Martin Kadlečík

Successful racer and sim-racer

Martin Kadlečík had busy 2022 season. He made his debut in the Twingo Cup and at the end of the season he switched to the faster Renault Clio and finished fourth and fifth in Brno. And at the end of October, he raced on simulator in the FIA Motorsport Games in France at Paul Ricard, where he achieved a fantastic result in the Esport category.

True is, Kadlečík used to race in Autocross and when he finished third in Czech Simracing Series, it opened the door to the real racing circuits through the Twingo Cup championship. Debut in Twingo Cup at Hungaroring didn´t end well because of technical issues, but next races were way better and Kadlečík also fought for podium finishes. But Twingo Cup is very competitive series and late moves in the last stages of the races can make a huge difference, however relatively unexperienced Kadlečík managed to finish as high as four at Red Bull Ring.

Twingo Cup ended the season at Slovakia Ring and Kadlečík made a deal with Carpek Racing team in Clio Cup, where he exceled. Fourth and fifth place don´t fully reflected the great pace he have had in Brno, where he was able to keep the speed with the top drivers.

After the season, he accepted the offer to represent the Czech Republic in FIA Motorsport Games. For his performance in France, he later received special ESET Cup trophy.

You got the offer to start in the FIA Motorsport Games quite late. How many days until the start and were you immediately determined to go or did you hesitate? I received the offer about 14 days before the event itself. However, I did not hesitate for a moment, in my opinion, such an offer cannot be refused, as it might not happen again in the future. After all, represent-

ing the country is different from driving a simulator at home.

Almost sixty competitors were registered in the Esport category. What result were you expecting? My only goal was to advance to the finals, but I knew that nothing was going to be easy, since the best driverrs from every country participated in the competition…

You eventually progressed to the finals. How did you feel going through the elimination rounds? At the beginning it took me a while to get used to the equipment I was driving, but in the quarter final I managed to finetune the steering wheel and from then on I had good speed. I tried not to take unnecessary risks, I wanted to save it for the final. In the final, you started from the front row, but there was a collision in the first corner. What happened? Unfortunately, the outside lane is bad into the first corner and when the Dutchman Harteveld, who started from third position, got next to me, he didn’t give me much room in the second corner and I was forced to go over the inside kerb, which unsettled my car and the Brazilian Rodrigues hit me from behind… We both went off the track and it was hard to get back.

In the end, you finished in a great fifth place. How do you evaluate your performance at the FIA Motorsport Games and how do you like such an event? I still enjoyed the final, I managed a few good overtaking manoeuvres and had a nice race with the guys. It’s a shame that there was a collision in the first lap, I think the podium was realistic. The event was perfect from my side, there was always something to watch between the races and the combination of real racing with esports was a great addition to the whole event.

When were you more nervous? At the start of a real race in a real car, or at the start of the final international esport race? It is difficult to find an answer to such a question… After all, in real racing there is much more at stake and everyone drives more cautiously, on the contrary, in the simulator you drive at full speed from start to finish. However, I have to admit that it’s very similar – being nervous, especially when you’re representing a country and people are watching you. ■