Another racing season, organized again by Slovakia Racing agency is over. Agency has organised the whole Alpe Adria Championship, ME Stock 250, IMRC and traditionally also popular Fun Cup events.
You will learn from the following interview how does the Agency’s Director Peter Šurina see the past season.
Peter, we completed another race season, this year, the Agency has already organized a complete series of Alpe Adria, the part of which was also the IMRC and the European Stock 250, in addition, you have already done the fifth edition of the Fun Cup events…
That is a decent dose of events and certainly a lot of organizational work associated with it. How do you evaluate it from the director position of Slovakia Racing Agency?
If you ask to evaluate the season regarding the quality of our organization, we should ask the riders who are the only relevant judges of it. If you ask me to evaluate the level of the sport, I’m more than satisfied. In fact, the riders are those who create the quality of the events. Our task is to create such conditions in order to get them to come racing, and to work hard to bring quality riders to the Alpe Adria Championship events. Therefore, we have tried to do the best we could, so that the riders could feel as good as possible with us, in Alpe Adria Championship. In this respect, it was a very difficult season for us, but I think we have done a good piece of work, because we were able to use the experience from previous seasons. Of course, there is still place for improvement, we have got some new experience, which we will refer to during the preparation for the 2016 season. In addition, communication with riders is important, and listening to their needs is essential for improvement. We’re trying to search and do our best for them, just by working directly with themselves.
I think that your critical asset are the rewards you offered to the riders, whether financial or material …
Certainly it was important. After all, 36 000,-€ worth of Prize money was awarded to the riders on the Alpe Adria championship events during the season, in addition, valuable material and financial prices were also given out to the top riders of IMRC Cup series. There were rewards on the Fun Cup events as well, such as discounted starting-fee or the draw for the valuable prizes at the end of the season. I believe that the most important for rider is, when he knows, the organizer cares for him. It woulde be easy, just to collect the entry fee, and to not care about the rider’s needs, but that would be a sign of disrespect towards those who brought considerable financial resources in this sport that we all love. And not only financial. But it’s not just about the prize Money and material bonuses. I think that all that we offer on the events is proof of our interest in the racers. Whether it’s food, service for riders, but also the lovely girls, with which the bikers on our events enjoy being photographed so much… smile emoticon
This year, Fun Cup events were really crowded, interest was huge, several times the traditional groups A, B, C, and D were not enough. How did you sort it out in the end?
We were very surprised by the participation on the Hungarian Hungaroring and I am grateful, that the riders decided to come with us on this circuit abroad. The participation of over two hundred motorcyclists showed us that we need to revamp the system of traditional four groups and that we have managed, when we introduced the group A2, which is the fast riders and those slower in classes C and D remained riding where they previously did. But it is very important, that we have managed to compile a timetable so that bikers in spite of five groups could enjoy the same amount of driving on the track.
It’s time to embark on the preparation of the new racing season, what are you going to prepare for riders in 2016?
You are wrong, the preparation time has been going on for longer. If we started to prepare for the new season now, it would be already too late. We have been working hard on its preparation since August. There’s a lot of what we want to do, there are negotiations, there will be some chamges, but now it is still too early to talk about any specifics. Of course, our goal is still to improve, remove the flaws that have experienced in 2015, to increase level of organization, to bring something new to the paddock again, increase publicity, in order for the riders to present themselves for sponsors. What I can give away now, we would like to bring the next circuit for the riders to our calendar, and that applies to the Alpe Adria championship, IMRC and Fun Cup,.
Last year in winter you organized the winter testing in Spain, are you up to something like this again?
Of course, we’re working on it, we want to be with our riders not only during the season, but to be at their service throughout the year. Winter preparation belongs to biking, and all professional riders know that. But not only for them will be testing in southern Europe prepared. Last year we already have verified that riding on the track gives a lot to every motorbike rider, not only to the professionals. It’s a great experience, which I can totally recommend to every rider.
What do you think of first when you think about 2015 season?
First of all, gratitude. Specially to the bikers. For everything. For great performances, for the time spent with them in the paddock, or evening party talks for any comments, criticism and even words of gratitude. And my thanks from the position of Director of the agency Slovakia Racing goes to my team as well, because they managed to organize all these events with their hard work.
Peter, thank you for the interview, I keep my fingers crossed and look forward to what you will prepare for the 2016 season.