Milovan Vesnič has become the first-ever ESET TCR champion. This is what the Serbian driver had to say about the 2019 season.
Milovan, this year you’ve become the first-ever ESET TCR champion. How would you rate this season?
To be honest, this season ended in a great style as me and the team have become champions. But we had so many ups and downs. It might have looked easy on the outside, but our competitors didn’t give it to us for free. And we also had a couple of technical issues. We had to work very hard on our way to win the championships.
What does this success mean to you? How would you compare it to other achievements in your career? Is it the biggest success of your career so far?
Every title is a success to me and I’m glad to be back on the top. I’ve been a champion in the ESET V4 Cup a few times already, in the D4-2000 and D4-3500 categories. And I hope that my first TCR title won’t also be my last. It’s great to be part of the ESET TCR family.
What do you think about the ESET TCR category? What future does it hold?
I just hope that the promoter is going to work hard to put this championship to a great level. I think we are on a good way for the ESET TCR to become one of the more significant TCR series. We need at least 15 entries in each race, so a bit more promotion and appeal.
How does it feel to race against “young guns” like Jáchym Galáš or Dušan Kouřil jr.? Who was your toughest competitor this season?
When I see Jáchyn and Dušan, I see myself a few years ago. I was hungry after wins, speed and racing as well. And I still am, I just have a bit more experience and that’s very important for a Touring Car racing driver. Jáchym and Dušan are great young guns. I’m glad that I can race against them and spend time with them at the races.
The opening round of the ESET TCR season at Hungaroring was a bit different to the others as the series raced together with the TCR Europe championship. How would you describe that experience? Can you compare it to your 3 starts in the TCR International Series back in 2015?
On one side, it was great. But it also had its flaws. I don’t want to go into details, but we basically had to play second fiddle to them, which we are not. We just don’t have so much money. In the 2nd race, I set the 2nd fastest lap of all 40 drivers. While it was fun to race against them, our promoter knows what the teams say about it. If I have to compare it to 2015, it was the same. We didn’t have much money and we couldn’t compete with the others. You can be the best racing driver in the world, but without a factory backing, testing and all the modern technologies, you can only hope in a miracle.
And what are your plans for the next year? Do you plan to continue in the ESET TCR or you want to try something else? After winning the ESET TCR, you could try the TCR Europe… or is it something completely different?
Let’s wait and see. For now, we’re staying in the ESET TCR and in TCR Eastern Europe. We don’t plan to go somewhere else. That would require us to have a big sponsor and we don’t have that at the moment. But I’m not sad about it. There will be more young drivers, hungry for victories, but also older drivers with new cars. It’s going to be interesting and I’ll be motivated to be the fastest once again.