ŠkodaPortal.cz Simply clever

In Valašské Meziříčí, 26 March, 2011 – Jan Kopecký & Petr Starý in a factory Fabia Super 2000 won the 30th Wallachia Rally, the opening competition of the seven-event Czech International Championship. Spread over two days and comprising 10 special stages (altogether 152 kilometres), the race was dominated by Kopecký & Starý from start to finish. Losing by 32 seconds to the winner, Roman Kresta in a private Fabia Super 2000 came second, last year's champion Pavel Valoušek in a Peugeot finished third, only 0.1 s behind Kresta. Altogether four Fabias Super 2000 finished in the top 6.

The race included a large number of long, fast stretches where the average speed reached over 120 km/h. Kopecký & Starý were best in the first stages on Friday and then even increased their promising 16-second lead on Saturday. Although rain showers had been forecast for the whole of Saturday, they only came during the very last stage. Being the first driver to set out for the wet track, Kopecký had the least advantageous position of the whole field, but he put in a great performance and achieved his first victory this year.

Commenting on the opening event of the home championship, Head of Škoda Motorsport (factory team) Michal Hrabánek says: "We were one of the biggest favourites at the Wallachia Rally and we wanted to meet those expectations. We are also pleased that the other Fabias, the private ones, have succeeded here. And we are glad that both the fans and the media like the retro-design of our car – it motivates us to use it again at some other event this year to mark this year's 110th anniversary of Škoda's motorsport efforts. We are going to make a break now in the home championship and focus on IRC, the top of our agenda this season. In all probability, the next home event we will take part in will be the Hustopeče Rally in June".

Jan Kopecký: "I wish to thank the whole team for preparing the car excellently for the pre-race test in Wallachia and then for the entire race - everything worked absolutely perfectly. For both me and Petr, this victory is the best possible motivation for the races to come this year. Personally, I like the car's design very much and I think that it has been a great way of making our appearance here even more attractive".

The Wallachia Rally also saw a successful premiere of the Fabia R2, a brand new project - Kouřil & Žáček won their category in their very first appearance in this competition.

Podobné články