A Slovak racing driver and also a three-time ESET MMSR champion Miro Konôpka is getting ready for another busy season. He plans to race in ESET MMSR, Blancpain GT Series and GT Open as well and to make it even more difficult – he will have to swap cars a lot as he adds a new Mercedes AMG GT3 to his garage.
You have got yourself a new Mercedes AMG GT3, yet you plan to race with Lamborghini at Hungaroring, why?
We want to use the Mercedes only for endurance races, probably in Blancpain GT Series or International GT, but I intend to race with my Lamborghinis in most races, just like last year. And with both versions GT3 and Supertrofeo.
What are your plans for this season then? Are you going to race in more series? And do you plan to race with Mercedes in the ESET MMSR?
As we had been so focused on prototypes and Le Mans so much, we prepare our 2018 calendar in the last minute. I won’t participate in all ESET races this year as I plan to race in GT Open and also Lamborghini Supertrofeo Europe. Regarding Mercedes, we’re going to test it after the first race at Monza and then we will see what is possible. Last week I returned from Affalterbach with AMG and I think we need to work a bit, we were too slow. Personally, I still feel much better with Lamborghini.
What are your personal goals for this year?
I don’t have any, to be honest, let’s just wait and see as my I’m still recovering from my spine injuries after last year’s crash in Fuji. My doctors want me to undergo a surgery, but I don’t want to. And that’s going to be my biggest battle this year. Well, I’m not getting any younger, I’ll celebrate my 60th birthday soon so I leave all the plans and goals to the younger ones and I wish them all the best. I just want to enjoy some good racing.
What do you think about the ESET MMSR and Czech-Slovak circuit racing scene in general?
I’m really happy with the way the ESET series goes, especially with Czech and Slovak teams. We might not have the biggest starting grid, but it’s on a great level. We have at least 7 or 8 new GT3s, maybe even 15 this year, and then GTC cars like Lamborghini Supertrofeo, so that’s a promise of good racing. And if the plan with Eurosport materializes, the ESET MMSR championship will get even better. Of course, there will be some couch potatoes saying that it’s pointless, but from my point of view the ESET series is only helping the motorsport scene here. I’ve participated in many international series and I can compare, and I think that we have nothing to be ashamed of.
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