The three-time champion remains the most successful driver in the nine years existence of the Eset Cup Series. This year, however, the main attention of Miro Konopka, driver and owner of the ARC Bratislava team, was on the premiere season in the World Endurance Championship. It included a start at the world’s most famous race, the 24hours Le Mans in France. Nevertheless, Miro Konopka also made time for the Eset Cup Series.
Why is Eset Cup so appealing to you?
Above all, it’s about a nice and pleasant meeting with friends, which I enjoy more and more with my age. I’m always looking forward to it. This year we had a busy calendar thanks to participation in the World Endurance Championship, but fortunately we had three free weekends and my team and I were able to come to Hungaroring, Slovakiaring and Brno. In the LMP, I finished second in Eset, but it was not about the result. It’s just beautiful to be here, to meet the fans and offer them races with older but still interesting prototypes. I admit that going to Brno shortly after the start at Le Mans was not easy, but I couldn’t miss it. Masaryk Circuit is practically my home track. Here I graduated from the circuit racing school with Jiří Mičánek and drove the first race. It was also nice that I raced with my son Maťa, who debuted at Le Mans.
You joined Eset Race Star project at Slovakiaring and helped David Němček’s dream came true. How did you like it?
I wanted to give David an opportunity to see, what is one of the top Central European championships all about. He is a top driver in SIM racing, but this was no longer a computer game. He did well, but motorsport is about finances. I didn’t plan to expand the team and add another car. We now have seven different race cars, we couldn’t take car about another one.
How satisfied were you with your performance at Le Mans?
The 24hours Le Mans was the highlight of the season. A wonderful event, where I have raced for the fifth time. This year, for the first time with the Oreca 07. My team mates were my traditional partner Oliver Webb and for the first time my son Matěj. We had a great start, but then came the technical issues. But we fought, didn’t give up and finished the race. We finished 16th in LMP2 and 6th in the PRO / AM class, which is my best result in history. In the absolute classification, we finished in 24th place. I wanted to be in TOP 20, so it didn’t work out, but I was still satisfied. We have to be realistic, we are a small team.
And when you look back on the World Endurance Championship, how do you rate your debut season?
We did a good job. I am glad that the 24hours race, which was part of the championship, was one of our best races. However, the beginning of the season was affected by the fact, that we raced with Ligier JS P217, which is simply not fast enough. On each circuit, Ligier was slower 2-3 seconds per lap on Oreca 07. There wasn´t a reason to continue with slow, but expensive car. Fortunately, after a great deal of effort, we managed to get the Oreca 07. It was the only chance to fight in the middle of the starting field – at least in the second half of the championship. We also got well in the final races in Bahrain. Overall, I finished 25th in LMP2, eighth in the PRO / AM class and we were fifth in the teams standings.
What are you up to next season?
We would like to re-enter the Asian Le Mans Series in February. I would also like to continue in the World Endurance Championship and start at Le Mans. I’ll be sixty next year, so that would be a nice gift. In addition, I fought for the start at Le Mans for seven years and I would like to say goodbye here by finishing in the TOP20. And of course, I won’t miss the Eset Cup Series.