ECO energy Rally Bohemia for crew Walter Kofler / Franco Gaioni on Audi e-tron
Podium of ECO energy Rally Bohemia, which was the fifth event of the FIA Electric and New Energy Championship this year, became an Italian-French affair. Italians Walter Kofler / Franco Gaioni won just ahead of French crew Arthur Prusak / Thierry Benchetrit and third place was taken by winners’ teammates, Italians Guido Guerrini / Emanuele Calchetti. All three crews on podium were racing on the Audi e-tron.
ECO energy Rally Bohemia was divided into three legs. In the Friday leg, which took place predominantly in the Lusatian Mountains and in Česká Lípa region, the leading crew of the World Cup, Arthur Prusak / Thierry Benchetrit was the most succesful, as they made a lead of 252 points ahead of the reigning world champions Walter Kofler / Franco Gaioni. Lukáš Hataš / Tereza Němcová with Tesla X 90D squeezed into the third place of the world cup, just between the three Audi e-tron crews. Guido Guerrini / Emanuele Calchetti were fourth and Radek Pecák / Daniel Pecák on KIA e-Niro were on the 5th position. Miroslav Plíhal / David Mayer, top contestants from the classic rally, finished on the nice sixth place with Volkswagen E-Golf. Those who were not successful in the first leg were last year’s winners of ECO energy Rally Bohemia and acting world champions Didier Malga / Anne Bonnel from France. While they were leading the regularity test, they fell to the twelfth place with a big loss of 11,868 points behind the forehead due to a navigational error at Autodrom Sosnová. By doing so, they lost hope of repeating a successful result.
The morning section of the second leg took place on long regularity stages (RS) in the Jizera Mountains. The afternoon section of the second leg was cancelled by the stewards due to problems with the charging system, because some vehicles would not be able to top up due to the severity of this mountain stage. However, from the original period of the regularity tests of the second leg of 110 km, most of the track was passed – 79 kilometers. Thestandings in the elite five was not changed, but the difference between the first Prusak / Benchetrit and the second Kofler / Gaioni was only 111 points, and even only 65 points between the third Hatas / Nemcova and the fourth Guerrini / Calchetti, which promised dramatic fights on the last Sunday leg. Although the final stage was the shortest, this assumption has come true. The Italians Guerrini / Calchetti got the third place ahead of Hataš and Němcová on the first RS Kvítkovice regularity test, and then kept the bronze position till the finish. Second crew, Kofler / Gaioni kept close behind the leading Prusak / Benchetrit all the time. In the end, a penalty of 160 points for Prusak / Benchetrit was a decider that send Walter Kofler / Franco Gaioni to the first place on the podium at Mladá Boleslav’s Old Town Square. Radek and Daniel Pecak’s with KIA e-Niro were holding the fifth place throughout the race. Sixth position was gained by Germans Dr. Jan Rosner and Patrick Weber with BMW i3s and the seventh place at the finish of FIA world cup was taken by Miroslav Plíhal / Mayer David on E-Golf. 25 crews competed in the FIA Electric and New Energy Championship classification.
In the Organizer’s Cup – Czech Trophy in ECO rally, Lukáš Hataš / Tereza Němcová with Tesla X 90D won. Throughout the first leg, they were fighting over the leading position with the last year’s winner of Czech Trophy, Michal Žďárský on SEAT Leon ST TGI, whose co-pilot was Kristýna Žďárská this time. However, the Žďárský’s made a mistake at the first Saturday regularity stage and fell to 13th place. Thus Lukáš Hataš / Tereza Němcová lost the only serious competitor. The crews Radek Pecák / Daniel Pecák on KIA e-Niro and motor journalist Jan Novotný with co-pilot Jan Jakušev on Lexus RC 300h fought over the second place. On Saturday morning they found themselveson the second positions, but after losing two thousand points on RS 15 Smržovka, they had to forget the second place and focus on the fight for bronze with crew Milan Mejzlík / Milan Šafarčík on KIA Niro PHEV. This duel was finally decided at the very last stage 23 Staroměstská, which ended up better for Novotný and Jakušev. The fifth place went to Adam Průša with Daniel Průša on Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and the sixth place was taken byMiloš Dittrich and Lukáš Dittrich on ŠKODA Octavia G-Tec, who were part of ŠKODA CZ team. 35 crews were competing in the organizer’s Cup – ECO Rally Czech Trophy and, unlike the FIA Electric and New Energy Championship world cup classification, cars for hybrid drive or CNG (or LPG) could also attend.
Detailed results and photos of all parts of Rally Bohemia 2019 can be found at www.rallybohemia.cz. You can also watch the race events on social networks. The traditional general partner of the competition is car company ŠKODA AUTO.
Rally Bohemia can be found on these accounts on social networks:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rallybohemia
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/RallyBohemia
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rallybohemia
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2019-07-16 [267]
