One of the first GTC cars to test the new asphalt at the Masaryk Circuit in Brno this week was the Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra Lamborghini Huracán ST EVO2. Team manager Jiří Mičánek Jr. also took his first spin in the Huracán on the resurfaced track. “The circuit is fantastic, and I expect lap times to drop well below two minutes,” he predicts.
1:55. That’s a lap time once achieved only by the top MotoGP riders at Brno’s Masaryk Circuit before COVID. Now, that benchmark could be claimed by GTC cars, which until now had hovered around the magic “two-minute” mark. “The track designers and circuit management have done an outstanding job. The asphalt is perfectly smooth, offers excellent grip, and so far it looks like it won’t wear the tyres excessively,” Mičánek explains, highlighting the features of the resurfaced track, renewed for the first time in seventeen years. “The larger asphalt areas beyond the curbs are also a big plus. They’ll allow us to carry more speed,” adds the driver and team manager, who claimed the Czech endurance circuit title at Brno last autumn — a crown he aims to defend this year.
I think it’s genuinely realistic to get down near the 1:55 mark. Until now, the GTC cars have been lapping around two minutes,” Mičánek notes. For comparison, the official track record — set by Austrian Ingo Gerstl in a Toro Rosso F1 car — stands at around 1:36. Even more interesting is the comparison with the best motorcycle times. The current benchmark is already eleven years old, 1:56.027, set by Dani Pedrosa in 2014. Marc Marquez was even faster unofficially, clocking 1:54.596 during testing, but it doesn’t count as an official record since it wasn’t set in a race. GTC cars, being closed-wheel machines, could now be approaching this milestone.
„During testing, I had a spin on the new track and was surprised by just how well it grips. Unfortunately, the final part of the tests — when I had the car to myself and could push it to the limit — was disrupted by showers. Still, I believe lap records will be falling here one after another this year,” predicts Jiří Mičánek.
He tested on the circuit at the first available opportunity — on Monday and Tuesday. “We’re preparing both for the next round of the GT Cup Series, where Jakub Knoll and Josef Záruba are defending their title, and for the upcoming GT2 European Series,” Mičánek added.
