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Adam Rzepecki moved to TCR Eastern Europe in the second half of the 2022 season and now is looking forward to complete full year behind the wheel of Audi in the family team Basenhurt A&T Racing, which he is not only part of, but he is also the head of managing operation. The double duty can be exhausting, but that´s how things currently are.
Adam, what did you learn in two events last year with Audi TCR and how you will transfer it to the new season?
I learned that TCR Eastern Europe is series which I was looking for. Of course 1,5 season in Porsche GT3 Cup I can count it as an interesting experience and a fun adventure and to pleasant memories. These two rounds show me on what things I and my team need to be concentrated and what we are doing wrong, because I think I’m able to be fast, but the car wasn’t after last season.
You showed great speed with the car, what are you aiming for this season in terms of results?
I really for the first time in my racing career don’t have any goals for season, I can’t explain this. Last year’s races I also was not thinking to much of my goals and I was calm while racing. I hope this season to earn good places, earn points and have accident free racing.
You used to race in Clio Cup, Octavia Cup, then you moved behind the wheel of Porsche, but now you are back in touring car. Does it mean, that you prefer touring cars instead of sports cars?
Everybody who knows me say that I am suitable for rear-wheel drive car and I am made to drive in such cars. I can’t say that it is not true, because if I can compare RWD and FWD cars, I prefer powerful RWD, but my budget can’t afford me to much (faster car than Porsche) so I moved to TCR, because I want to race with many cars on the grid in the same spec than racing in super fast cars of different spec.
It was planned, that you will be racing against your brother again, you in Audi and Tomasz in VW Golf. But Tomasz changed his mind and won´t be racing. That means, you have free seat in VW. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to sell the car or find the driver?
VW was sold a couple months ago, but first plans was that it will stay with us and start it in new season, so we would have VW and Audi in team. But Tomek changed decision about racing in this season so I stayed by my own with Audi. We are to small team to offer seat in cars and we are not company in car racing but we are racing as private person 🙂
What do you think about 2023 calendar and Oschersleben?
I love this year calendar! Finally new race track in calendar for years! Yes, of course I know Oschersleben in the days of Clio Bohemia Cup which Mr. Krenek organised or polish Golf Cup or Clio Cup Central Europe, so many good memories and a lot of nice racing on this track!
On which track do you think you will be fast?
I really don’t know. I just started to drive in TCR and I see that I need to learn a lot from the beginning. So we are starting from the bottom, but I can be on the top and I know it… Races on Slovakia Ring and Most was crazy and unstable, I showed that I can be in front but I missed to hold the top position. I need to work on it.
How are you preparing for the upcoming season?
We just finished preparing the car which was the main thing for me to do as fast as possible to be calm. I just go to the gym regularly and decided to stick to a calorie counted “diet”. There is nothing special in my preparation to the season, but I know that everything I do before the season will transfer to results later.
How are you preparing the car? Did you do any upgrades or just classic winter maintenance?
We’ve done revision of the gearbox and suspension. We checked the car as normal to be sure it is ready. I am happy that the car is ready a month before first race weekend. It is our success, because lately everything was ready on the last moment… Hope all year will be as good as preparation for it.
Besides driving, what work-position is in your family team?
I am organizing all race weekends. In this season I will need to do more because after my brother’s resignation, it got a little bit complicated in organisation and I will need to focus more on it, I can handle it but I’d rather to have clean mind and focus more on races. I can say that last 2 years I was doing more beside track than I was racing and I could be so tired some weekends to not have energy to race… but what can I do, I like to have everything done perfect like in F1, but I don’t have such big team, but only one mechanic… Maybe in the future I could lead the racing team in some series, maybe TCR who knows, good idea after retirement.
