The Šenkýř Motorsport team appeared in the Eset Cup after a long break. The team brought to inaugural Hungaroring event two BMW M4 GT4 cars, which the team entrusted to novice drivers. And their results surprised the team.
Šenkýř Motorsport from Brno used to be a regular member of the Eset Cup, but for the last two seasons the team wasn´t part of the championship. Team boss Robert Šenkýř explains why: “Among other things, we devoted a lot of time to our program for young drivers in our trackday events, from which we selected the most talented participants and focused on their performance during whole winter. We scheduled twelve test days on six circuits in Spain from December to March. ”
With three newcomers Šenkýř Motorsport arrived at Hungaroring. Marian Bíž and Samuel Vetrák from Slovakia and Petr Švantner from the Czech Republic tried out for the first time what it means to be a racing driver. They are ordinary guys who wanted to try a fast ride at trackday events. And now they are part of the Be a race driver program, which Šenkýř Motorsport organizes.
“The aim of this project is to take novice drivers from our trackday events, coach them, get a racing license for them, try racing weekends and then race with them in 24-hour race in Barcelona,” explains Šenkýř. The program Be a race driver is for future racers, but also for people who would like to try what it is like, one or more times in their lives, to sit in a race car and be cared by a professional team.
“Eset Cup is one of the steps we want to take with them. To try all the procedures of the race weekend from the first training sessions, through the qualifications to the race itself. And I have to say that the boys did very well. A month ago, they even did not have racing licenses and suddenly they entered their first qualification, which was also in wet condition. And Samuel Vetrák was fastest in GT4 class, third place was Petr Švantner. So we didn’t expect that, ” Šenkýř praised his drivers.
Švantner finished second and Vetrák fourth in the first race. In the second race, Švantner repeated the podium success and finished in third place. Vetrák was replaced by Marian Bíž, who took fourth place in the qualification and in the race too. Švantner again took podium step in endurance race, where he finished in second place. His teammates Vetrák and Bíž, driving the second BMW M4 GT4, finished fourth.
Šenkýř Motorsport should appear in the second ESET Cup event at the Red Bull Ring. Then the calendar collides with other team events. Šenkýř Motorsport will not even race at home track in Brno in September. Instead, the team will race in the mentioned 24hour race in Barcelona, which is the ultimate goal of the Be a race driver program this year. Robert Šenkýř has already chosen four drivers, the fifth will be Šenkýř himself. This year is the thirtieth anniversary that Robert Šenkýř followed his father Jan’s footsteps and started career in motorsport.