 62 per cent of the costs were ultimately covered by the county budget.

The construction was also accompanied by a criminal case. In December 2015 the Romanian anti-corruption prosecutor's office DNA sent an indictment against three people to court; according to the investigators it concerned a bribe for a former secretary of state in the ministry of regional development and tourism, who in 2011 was alleged to have pressed the Italian contractor to subcontract the works to one of the accused businessmen. In mid-2018 the trial was still going on before the county court in Târgu Mureș. Its outcome could not be established.

A landslide on acceptance day

After the December 2017 conference, acceptance was to take place after 90 days, by the end of March 2018. The council commissioned an expert opinion to establish whether the slope slip threatened the track. Péter Ferenc explained that the ground had settled in a place that does not touch the surface. Months went by; only at the end of June 2018 did the chairman announce acceptance for the following week, and msnews calculated that 178 days had passed since the announcement that the works were finished.

In the same year doubts about safety appeared. In March 2018 the president of the Romanian Motorcycle Federation, Cristi Mureșan, warned that for safety reasons the track could not be used. "There are two or three very dangerous corners: the first right-hander, the hairpin in the valley," he said, and according to him the barriers stood too close to the track, without sufficient run-off areas. In July 2018 the county council put a draft of the regulations and price list out for consultation. A day of competition with spectators was to cost 144,363 lei, about 30,000 euros; because the track has no lighting, from mid-October to mid-April driving was to be possible only from 08:00 to 16:00, and the draft banned drifting and burnouts.

The inauguration took place on Saturday, 10 November 2018. The county council and the Mureș Rally Team association organized demonstration competitions for cars and motorcycles, a separate part for professional drivers from Mureș County, and Mihai Leu, Romanian hill climb champion, drove a Ferrari onto the track. Thomas Moldovan said later that 11,000 spectators came to the opening. BMW used the occasion to hand over the fortieth M4 on the Romanian market to a customer. Titi Aur, a multiple champion who has a track of his own, used, as he said, only for training, did not hold back his praise:

"In Romania it is practically the first real circuit, with all the conditions of real motor sport. (...) I drove it, it is interesting, it has differences in level, which gives it a particular character".

Moldovan, then as a representative of the Mureș Rally Team, spoke of 37 events booked for 2019.

Homologation in instalments

In January 2019 the track's management announced that since the November opening it had been conducting homologation procedures with the Romanian Automobile Sports Federation (FRAS), the motorcycle federation, the Romanian Automobile Club (ACR) and the International Automobile Federation (FIA). The council at the same time announced a change of the regulations so that the facility could organize track days. The track received national homologation for car competitions still in 2019, and in the first season nearly 40 events were held there, including nine rounds of championships organized by FRAS.

In May 2019 the Romanian Endurance Series, the Romanian endurance racing championship, which had until then raced only at the Motorpark România circuit, came here for the first time. In qualifying, Eduard Anton of the BADI team drove a lap in a CUPRA TCR in 1:33.617, which the communiqué of BMW, the series partner, called the absolute track record. The weekend's second race was held on a wet surface, with a safety car leading the field for several laps before the start.

Things went more slowly with motorcycles. In February 2020 Péter Ferenc announced that on 19 April the motorcycle federation would run a Homologation Cup, after which the track would be able to host supermoto competitions and junior races. Moldovan admitted then that for racing on the full loop the track needs changes, but for supermoto it does not. In 2021 he explained: "The protective barriers were built according to the safety standards applicable more than 10 years ago", and the standards have changed since then. The council counted on another EU grant, about 3 million euros, of which roughly a million would go to modernizing the track and the rest to an enduro-cross track in Sântioana de Mureș. Already in March 2020 the commune of Pănet had proposed handing over to the county 22 ha with an existing motocross course in that very village. In September 2024 the "Newsweek România" service wrote that national competitions are held at the track, but there is still no international homologation.

Supermoto, vaccinations and drifting after midnight

In June 2021 it was announced that the track would serve a vaccination campaign during the pandemic. The action "Vaccinare în viteza a șasea", that is, vaccination in sixth gear, was to take place on 17 and 18 June and consisted in this: whoever received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a point next to the track would get a ride alongside a motor sport champion. Mihai Leu announced that he would bring the Ferrari 458 Challenge in which he won two Romanian hill climb champion titles.

