The second round of this year’s Clio Cup season certainly did not disappoint. The race weekend at Croatia’s Grobnik circuit delivered exactly the kind of spectacle fans have come to expect from Renault Clio’s popular one-make series, close racing from start to checquered flag.
It has almost become an unwritten rule in the Clio Cup that the fight for victory revolves around Tomáš Pekař, Bartlomiej Mirecki and Julian Smiechowski, with either Pekař or Mirecki usually coming out on top. This time, however, Smiechowski refused to let victory slip away and claimed the win in the weekend’s second race. He had already come very close to victory in the first one.
The weather at Grobnik threw everything at the drivers, from persistent rain to the circuit’s more familiar warm conditions. The field handled all the challenges brilliantly, including the wet practice sessions. Pekař secured pole position by just 0.069 seconds ahead of Mirecki, followed by the JTS Racing trio of Julian Smiechowski, Dawid Babraj, and Oskar Marszalkowski, with another 21 Clio Cup drivers behind them.
Václav Janík Jr. and Jakub Vondráček both lost control independently of each other in the very first corner after the start and became stranded in the gravel trap. The safety car was deployed, the first and ultimately only appearance of the entire Clio Cup weekend.
Once the race restarted, the action barely let up, with overtaking throughout the field at every possible opportunity, especially along Grobnik’s start-finish straight and the back straight. Those sections offered the best chances for passing, but every driver also had to remember just how powerful the slipstream effect is at Grobnik, making the lead position extremely vulnerable. Mirecki, Pekař, Smiechowski and Rafal Paprota demonstrated exactly that in Saturday’s race as they formed a four-car battle group at the front.
After countless lead changes, Bartlomiej Mirecki eventually emerged victorious, while contact between Pekař and Smiechowski drew the attention of the race stewards. Smiechowski received a ten-second penalty, dropping him from second place to tenth in the final classification. Pekař was promoted to second ahead of Paprota.
Smiechowski, however, made up for that disappointment in the second race. Another spectacular contest unfolded throughout the 25-minute sprint. In the closing stages, Smiechowski moved to the front, and although Pekař launched one final attack at the very last opportunity, the young Polish driver held on to secure his first victory of the season by just 0.074 seconds.
The second event of the 2026 season fully lived up to expectations and once again delivered the kind of racing Clio Cup fans love, right across the entire field.
EVENT RESULTS
Qualifying
Race 1
Race 2
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