Czech rally news

[RS]

Valousek doing a good job, up to third now.

[Mirek]

Had a good day today in the beautiful weather (it was snowing for three days but the weather got really warm and sunny today). Saw shakedown, SS1 and SS3. I decided not to spectate the night section as it started too late. Also met some people in service, among them our forum member Jeppe currently fighting on 8th place in historics

What I can say...

Kopecký - league on his own, very precise, spectacular but not brutal driving (now it looks like he made some mistake on SS5, but nothing major), his main advantage today was that he keeps extra speed in very fast or even dangerous places where others are more cautious, I don't think he risks more, he is rather more precise
Tidemand - very aggresive but cautious in really difficult fast places
Pech - very nice driving, very accurate as always but the car is all about power, in corners it's a lot slower than R5 cars, also often touching ground by the sumpguard
Dohnal - quite nice driving but he has reasonable advantage in his car, he nearly went off in front of me in SS3
Valoušek - looking comfortable, fluent and rather safe, no crazy things from him today
Černý - very spectacular and aggresive, hard to say if it's possible to do much more with S2000, he looked crazy fast on SS1 but he spent loads of time in RPM limiter there
Odložilík - better than expected, really nice driving
Jakeš - I had a feeling that the car lacks a lot of power, maybe only the feeling but it looked really lazy
Kopáček - a league of his own in gr.N, a bit crazy on SS1 with a very spectacular safe of a near crash
Kristiansen (for our Norvegian members ) - I think he shall do some proper asphalt training, he is for sure brave, takes some risk, drives very spectacular but he drives too brutal and agressive, for example he steers with very sharp rapid movements, he would be for sure faster if he drives in more fluent and clean way

[Mirek]

I forgot one thing. Érik Comas with the Stratos is a very nice surprise in historics. He's driving very well and finally I saw someone who drives Stratos really fast!

EDIT: Once I wrote it he retired with broken gearbox while having a one minute lead

[Mirek]

4 s/km lost for Pech on the city stage (12 seconds on 3 km). Also today's stages have many chicanes. I think the car is way too clumsy for this type of tight obstacles. By the way he is on Hakooks.

First short onboard shot of Pech with a mistake in junction: http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/8702.html

Kopáček unfortunately all the time today with some technical problems and moreover a costly off on SS8...

[Mirek]

Final results of Histric Rally Vltava. Sadly we lost both fastest drivers today, Comas (Lancia Stratos) retired with broken driveshaft with a big lead and Myrsell (911 RS) retired with broken engine. On the other hand it helped our friend Jeppe to finish 5th overall (4th in ERC)

1. Jensen (911 RS) 1:30:22,2
2. Ballek (Impreza 555) +1:13,3 (only Czech championship)
3. Silvasti (911 RS) +1:29,9
4. Jansson (Escort RS2000) +4:08,6
5. Kirvesmäki/Jämsen (Corolla GT) +4:46,2
6. Jírovec (BMW E30 M3) +5:27,8 (only Czech championship)
7. Káňa (Sierra RS Cosworth) +5:30,4 (only Czech championship)
8. Storäng (Escort RS2000) +5:57,1
9. Wirtman (Escort RS1600) +6:09,3
10. Mekler (Alfa 1750 GTAm) +7:24,2

[Mirek]

Final results of Rally Šumava. Out of top 20 starters only 1 retired (!!!) - Štajf with broken steering rod (probably he hit something). Today the most important thing was that Černý managed to climb from 6th to 4th place. Pech lost quite a lot of time in the first runs and it looked like he may loose even 6th place but he managed to fight back in the second loop and climbed to 5th. After all the problems of Kopáček Szeja brothers from Poland won the gr.N classification.

1. Kopecký (Fabia R5) 1:19:05,9
2. Tidemand (Fabia R5) +26,1
3. Valoušek (Fabia R5) +1:05,8
4. Černý (Fabia S2000) +1:36,4
5. Pech (997 GT3) +1:47,3
6. Dohnal (Focus WRC 08) +2:02,8
7. Odložilík (Fiesta R5) +2:08,8
8. Sýkora (Fabia R5) +2:53,0
9. Jakeš (DS3 R5) +3:01,6
10. Trněný (Fabia WRC) +3:30,4

12. Kristiansen (Fabia S2000) +4:15,2

14. Kahle (Fabia R5) +5:03,4
15. Szeja (Impreza STI gr.N) +5:43,7

[Mirek]

Overshoot of Kopecký from SS5: http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/8713.html

Kopáček off on SS8 (those damned chicanes again): http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/8711.html

Retirement of Štajf - the steering rod got broken without hitting anything in the video but it may have been damaged from something before
http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/8715.html

[Mirek]

Now I see that mediasport puts the videos also on youtube.

Accident of Růžička on shakedown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9gzW1c3CI0

Spin of Jelínek on SS1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H866Vf1wQRg

[Jarek Z]

14. Kahle (Fabia R5) +5:03,4

What's wrong with Kahle?! It this his current speed?

Congratulations to Kopecky and Szeja!!!

[Mirek]

Kahle drove a new R5 car which his co-driver bought (I think). It was clear he was learning the car driving very cautious. He shall drive next events of Czech championship too. Let's see how he can progress.

For me the real alarming "What's wrong?" question goes to Jakeš. Aside of the car which didn't seem to run very well I didn't see any sign of speed with him. It looked like he was just cruising. I just don't know...

Szeja has made an incredible progress for the time being here in CZ. He still drives quite dangerous way in my opinion but he got really fast (I saw one his strange big moment at approximately 160 km/h).

By the way Kopáček drove all four stages of the first loop with broken driveshaft and as he tried to keep Szeja behind him he made that off.