Czech rally news

[dupanton]

Very nice entrylist, a surprise to see Matthias Kahle in a competitive car again!

[Jarek Z]

8 Fabias, 3 Fiestas and one DS3 in R5. Not a single Peugeot 208.

[Nowi]

Some photos from Valašská rallye 2016 at http://www.rallylife.cz/35-rocksteel...ally-2016-nowi

[Mirek]

Some onboards from valašská rally are available: http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy.html

With Černý You can watch SS1 and SS6. SS6 is quite a special kind of stage held on a testing polygon of Tatra. It used to be part of Barum rally in 90' but hasn't been used since.

[Mirek]

Test of Karel Trojan with Fabia R5 from two different stages (test area in Bělá pod Bezdězem and former Bohemia stage Březovice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaQT...ature=youtu.be

[Mirek]

[Mirek]

One more onboard of Černý from Valašská rally. The last (and the nicest) stage of the rally: http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/8674.html

[RS]

Strange to see BMW and Mini advertised on a Porsche.

[Mirek]

For those who come to Šumava... due to an enormous number of entrants the timetable has to be modified. It will be soon released. Therefore wait a bit with the final planning.

[Mirek]

Yesterday it was 40 years since Roman Kresta was born - in a house next to the road which would later become a stage Kopná with which his entire rally life is bound. He was one of several drivers who managed to get from nothing up to the works WRC team. As a young man from a common family without any rallying background he started his career as a mechanic in a small local team. First time he tried to drive with a Škoda Favorit in Horácká rally 1994. His main characteristic is perfectionism, his ability to work incredibly hard and to go deep into every problem. He spent incredible time studying how stuff works. Later he drove Felicia first in the narrow version and then the Kit Car.

In 2000 Škoda Motorsport gave him a chance to drive their Octavia WRC and Roman used it winning the Czech title and being the youngest ever driver to win the ERC Barum Rally. Next year he repeated the Czech title although he started in only four events. On the other hand he had a chance to try first WRC events and it proved to be a really tough challenge. Two technical problems and two accidents caused him not to finish a single event.

2002 season started with one of the most spectacular crashes in the rallying history. Roman's Octavia hanging upon a ridge on the telegraph pole is something what probably every rally fan have seen at least once. Overal the WRC season wasn't anything special to speak about. For next season Roman moved to French team Bozian Racing in which he felt like in a family as he once said. His best result was 8th place in Wales. It's worth mentioning that in that time it was out of 28 starters with WRC cars.

2004 season started with a hell ride on the icy roads of Monte Carlo with a privately entered Hyundai Accent WRC. Sadly a technical problem stopped him from reaching the finish. He was battling all the time for 6-7th place among 21 WRC cars. Another two starts in WRC ended with crashes - another famous one crashing into the standing car of Dani Solá (from 8th place of 23 WRC) and the second one in Germany in his return into Škoda works car. He was leading Škoda driver getting up to the 5th place of 23 WRC drivers with seriously underpowered first evolution of Fabia WRC.

2005 was the year. Roman was number two driver of Ford works team in their transition season. The expectations were high and sadly the pressure from sponsors was too high for Roman. Started well in Monte Carlo but a ripped wheel off spoiled the show. At least he is forever written in the list of people who managed to win the most famous stage over the Col de Turini. The first half of the season didn't go well, the worst moment was a big accident in shakedown of New Zaeland. Than came a story with changing co-drivers once and back. Anyway the second half of the season went reasonably well but sadly there was no will of the sponsors to continue.

2006 was a big downfall. Roman spent most of the time with development testing in M-Sport. He drove the useless Fiesta S1600 in BRC. The only positive highlihg was his only start at home. First time with production car he easily won Barum Rally, for the third time. In 2007 he was doing things like setting cars for Argentinian Ford drivers but without his own drive. He did only four events in CZ, all with gr.N car.He won Bohemia and Český Krumlov, crashed from first place in Šumava. His main highlight which restarted his career came in now IRC Barum rally. He lost 2:45 with changing tyre in SS2 but finished 4th only 2:28 behind the winning works Peugeot team.

2008 brought another Czech title with gr.N car but the main challenge IRC Barum rally stayed undefeated. Having rented a Peugeot 207 S2000 he crashed very hard in stage Pindula. 2009 another Czech title and 4th place in IRC Barum rally as the top scoring private driver behind Kopecký, Meeke and Hänninen. 2009 brought another milestone - Kresta Racing team was established, now one of the best and biggest teams in Czech republic. 2010 was a busy season. Some fun starts with gr.N car all around the world (the highlight being 6th place overall in IRC Cyprus Rally), Czech rallysprint title with gr.N car against WRC but only 4th place in Czech championship and another heavy accident in Barum rally - again with renting a new car for just this rally - Fabia S2000.

2011 and another Czech title, this time after a hard fight with his arch rival Pech but "only" 8th place in very strongly entered Barum rally. 2012 season brought back Škoda works team into CZech championship and Jan Kopecký managed to defeat Roman. Despite that Roman showed once more he can still drive when he finished second in Barum rally behind Juho Hänninen. It shall be also mentioned that Roman helped Škoda works team with the developepment of the S2000 car.

2013 and 2014 were kind of farewell seasons with only several starts. Roman managed to finish 5th in Barum 2013 coming back even stronger for one-shot Barum rally 2014. Sadly a stupid technical problem (cracked exhaust manifold) stopped him while leading the rally. Since 2015 Roman doesn't drive anymore, moreover after his long time co-driver Petr Gross suffered very serious injury in a rally accident from which he hasn't recovered. But there's still a hope that we could see him again behind the wheel. Last year before Barum rally he drove the Fabia R5 of Jaromír Tarabus in the test to help him with setup. He was very happy about the car and his words gave a hope he might try once more with this car. He has two in his team now so maybe...

Recently Roman Kresta lives in Luhačovice, close to Barum rally center Zlín, has a family and two children. His main job is preparing cars and setups for other rally drivers. He is also an expert on Reiger dampers. His testing stage is - well, part of the Kopná stage.

One funny note at the end. Pavel Dresler, now co-driver of Jan Kopecký, has been a huge fan of Roman Kresta and it's a bit funny that he later became co-driver of his big rival (in fact there is bigger rivality among the fans than the two drivers themselves).