Czechmate Motorsport
| |
| Full Name | Czechmate Motorsport |
| Base | Brno, Czech Republic |
| Founder(s) | Martin Moravec |
| Team Principal(s) | Martin Moravec |
| Technical Director | |
| Current Lineup | |
 Vaclav Malsyz Andrej Kremnicky
|
AutoReject World Series |
Template:GBR Phil McCracken Jiri Komárek Wulfric Wombesi
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GT Super Series |
Czechmate Motorsport is a racing team based in Brno, Czech Republic. It was founded by former Formula One driver Martin Moravec in 2009 and currently competes in ARWS and the GT Super Series.
History
Martin Moravec is a racing driver who enjoyed success both in his home country and internationally. A deal with his personal sponsor Česká pojišťovna saw him become one of the test drivers of the Spyker Squadron team in 2007 - Moravec was the third Czech driver to be blessed with this honour, after Tomáš Enge in 1999 and Jarek Janiš in 2003 (coincidentally all drivers tested for Jordan and its successor teams).
However, Moravec took a sabbatical from racing in 2009 and turned to business instead. In that same year he founded Czechmate Motorsport with help from Česká pojišťovna, originally as a team to nurture future drivers from the Czech Republic, and also as a foundation to help Moravec's son Patrik with his own racing career. The team saw success in the Czech racing scene with Moravec returning into the cockpit in the Škoda Octavia Cup but it wasn't until 2019 when the team broke into the international level, competing in the GT Super Series for the first time with a pair of customer Ferrari 550 Maranello cars. The team used a permanent cast of Phil McCracken, Jiri Komárek and Wulfric Wombesi rotating between each other to determine the best pairing of the lead #550 entry, alongside James Wilmington and Natalia Pavlovskaya making cameo appearances in the part-time #17 car.
At the conclusion of the 2019 season, Czechmate finished 11th in the Teams' Championship - and the 3rd best Independent team - tallying 7 points as McCracken and Komárek finished 7th at Monza and 8th at Indianapolis. Komárek was classified 20th overall, and McCracken 21st. In the Independents' Championship, the #550 car earned a total of three podiums and 49 points; the #17 entry scored one podium and 15 points. McCracken was the most successful driver of the team as despite missing the first two rounds, he scored all of the team's 64 points to finish in 3rd place in the Independents' Championship; Komárek was 12th with 37 points from 10 races, Pavlovskaya was in 20th place with 15 points from 5 races, and Wombesi was classified in 23rd position with 12 points from 9 outings.
In 2021, the team extended its reach towards the AutoReject series ladder for the first time, entering the newly-branded Auto2 Series. However, despite signing Brno local Vaclav Malsyz, all the effort went in vain as the series was cancelled due to issues in the managerial structure of the championship. Undeterred, Moravec entered the AutoReject World Series instead when it returned after its hiatus in 2023, becoming the first ever Czech ARWS team and then signing Malsyz as the series' first ever Czech driver. He partnered Slovak driver Andrej Kremnicky who, with past ARWS experience, served as the team's leader.
The team then entered a partnership with Bentley to supply the team with engines, although there were heavy initial rumours about the team signing with Honda in late 2022 with rumoured livery leaks included. Moravec himself confirmed that there were talks between Czechmate and Honda, however the team chose "slightly faster" Bentley power units. This immediately paid off as Malsyz surprisingly finished on the podium on debut with Kremnicky finishing in fifth place. However, the team was then beset with reliability issues during the first half of the season, with the team not yet getting around all of the obstacles dealing with the new Bentley engines. At the Scandinavian Grand Prix, Kremnicky had a concussion after he crashed into the slowing Foxdale of Martin McFry. As a result, Austrian driver Marko Jantscher was drafted in for the next round at COTA.
Later in 2023, Prague-based driver and one of Czechmate's star personnal in the Central European scene, Kaspar Beranek, was announced as the team's reserve driver. Jiri Komárek, who also used to drive in AutoReject 3.5, was used as a test driver on his off-weekends and had a helping hand in the team's understanding of new ARWS machinery.
Czech Racing Academy
Beginning in 2020, Czechmate Motorsport and Charouz Racing System initiated a driver academy (also sponsored by the AČR, which aims to promote young Czech racing drivers through the feeder series ladder. In recent months, talks have been made with the SAMŠ about a possible expansion of this academy to Slovakia in the coming years. It was confirmed by both Antonín Charouz and Martin Moravec that CHRS will be representing the academy in the FIA ladder, while Czechmate will be part of the AutoReject ladder. This partnership, however, will permit their drivers moving between these two teams if eligible.
| Driver | Current Team | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Roman Staněk
|
Charouz Racing System | European Formula 3 |
| Patrik Moravec
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Charouz Racing System | European Formula 3 |
 Zdeněk Chovanec [?]
|
TBA | European Formula 3 |
| Petr Ptáček
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ADAC Formula 4 (2022) |