Victory. That was the result TV presenter Lucie Borhyová predicted for Jiří Mičánek at legendary hill climb race Ústecká 21 and she turned out to be right. Supporting the Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra team in Ústí nad Orlicí, Borhyová watched as Jiří Mičánek then clearly fulfilled her prophecy.
For Lucie Borhyová, the weekend with the Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra team was her first experience of hill climb racing — and she couldn’t hide her excitement. She was impressed both by the atmosphere created by the fans along the course and by the very concept of the discipline itself. “If I had to choose between riding in a race car on a circuit or here in the hills, I’d definitely pick hill climbs,” the presenter admits.
After the very first practice run, she had no doubt that Jiří Mičánek would dominate his class — though the path to fulfilling that “mission” proved far from easy for the driver and team manager of Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra. “As always, it was a fantastic event with an incredible atmosphere. The car performed perfectly, and the whole team did an excellent job. But the competition here was really strong,” said Jiří Mičánek.
Right in the first Saturday run, he clocked a time below the magical two-minute mark. Only seven other drivers managed to conquer the 21 corners and 225 meters of elevation change that quickly — all of them, however, behind the wheel of single-seaters. No one in a GT car. Jiří Mičánek thus capped off Saturday with a first-place finish.
In Sunday’s first run, however, Robert Šenkýř also managed to break the two-minute barrier. The decisive battle between him and Jiří Mičánek was set to take place in the afternoon run but a rain shower changed the game. On the wet track, the Lamborghini Huracán ST EVO2 driven by the team boss proved dominant.
„The track was dry in some sections, but mostly wet in the forest and on the straights. We drove on dry tires. When it starts raining during a hill climb, you can’t do a reconnaissance run — you have no idea what the conditions will be like. So it all comes down to experience and the willingness to take risks,” says Jiří Mičánek, who beat his closest rival by nearly eight seconds and confidently defended his first-place finish. On both days, he also made it into the top ten overall and was the fastest GT car on the course. Finishing behind only single-seaters and one prototype.
With two first-place finishes, Jiří Mičánek rounded off his hill climb campaign for the year, securing four victories over two weekends. “Unfortunately, the remaining events clash with our circuit programme, so we won’t be attending them. But I believe we’ve clearly demonstrated our professionalism and proven that we can win across all disciplines,” the driver concluded.
On Monday, he will partially switch back into his managerial role as the team prepares for the first circuit tests on the Masaryk Circuit’s new surface. “We have tests planned with several drivers, but I expect I’ll be driving as well,” Mičánek confirmed.
