Incredible safety, an Italian pizzeria and just 2500 people: Roman Stanek’s Hometown tour

20 August 2025

Roman Stanek is the next driver to give us a tour of his hometown, as while he spends a lot of time in Italy these days, he has huge affection for where he came from.

The Invicta Racing driver recently sat down with us to give us the lowdown on Zašová, the “village” he still calls home.

“So my hometown is based in Czech Republic, it's Zašová. It's based between Slovakia and Poland, so it's in the right hand corner of Czech Republic, so I would say it's in the countryside.

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“It's a four-hour drive to Prague, so it's not handy for airports. But on the other hand it offers you so many things, it's the best town. It's so good.

“First of all, safety. Safety there is 100%. You can leave your car open with your phone in and nothing will happen, people will close your car. So safety is number one and I hope it stays like this.

“Second thing, we have very good weather. We have good winter with snow, so proper cold, but have a lot of sunny days, but then we also have a good summer. So three, four months are very nice, but then the other three, four months are also very nice and cold, and you can go skiing, so that's another positive.

Stanek is from Zašová in the Czech Republic

“I was going there for school, so middle school. Back home, it works that from three to six you are in kindergarten, from six to 15 you are in middle school and from 15 to 19 you are in high school.

“So my middle school was there and I was going there at that time but when I was 10, 11 I started go karts so I missed a lot of school. But any time I came back, I was looking forward to coming back and seeing my mates.

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“My teachers were also super nice with me, they were supporting me, and everything was going very smooth.

“It's not really a town, it's a village, and in the village, we have five grocery stores, and they are quite nice. I would compare it a bit to an upgraded Austria. A bit more modern, people are much more sporting, you see in the morning people running, riding their bike, and then stopping for a coffee.

“So as I said, we have five grocery stores, and we have a bar, it's not a proper restaurant. We have a very good pizzeria and it's actually a family who came from Italy to our town and they make pizza there.

Stanek looked back on what going to school was like growing up in his hometown

“It's funny because every time I am there, because I speak Italian and my girlfriend is Italian, I speak Italian with them, which is quite funny.

“For me, it's one of the best places where I feel comfortable. We have 2,500 inhabitants, so not so much, everyone knows everyone.

“It's in the countryside so everything is a bit far to the airport, to the go kart track, so it's not so handy on this side, but you can't have everything.

“The go kart track was two hours from my house, but they've built a new one in Trinec, and it's one hour from my home. They did the karting European and World Championships there, the FIA organised it there.

“They built it when I was already in F4, so I was not doing so much go karts there.

Stanek talked about the support he gets from people back home

“I hope people are watching me back home, but I don't know so much because I am not there often. But I am not saying everyone is supporting me, because maybe they don't like motorsport or don’t support me for whatever reason.

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“But I have many supporters and every time I meet someone, I spend time with them, I speak with them and I appreciate every single person that supports me.

“But in general, I go to buy coffee in the morning and I speak to people, because I feel like I can give energy to someone and it's very nice. I live in Italy now but I do the same, start to speak with people. I love positive energy.”