Bartek Mirecki entered the Clio Cup after several seasons racing single-seaters. Although driving a car with a roof wasn’t new to him, he didn’t know what to expect at the start of the season, as he now admits. However, from the opening round, he was battling for victories and contending for the title until the very end.
Bartek Mirecki, from Poland, drove his white and green Renault Clio for many top 3 finishes and wins, scoring points and keeping the fight for the title until september.
“I knew I would definitely be competing at the top, but after a three-year break, I didn’t expect to be fighting for the lead and wins right from the start! The first round showed that it was going to be a tough year, with intense battles at the front!” says Mirecki, who ultimately could not overcome multi-champion Tomas Pekař, who secured another title in 2024.
“I finished the season in second place, which is quite a satisfying result. I had a chance to fight for the win until the last round. Unfortunately, a very poor round at the Slovakiaring and technical problems with the new car’s failure caused a significant drop in the standings, making it hard to recover. Despite everything, I finished the season with a strong win, which makes me very happy!”
As Mirecki mentioned, he initially thought he’d be fighting for a top-three position, but after the opening round at Balaton Park, where he scored a second place and a win, his expectations shifted. “I guess after the first round, I started aiming for the overall victory, but reality slowly set in after the rounds in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, where we faced many technical issues. However, we gained great momentum in Slovakia in August and showed superb pace in Brno, reigniting my hope that I could leave Brno as the series winner!”
Mirecki won the final sprint race of the 2024 season, but it wasn’t enough to catch Pekař, who led the points standings. Pekař is considered one of the top drivers in the Renault Clio Cup, and Mirecki is fully aware of the calibre of the competition.
“I’ve always said Tomas is a very fast and experienced driver. He’s spent many years in the Clio Cup, and he has a lot of knowledge and experience. Plus, he is racing with new generation Clio V for some time, so he always had the advantage of knowing how to drive and set up the car to be the fastest. My team and I are still learning this car, and we don’t yet have the right settings to show top-tier pace from the start of each weekend. However, as the competition progressed, I gained pace and mainly won the second races of the weekends, which showed we were dialling in the car better. If there were another round, we would have been ready to fight for the top spot from the outset of each weekend. I’ve raced Tomas many times over the years, and our rivalry goes way back! I’m really glad we added some excitement to this season; it wasn’t as monotonous as previous years, where the winner was clear by ‚April,’” Mirecki laughs.
Bartek Mirecki reflects on two of the biggest challenges of the season: “The first was adapting to the car as quickly as possible and finding the fastest setup. The second was the constant battle with two Carpek Racing cars. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a teammate this season, whereas Tomas could rely on ‘teamwork,’ which gave him a huge advantage in qualifying and at the start of the races.”
When asked to pick a memorable race, Mirecki could list several. “I think both races at Balaton, where Tomas and I had a fierce battle from start to finish, and the final race at Brno, where after a reverse grid of the top eight, I only needed 15 minutes to take the lead and win the race! I also had to push really hard, maybe even beyond the limit, at the Slovakiaring in June, where I had a huge problem with the car’s power. I had to think very strategically to stay ahead of my rivals in the technical sections, so they couldn’t catch me on the straights, or find a way to prevent them from escaping. That was a really tough race,” explains Mirecki, who is aiming to compete in the European Clio Cup next season, where the large grid is a big draw for him.
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