In September 2024 the FIM Supermoto World Championship came to Cerghid for the first time, as the sixth round of the season. The organizers announced the return of this discipline to Romania after a ten-year break and described the track as very fast asphalt with a demanding off-road section. Thomas Răzvan Moldovan of the National Sports Agency said at a press conference that the motocross section had been built with the requirements of a world championship event in mind. On Saturday, 7 September, the German Marc Reiner Schmidt took pole position and won the first race, covering 15 laps in 19:39.197, almost 14 s ahead of the Frenchman Thomas Chareyre.

A year later the track was to host a discipline that the draft regulations of 2018 had banned. In June 2025 the track was to host a round of the Romanian drift championship, announced as the first in history held entirely at night, on a course with special lighting. Qualifying and battles were scheduled for midnight in the SemiPro category and for 01:30 in the Pro category; by the Wednesday before the event almost 70 drivers from six countries had registered, including Ukraine, Moldova and Norway. The regulations of December 2025 already define drifting competitions, and permit burnouts only within a championship. The youngest also use the asphalt: in 2025, on a request filed in March, the county council's services proposed making part of the paddock and the track available free of charge to the Children's Palace of Târgu Mureș for karting competitions.

To Cerghid in your own car

The facility's regulations, adopted by resolution of the county council on 18 December 2025, define a track day directly: it is an event at which participants drive their own or rented vehicles. The first route onto the track is days organized by the facility's own management, which has been headed since 2022 by Paul Ungureanu. Before entry the staff check that the car has no leaks, that the tyres are in order and that there are no visible faults in the steering and brakes; the price includes marshals, an ambulance and recovery of an immobilized car from the track, and at most 22 cars may drive at the same time. The management announces dates on the website and on Facebook. According to the 2026 price list, such an entry costs 600 lei for five sessions of 20 minutes, and a timing transponder 70 lei per day. The driver and passenger must have seat belts fastened and wear a helmet. An adult spectator pays 30 lei for entry to a track day and 50 lei to a car competition.

The club CS Danny Ungur Racing organizes its own track days at Cerghid. Its regulations admit adults (minors with a notarized consent of their parents) and do not require a driving licence; before going onto the track the car undergoes a check of tyres, brake pads and leaks, and without the sticker from that check there is no entry. For an extra fee you can take an instructor on the right-hand seat, who drives with the driver in sessions of six laps in his own car. In the track's booking system the club has track days planned for 16 and 31 October and 7 and 14 November 2026. The Bucharest club Willi Motorsport invited drivers to a track day on 4 September 2026, at the third round of the Romanian Endurance Series: two sessions, from 09:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:00, for 700 lei.

The bill from Trieste

The dispute with the first contractor outlived the opening of the track by years. The county council won it with final judgments of the Court of Appeal in Târgu Mureș of 2017 and of the High Court of Cassation and Justice of September 2020. The courts awarded from the Italian cooperative 21.5 million lei in damages and 6.4 million lei in penalties for delay. Enforcement by a bailiff from Ploiești yielded only a partial recovery in Romania: the county called in a bank guarantee for 3.72 million lei and collected 2.07 million lei from a treasury account, 5.8 million lei in total. The remaining 22.2 million lei has to be sought in Italy. At the end of July 2026 the council agreed to hire an Italian law firm to represent the county before the court in Trieste, where creditors are filing claims against Cooperativa Edile Appennino. Eight years after the opening, the track is still waiting for money from the firm that began building it.

Timeline

2006: the Mureș County council takes over from the Ministry of Defence more than 34 ha on Cerghid hill and commissions a feasibility study.
13 May 2010: funding contract from the Regional Operational Programme.
23 August 2011: contract with the consortium of Cooperativa Edile Appennino, Kasim Emaka and Morani Impex.
2014: the council terminates the contract with the works 67 per cent complete.
4 February 2016: a bailiff removes the contractor from the building site.
28 December 2017: announcement of the completion of works and the slope slide, acceptance postponed.
10 November 2018: inauguration.
2019: national homologation for car competitions; in May the first round of the Romanian Endurance Series at Cerghid.
September 2020: the judgment of the High Court of Cassation and Justice ends the dispute with the contractor in Romania.
June 2021: announced vaccination action with rides on the track.
7–8 September 2024: a round of the FIM Supermoto World Championship.
June 2025: announced first-ever night round of the Romanian drift championship.
July 2026: the council authorizes the chairman to hire an Italian law firm to pursue 22.2 million lei before the court in Trieste.