ERC: Barum Czech Rally / Rally review
Caution rain!
The fine weather of the first days turned for
the worse on the final day as rain set in overnight making the stages slippery and muddy.
Kopecky could take a cautious approach “Today was just about getting to the finish in the
difficult conditions because we had a big gap
and it would have been stupid to have made
a mistake.” The Czech did exactly that and
brought his Skoda safely home to clinch his
fifth win of the season. Having only started six
rallies in the ERC so far this year, it’s clear
Kopecky is on a mission without question the
current man to beat.
WRC ace closed the gap to Vaclav Pech to a
mere 15 seconds on the first stage of the final
day. A puncture on the next stage crushed his
hopes of a good farewell result though. Despite
winning four of six stages on Sunday Kresta
dropped down to fifth. It was an all Czech podium after all as Jaromir Tarabus moved up in
the rankings. Sepp Wiegand claimed fourth.
Group N victory went to Miroslav Jakeš who
brought his Lancer Evo IX home in a solid sixth place overall, earning him the Colin
McRae Flat Out Trophy. In the ladies category it was once again Molly Taylor taking the
spoils which means that she is now tied with
Behind Kopeky it was Roman Kresta who had Ekaterina Stratieva for first in the Ladies Trodevious plans of moving up to second on his phy standings.
final competitive outing. The former factory
On home soil Jan Kopecky was in command from the get go,
he led from the start and never relinguished his po ͥѥ