The start list of the Rally Bohemia promises an interesting show
Start list of this year’s 46th Rally Bohemia is a promise of interesting sporting fights. The ŠKODA Motorsport team will also be featured this year in a strengthened line-up as we can see both factory crews composed of Jan Kopecký / Pavel Dresler and Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen in Mladá Boleslav. Spectators can look forward to 16 R5 cars and two pairs of older WRC and S2000 specifications. In total, we will see 20 top-class specials.
WRC 2 world champions Jan Kopecký / Pavel Dresler with Škoda Fabia R5 evo will be the first to go on the track. They will attack their seventh Mladá Boleslav victory in a row, while for ŠKODA it would even be the tenth victory in the row at the Rally Bohemia. They will be followed by a somehow surprisingly leading crew of the Czech Rally Championship Filip Mareš / Jan Hloušek (Škoda Fabia R5). The third runners will be Václav Pech / Petr Uhel (Ford Fiesta R5), who did not succeed in the last two races and will definitely want to reverse this unfavorable trend at Rally Bohemia. The second crew of the ŠKODA Motorsport factory team, Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen, arrives as leaders of this year’s WRC 2 Pro World Championship. Rally Bohemia will be their first start in the Czech Republic and they will therefore be gaining new experience on the specific profile of Czech asphalt tracks. However, with eighteen-year-old Kalle Rovanpera’s speed, the highest ranks should be considered in this case. The remaining of elite five will be the underdogs of both last year’s Rally Bohemia and especially the recent Rally Hustopeče, Jan Černý / Petr Černohorský (Škoda Fabia R5), who also have justified medal ambitions. And in fact, the same can be said for Miroslav Jakeš / Petr Machů with another Škoda Fabia R5.
Jan Dohnal has been missing a nice overall result from Rally Bohemia in recent year, but second place from previous Czech Championship in Hustopeče gives ambitions to him and his unique Ford Focus RS WRC ´06. Vojtěch Štajf with VW Polo R5 (who consideres the Rally Bohemia as almost his “home” competition) will also fight against the prevalence of Škoda cars at the head of the starting list, as well as Martin Vlček with Hyundai i20 R5. Very interesting group is gathered in the second ten of the starting list. With number 12, we are again going to see Štěpán Vojtěch, who succeeded to place as 3rd, 7th and 8th in his last years at Rally Bohemia. This year, he returned with his almost “historic” but still fast Peugeot 206 WRC. The black horse of the contest can be one of the fastest Austrians, Simon Wagner with Skoda Fabia R5, who has already won a victory in class 6 and also among the two whell drive cars at the Rallye Sumava. Behind him, a pair of fast “group A” Mitsubishi Lancer sets off on the track. Returnee Jiří Kalista proves in this year’s season that even a tree broken during a special stage does not have to be an obstacle in placing in the top ten of the absolute ranking, not mentioning crossing the trenches. And his favourite Bohemia is not to be missed by the quick and newly married Jan Sykora.
Věroslav Cvrček jun. From Železný Brod and Lukáš Pondělíček will also present with the older but still very attractive Škoda Fabia Super 2000. Starting list will be enriched by two Norwegians, Stan Brøderud (Skoda Fabia R5) and Martin Nygård (Subaru WRX STI).
In the classification of 2WD – cars with one driven axle we can look forward to the start of this year’s top Czechs of class 5 and 6, represented mainly by leading René Dohnal, Václav Stejskal jun., Tomáš Knápek, Matěj Kamenc, Jan Kornhefr and others. This lineup will be enriched for the second time with two more hot favorites, which will be the last season’s sovereigns in class 6 and the 2WD category in the Czech Republic, respectively. Rallysprint series, Jan Talaš and Petr Semerád. While Jan Talaš in Hustopeče celebrated his return from European to Czech tracks with a victory, still freshly eighteen-year-old Petr Semerád in South Moravia suffered a damage of a concrete “anti-cut” and Rally Bohemia will be his chance to fix the taste of the top positions.
An attractive spectator spectacle is guaranteed by class 4 cars, where we will see 6 crews. Five “Thoroughbred” Porsches 997 GT3 will be complemented by one Fiat Abarth 124 rally driven by Martin Rada. Worth mentioning is also the traditionally well-occupied traditional Škoda 7 class in Mladá Boleslav, where six “group-A” Fabias and one Felicia will compete.
The starting list of the Czech Rally Championship of historical cars is dominated by two Ford Escort RS Cosworth crews Vlastimil Neumann / Václav Hlavatý and Libor Kotrmon / Jan Krečman, with the first crew mentioned being the main favorites this year, winning three races of the Championship so far. Especially the winner of this year’s Rallysprint Kopná, French Stéphane Scellier racing with Czech license with Opel Kadett GSI, will try to make it more difficult for them. An attractive spectacle is guaranteed by Petr Hustý’s Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2,3-16, for which technical defects are the main rival. In no case we can ignore Jindřich Štolfa, the surprising winner of last year’s Rally Bohemia Historic and the former factory pilot of the ŠKODA Motorsport factory team in the 1990s. Nevertheless, he will replace his last year’s Rover Metro GTI with Skoda 130 L / A. The fast group-B Škoda 130 LR, which scored four absolute victories in the Rally Bohemia Historic in 2014-2017, will be at the start this year in the hands of the brothers Hejhals and another factory driver of the Skoda from the 1990s, Vladimír Berger. A kind of interesting is start of Luboš Dolák, brother of Milan, Czech rally legend and champion of 1997, who returned to racing tracks year after 32 years.
The starting field of Rally Legend will be opened by one of two preserved originals of Škoda 200 RS from 1974, which will be presented to us by Stanislav Kafka. We can look forward to a number of other original vintage cars – from the other racing Škoda cars we will mention the legendary Škoda 130 RS (1978) run by Josef Bartášek, Škoda Felicia KIT CAR (1995) by Olivier Ritz, Škoda 120S Rallye (1974) Ing. Horst Stránský or original Škoda Favorit 136 class A (1989) driven by Ing. Jiří Jelínek. From the foreign manufacturing brands, we will be impressed by 1972 Opel Ascona A, which will be presented by Michel Smeets from the Netherlands, Fiat 124 Abarth Rally from the 1973 Šipka’s crew, and the Kadett GTE duo from the 1970s, in the hands of Miroslav Hodan and Michal Vocásek.
There are 70 vehicles registered in the Czech Championship, 27 crews in the Czech Championship of historical cars 27 crews in Rally Legend. 43% of all registered vehicles are Škoda cars.
Fans can meet with top pilots of 46th Rally Bohemia at the pre-start commented autograph-session of the crews on Thursday 11th July 2019 at 7 pm in the Bondy shopping center in Mladá Boleslav, to which all interested parties are warmly invited.
More information on 46th Rally Bohemia 2019 is available at www.rallybohemia.cz. You can also watch more information and learn interesting facts about the competition 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
Download
2019-07-06 [92]
