Blog
Milovan Vesnić has been racing in TCR Eastern Europe since its beginning in 2019. There were good times and also bad times for Vesnić. Last season was one of the worst for the Serbian racer, but now he is focused on upcoming events and new challenges.
You became the first ever champion of TCR Eastern Europe in 2019. But last year, you ended sixth in the standings and missed the last two rounds. How do you rate your last season?
We could talk about the last season for hours. It’s best to forget it as soon as possible, but in short… there were a lot of problems with the car, a lot of problems with unsportsmanlike behaviour of some drivers on the track. At Grobnik, we finally didn’t have any technical problems, won the first race, but during the second, our car was destroyed. After that, we didn’t have any extra budget and there was no point in continuing. However, getting sixth position from only four finished races… it’s not bad.
As you mentioned, you scored one win at Grobnik and you were always fast, so what are your goals for this year?
My goal is the same as every season: to be the best as possible. We race to win.
Are you planning to race with an Audi RS3 again, or is there a new car on the horizon?
Before the start of the season, we sold our Audi and started negotiating to drive some newer car. But only a month and a half before the first race, everything “fell into the water,” so we decided to stay with the “old generation.” Now we are in the process of updating another old Audi RS3 LMS TCR and hope we will be ready for the first race in Hungary. For now, that’s our reality. I know it will be hard to match the speed of the new generations of TCR cars, but with a little luck, I think that we can stay in the upper half of the order. There is also a new tyre supplier, so everybody will be adjusting to that at the beginning. Maybe that will give us a chance to compete with better cars.
As you are one of the few drivers who has been with TCR Eastern Europe since the beginning, how do you rate the championship and its progress?
We always say that TCR EE is one big family and that the atmosphere on race weekends is great. But to be honest, we were very disappointed last year about the driving standards in the series. Talking with Mr. Křenek, as series promoter, we learned that there will be lot of changes this season. We hope that new sporting regulations with a lot of penalties will force drivers to use their brains more, and that we will never have a situation like in Croatia when, at the end of race weekend, half of the field was wrecked. On the other hand, TCR Eastern Europe is more competitive year after year and that is good. We expect great racing and it will be a fight for every point.
What is your favourite circuit in the calendar and why?
Slovakia Ring for sure. You have fast and technical parts on the track and the infrastructure is good. But all of the tracks have something nice. We didn’t race at Most, and only once in Poznan, so it will be challenging.
What do you think about the return of the Red Bull Ring?
What can I say? It’s an F1 facility. I know the track very well; I like it. It will be good racing as always.
And how do you spend the off-season? Do you prepare in some way?
Like every sportsman, I try to be as fit as possible. [I spend] winter in the gym, running and walking in nature when there’s good weather. But for a driver, the most important thing is driving, so for sure I will need time to get back into race mode.
