Croatian race track Grobnik is going to host next round of ESET V4 Cup. Racing cars will occupy paddock of Grobnik upcoming weeknd and one of the local driver will be also Žarko Knego from Auto Klub Dubrovnik Racing Team, who will be racing with Seat Cupra in ESET TCR class.
Next round of the ESET TCR will be your home race at Grobnik, what does it mean for you, that Grobnik is part of the championship?
The next race on Grobnik means a lot for me as that is my home track, I made most of laps there and finished quite a number of races. Besides the fact that Grobnik is a track that I know well, this is a chance to show to all sponsors and media in Croatia about how high level championship this is and how good are other competitors.
How well do you know Grobnik and what are your goal for the weekend?
I can say that I know Grobnik quite well, since one year ago there has been new tarmac and the track has changed a lot and it requires a completely new car set up. I had only one race on the new tarmac and I can say that we still need to learn a lot about the new configuration that needs to be applied there. My goal would be to finish both races in top 5, everything more than that is a bonus for me and my team.
What, where and which cars were you racing before this year?
Before this year I have done mainly Croatian championship on circuit and hill climb. I was two times champion of Croatia on hill climb and two times on circuit. Last car before purchasing Cupra TCR was Honda civic EP3 group N. Before that there were a number of other racing cars that I drove on the races: Peugeot 106 Rally, Renault Clio Ragnotti, Škoda Fabia
You are driving Seat Cupra TCR now, how do you compare it with your previous cars?
This car is impossible to compare with my previous cars, it is a factory made car, that you can see in every detail. As this car is much more precise and complicated than my previous cars, it requires more practice and knowledge about the car setup. We still have a lot to learn about the car and the set up and to try to make me and the car faster.
TCR is world-wide popular category, how difficult is to succeed with this car for gentleman driver?
TCR series are something good for everyone who didn’t have access to professional racing, you have a chance to compete with one of the best drivers in touring cars at still affordable costs comparing to other series. Still there is a huge difference between the budgets for some drivers, sometimes it is 3-5 times more than our budget. According to my opinion, you can come to certain level driving like I do with very limited budget which means less testing and less preparation, to achieve some better goal the budget must be much bigger.
Your best result so far is fourth place from Hungary, what can you do to improve this results, especialy at your home track?
My best result was Hungary, I had a good race on wet track racing on slick tyres like other cars. I had a crash at the beginning of that race and my suspension was damaged after the crash but I managed to finish fourth. On Redbull ring we tried to change the set up, I was not fast on dry track but had a good start on second race which didn’t end up as it began, this was the first time on that track and I made few mistakes in turn two which cost me at least 4 (maybe even more) places. Hope I will be able to improve the result on Grobnik, but everything in top 5 is acceptable for me. My team and me still need to find a proper setup for the car and I need to practice more in order to achieve right results.
Is Grobnik unique track compare to the other circuits
in the calendar for you?
All tracks have its own specialties, like that Grobnik is also specific.
Before the new tarmac it was very important to maintain the shape of the tyres
because if you were not taking care about them in the race, you were not able
to finish, the front left tyre would explode. Now the track is different,
around 5 seconds faster than before, there are two places on the track where
you have to have good speed and great exit from the corner which makes the
difference of a god and very bad lap. It is possible to overtake on few places
on the track so it makes it quite interesting.