Two sprint victories and a win in the endurance race. Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyrav left the latest round of the Central European circuit racing championship at Most with a perfect score, as Anthony Pretorius dominated the sprint races while Jakub Knoll and Filip Sládečka claimed victory in endurance.
“We achieved exactly what we came here to do. The goal was to win our class and secure the best possible overall results against GT3 machinery and the prototypes. We managed both,” reflected team manager Jiří Mičánek Jr. after a highly successful weekend at Most.
The strongest outright result came courtesy of Anthony Pretorius, who finished second overall in Saturday’s sprint race. Knoll and Sládečka secured third place in the endurance contest, while Pretorius matched that result with another third-place finish in Sunday’s second sprint. “Anthony’s performance confirmed everything we’ve been seeing from him in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe. In both races he was battling among cars that, on paper, are significantly quicker around Most. I’m sure the spectators enjoyed that. For us, this event was valuable because it helped bridge the summer break and allowed Anthony to complete important mileage ahead of Nürburgring, which is now less than four weeks away,” added Mičánek.
Pretorius was making his first appearance at the Most circuit. “It’s a really enjoyable track, very technical and full of corners. It’s definitely not an easy one,” said the talented 19-year-old, who currently leads the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe championship alongside Bronislav Formánek. Ironically, his best overall result, second place, came in Saturday’s wet conditions. The only driver ahead of him was GT3 competitor Libor Milota. “His Audi simply had the edge. For me, the wet conditions were quite difficult because I couldn’t make use of the car’s power advantage. The priority was just to stay on the circuit and bring it home,” explained Pretorius as he reflected on the race that produced his best outright finish of the weekend.
By the time the evening endurance race got underway, the circuit had dried out completely, exactly as Jakub Knoll had hoped. The Czech driver was primarily using the weekend to gain valuable mileage ahead of his Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe campaign, where, following last year’s successful defence of the Czech circuit racing title, he now competes in the AM class alongside Belgian driver Renaud Kuppens. “It’s a welcome change during the season. I was hoping for dry conditions because I really wanted to enjoy Most in the dry. Fortunately, that’s what we got. For us, the race was mainly about preparation, but in the end we also found a few competitors we could measure ourselves against,” said Knoll.
The endurance race was brought to an early conclusion by a red flag following an accident involving one of the competitors shortly before the one-hour time limit expired. The Lamborghini Huracán ST EVO2 run by Mičánek Motorsport finished third overall despite competing against the faster GT3 machinery, while comfortably securing victory in the GTC class. The car was brought home by Slovak driver Filip Sládečka. “It was an excellent weekend. At the beginning I struggled to find my rhythm because there were so many red flags during practice, but in the end it all came together and resulted in a win. My thanks go to the team for their professional approach, and I’m looking forward to working with them again,” concluded Sládečka.
