Autoracing Club Bratislava: Slovakia's Endurance Team From Dubai to Le Mans

Autoracing Club Bratislava, usually called ARC Bratislava, is a Slovak racing team led by Miro Konopka, who has driven for it since it began. The team is best known for nine consecutive Asian Le Mans Series seasons and for its stint in the LMP2 Pro-Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

How did the team start in 1997?

Miro Konopka and Dusan Vyslouzil set the team up in 1997 to add to their own racing ambitions. It began in local series before moving on to international events, and its first notable international entry came at the 2003 Porsche Supercup. Hill climbing and rallying were part of the early mix too.

Circuit racing became the main discipline. The FIA GT Championship was its home from 2005 until 2009, and the team also raced twice in the American Le Mans Series at Sebring.

Its only outing in the 2009 Le Mans Series was a one-off. The team has also taken part in esports, competing in the Le Mans Virtual Series from 2021 to 2023.

A Slovak team that kept racing from Dubai to Le Mans, with nine straight Asian Le Mans seasons along the way.

What was the team's record in the Dubai 24 Hour?

ARC Bratislava was a regular at the Dubai 24 Hour, the event that came before today's 24H Series. Its results there ranged from a fifth-place overall finish in 2007 to 72nd place in 2010, after running only 87 laps. The team came back to the event more than once.

At the first running of the race the team used a Porsche GT3 in the A6 category, with Konopka, Gene Sigal, Matthew Alhadeff and Jirko Malcharek sharing the driving. It finished third overall and second in its class.

In 2008 the team was classified 85th after completing just 53 laps. Konopka and Michaelian had been joined by German drivers Jurgen Bender and Martin Dechent for it. It returned in 2010 for a fifth consecutive appearance, and that edition ended with the last place in the A6 class.

In 2009 the team's Dubai effort was reduced to the race alone, where Konopka, Oliver Morley, Sean Edwards and Richard Cvornjek finished fourth overall and took a class podium with third.

The team missed the 2011 Dubai race because Konopka raced for another outfit. He came back with his own team in 2012, with Myszkowski, Lewandowski and Schelp sharing the driving.

In 2021 the team did not finish after completing 441 laps, which still earned third in the GTX class. In 2022 it entered a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for Dubai and the six-hour Abu Dhabi race. In Dubai it finished fifth of nine in GT3-Am, 18th overall, after 572 laps.

The 2021 Dubai line-up was Miro and Mato Konopka, Justas Jonusis, Thomas Padovani and Zdeno Mikulasko.

In Kuwait in 2022 the team suffered multiple punctures and finished 20th after 182 laps. Mikulasko also recorded the quickest lap of the race, set during his last stint.

In 2023 Konopka and Andrzej Lewandowski returned to Abu Dhabi, where they won their class by default and finished tenth overall. The 2024 race ended 17th overall, six laps down on the GT3 leader.

In 2025 the team's Abu Dhabi entry did not finish but was still classified 31st overall, fourth in GT3-Am. At Spa that year Lewandowski spun at Raidillon, and the car retired four laps in before rejoining and being classified 32nd overall.

At Spa in 2024 the team finished 26th overall after a stoppage for a puncture. Its 2025 Mugello outing brought sixth overall and second in GT3-Am, and in 2026 the Mugello round delivered a class win and third overall.

How did the team fare in the Blancpain series?

The team began appearing in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2012, when it entered the Pro-Am Cup. Its first season ended at Spa with a Porsche that failed to finish, and the team did not score a point across the year. The Spa line-up was Konopka, Mikulasko, Stefano Crotti and Christoff Corten.

In 2013 the team contested the full season in the Gentlemen Trophy. It finished sixth in class with 35 points and took one class win, at Silverstone. Konopka and Ahmad Al Harthy drove in all five races, with Jan Raska and Marco Schelp joining them at Spa.

The 2016 season brought fourth in the Am Cup with 67 points and two podiums. A 2018 appearance at Monza, in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, ended with the team 34th overall.

How did the Asian Le Mans Series years unfold?

ARC Bratislava was a mainstay of the Asian Le Mans Series from 2015-16 until 2023-24, which made nine consecutive seasons in total. The team then sat out 2024-25 before returning for 2025-26. Along the way it took fourth at Fuji in 2015-16 and third in the LMP2 Teams standings in 2017-18.

