Slovenian driver Nik Štefančič moved from Twingo Cup to the faster Clio Cup this year and is doing extremely well behind the wheel of his fifth-generation cup car. After three races, he is currently holding second place.
“Being second only to Tomáš Pekař is a great result. Given that I didn’t have much opportunity to practice and don’t have as much experience with the car, this season is going very well,” said Nik Štefančič, who won the Twingo Cup title in 2021 and 2022.
We caught up with Štefančič at the Slovakia Ring while he was changing tires on his Clio. Like many other drivers in the Clio Cup, Štefančič relies on himself and his close collaborators, in his case his mom and dad. “Of course, we have some help from the LEMA Racing team, but it’s mostly our family who works on the car,” explained Štefančič before the Sunday races at the Slovakian track.
“I know that Szabolcs Lantos tested a lot here, so I finished behind him in qualifying,” evaluated Štefančič the performance of his biggest rival in the fight for the vice-champion title. Their battle was very close in the first race, with almost identical lap times. Štefančič best lap at the nearly six-kilometer track was 2:28.000, while Lantos had 2:28.011. However, it was Štefančič who took second place behind Pekař. Lantos finished third, 0.581 seconds behind.
In the second race, Štefančič finished second again without a fight for position in the Clio V classification. “This is different from Twingo Cup. While in Twingo, you race with many competitors around you, in Clio Cup, it is not uncommon to drive alone on the track and have space to extract the maximum from the car,” said Štefančič, whose goal this year is to maintain second place in the Clio Cup and win the title in the Slovenian championship.