It feels like coming home.” After a year’s break, Jiří Mičánek will once again line up at the start of the legendary Ústecká 21 hill climb in Ústí nad Orlicí. The event holds a personal connection for him — he spent childhood holidays with the race’s founder, Miroslav Urban, and his family. This year, Mičánek will honour the hill climb legend with a specially designed helmet, while aiming once again to reach the podium.
„Over the past year, we’ve created special helmet designs for Moravský Krumlov and Náměšť nad Oslavou. Ústí nad Orlicí was still missing, and I’m glad we can symbolically round out the collection to three here,” says Jiří Mičánek, driver and team manager of Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra. “It’s a tribute not only to this track, but also to Mr Urban, who organised the race for decades. My father raced here too, and I’m proud to continue the tradition and to return to Ústí feeling at home — not least thanks to the fantastic atmosphere,” he adds.
The helmet’s design and paintwork will once again be handled by Jakub Paleček from EXD Studio, one of the top airbrush artists in the Czech Republic. “I’ve seen the design, of course, but not the finished helmet. It will be a premiere for me in Ústí, just as it will be for the fans. I’m thrilled with the new design — it incorporates both the city’s colours and the track layout itself,” the driver reveals a few days ahead of the debut. He adds that beneath the unique paint, just like on all previous helmets, lies the carbon shell of an Arai GP-7 helmet — the same model used by F1 drivers.
On the race track, Jiří Mičánek faces a “battle” against the stopwatch, but most of all, against the twenty-one corners winding through dense forest. Because of this, competitors often compare the Ústecká 21 to the circuit icon Nürburgring, nicknamed the “Green Hell.” “It’s one of the most beautiful and at the same time most demanding tracks on the calendar. In the forest, many corners feel very similar, so you have to know the track well, there’s no room for error,” explains the team manager, who won his first European circuit title last year and is currently leading the fight for this year’s GT2 European Series title.
And Jiří Mičánek will be “defending” on the hill climb track as well. At the final round of the Czech hill climb championship in Náměšť nad Oslavou, he dominated Group 2, and he aims to build on that success in Ústí nad Orlicí. “It’s a huge challenge for me — winning here would be symbolic because of my friendship with the Urban family,” he explains. Even the car has been adapted for the event: the Huracán, normally a circuit machine, received brake discs suited to the specific demands of a hill climb, and the team is bringing a new tyre compound to Ústecká 21.
Alongside the thousands of fans lining the course and creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the old days of road racing, Jiří Mičánek will also be supported by Lucie Borhyová, presenter of Televizní noviny on TV Nova. “Since last spring, when Lucka and I first met while hosting our gala evening, we’ve turned her into a motorsport fan. I’m glad that after visiting the Brno circuit, she’ll now see the hill climbs too, where you can get much closer to the action,” concludes Jiří Mičánek.