The 2015-16 entry raced in the GT class with an Audi R8 LMS Ultra, despite concerns about the balance of performance, and finished seventh in the GT Teams standings. Konopka's first partner was Pierre Kaffer, before Fairuz Fauzy stepped in for the following round. Its strongest early showing was fourth at the Fuji opener.

For 2016-17 the team bought a used Ginetta-Juno P3-15 and ran two cars in LMP3. Konopka, Darren Burke, Mike Simpson, Konstantins Calko and Neale Muston alternated between the two cars. Its first Ginetta podium in the series came at Fuji, and a second team car finished fifth in the standings.

The team then moved to LMP2 for 2017-18 with a Ligier JS P2 and finished third in the LMP2 Teams standings with 51 points. In 2018-19 it won three times in the new LMP2 Am subclass, which secured an automatic entry to Le Mans for 2019.

The team returned to LMP3 for a single race in 2019, a one-off at Sepang where Mike Simpson and Neale Muston finished 15th overall. For 2021 it went back to LMP3 with a Ginetta G61, finishing ninth in class with 14 points.

For 2022 the team returned to LMP2 Am with an all-bronze amateur line-up of Konopka, Neale Muston and John Corbett, using the Ligier JS P217 that had gone unused after the WEC move.

The 2023-24 season put the team eleventh of thirteen teams, with an Oreca 07 and Mathias Beche and Jonas Ried as Konopka's new teammates. For 2025-26 the team entered an Oreca 07 with Yann Ehrlacher and Matthieu Vaxiviere, finished three of six races and scored in all three, and ended 14th of 16 LMP2 entries.

What did the WEC LMP2 years look like?

The team raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship solely in LMP2, and from 2021 it was a permanent entry in the Pro-Am subclass. It ran two full seasons and missed only one race because of logistics, before the subclass was phased out for 2023.

The 2021 campaign opened with the Ligier JS P217 as the lone car in the field, and the team did not get away in its first race because of an oil leak. Oliver Webb was signed as the main driver, bringing experience from LMP1. Before the 6 Hours of Monza, the team announced a switch to the Oreca 07 for Le Mans.

At Portimao the team finished 29th overall, the last classified LMP2 car. At Monza it was 14th, again the last classified LMP2 car, and at Le Mans it finished 24th overall and 15th in LMP2.

At Le Mans Konopka was spun, and Mato Konopka damaged the rear of the car after a spin during the night portion in wet conditions. The team still finished the race.

The 2021 season closed with ninth overall in the championship and fifth in Pro-Am, the team's best championship result to date.

In 2022 the team again entered LMP2 Pro-Am. The Sebring opener produced 16th overall and 13th in LMP2, and at Spa the team retired after 25 laps.

Le Mans in 2022 produced 26th overall, with the team 21st among LMP2 cars and sixth in Pro-Am. The season ended with 14th overall, its best WEC season result, and 78 points in Pro-Am with none in the overall LMP2 class.

Did the team race at Le Mans?

Yes. The team's name first surfaced on a provisional list for the 2017 Le Mans race, and an automatic place for 2019 followed from its Asian Le Mans success. Its 2017 race ended 45th overall after 314 laps, good for 19th in LMP2.

Konopka, meanwhile, said the team planned to run a Ligier instead, and Calko and Rik Breukers were named as his partners.

The 2019 race was less kind: the team retired after 160 laps following multiple accidents. Konopka surrounded himself with two Le Mans rookies, Henning Enqvist and Konstantin Tereshchenko.

How did the Lamborghini era begin?

Lamborghini replaced Porsche for the 2020 12 Hours of Monza, with the Huracan Super Trofeo car that the team also ran in the European Super Trofeo series. The Monza trio won the GTX class and finished sixth overall. The two Konopkas were joined by Mato Homola in that crew.

In 2022 the team brought a Huracan GT3 to Dubai and to the six-hour Abu Dhabi race, which ran as a non-championship event alongside Dubai.

In Abu Dhabi the team qualified and finished sixth in the joint GT3 class, which was also its overall result.

What were the team's key results?