Tomas Pekar

Tomas, how much did your racing plans change with the COVID pandemic? When the COVID-19 appeared, there was chaos, races were cancelled, so I had to change my schedule. We had to race in whatever it was possible. Our team Carpek Service is a series regular in the ESET Cup, so it wasn’t a problem to prepare the third car for me. The race weekends were perfectly organised, everything worked smoothly, and we managed to do the whole programme. That was nice. How did the role of a series favourite feel? I didn’t really admit that to myself, but it’s true that I’ve done a lot of driving with the Clio and I knew three out of four circuits perfectly well, so that helped a lot. We had nice races, the team worked great and technical issues were avoiding us. I won seven raced, but it was not as easy as it might have looked. But I was also lucky. How badly did you feel about that lost race at Hungaroring? Not too bad, it was just a couple of coincidences. Just before, in Brno, I took my sixth victory, and I was untouchable in the championship. So, I decided to try a TCR in Hungary. However, in the practice session, the car stopped braking and I hit the barriers in 165 kph. That was a big hit, and I went to the hospital. I was just shaken, so I left. But I couldn’t continue with a TCR, so I returned to the Clio car. I didn’t feel too good, but I managed to do two qualifying laps. I set the sixthfastest time and I knew that a podium finish would be a success. It was tough to get in front, so I finished third. But it was all forgotten in the second race that was in wet conditions, where my experience helped a lot. You raced at Grobnik for the first time, how did you enjoy it? Whenever I race somewhere for the first time, it’s always a challenge. Grobnik surprised me because it’s a natural circuit with a nice and smooth surface. I really liked it there and I enjoyed winning both races. Also, I added a nice holiday by the sea and that was beautiful. Are you going to race in the TCR Eastern Europe next year? I’m doing everything I can to be in the TCR Eastern Europe next year. I really like the TCR category, the technical and the sporting side, and I’d like to move forward. We’ll be working a lot on the SEAT Cupra TCR over the winter. Maybe our team will enter two cars. And we want to continue with the Renault Clio Cup category.