Jan Kopecký – Pavel Dresler winners of 42nd Rally Bohemia (Czech Rally Championship)

Press Release No. 28

The crew of ŠKODA Motorsport Team Jan Kopecký – Pavel Dresler with Škoda Fabia R5 has become the winner of the 42nd Rally Bohemia. Thus they have managed to complete their victorious hattrick because they won here even in the previous two years.

Jan Kopecký and the new Škoda Fabia R5 remain undefeated even after the fourth event of the Czech Rally Championship. The series of the second places has been enlarged to three by Václav Pech and Petr Uhl, who finished Rally Bohemia fifty seconds after the crew of ŠKODA Motorsport Team. The third place of Štěpán Vojtěch – Michal Ernst has become a sensation when they returned to Peugeot 206 WRC after many years and managed to win in the last but one special stage Vinec. Here they managed to beat Pavel Valoušek.

The comments of the first three crews from the finish press conference of the Czech Rally Championship:

Jan Kopecký: “The feelings about the hattrick are fantastic, it is team work, the car works without problems and is reliable. So thanks belong to the whole team as well as to you, spectators, there were plenty of you here. The special stages were beautiful, today a bit faster, but I think it is a trend that will go on.”

Pavel Dresler: “Everything went all right and worked as it should, so it turned out as it had been lined.”

Ing. Luboš Vlček, head of sales organization ŠKODA AUTO Czech Republic: “Congratulations to Jan and Pavel, it was an excellent result and perfect representation and promotion for the ŠKODA AUTO company on the home ground. It is great they won. Of course, thanks belong to the whole team headed by Michal Hrabánek. We are happy that the new car Fabia R5 has entered this season in this phenomenal way both in the Czech Republic and abroad. We can only promise that we will do our best to keep and develop Rally Bohemia in Mladá Boleslav in the future. I believe all spectators had a nice experience. We congratulate not only to our team but also to their rivals placed on the second and third places, they were excellent performances. We hope that we will see the same exciting and interesting fights in the following Czech Rally Championship.”

Václav Pech: “After the defect of Esapekka Lappi we got onto the second place. It was perhaps our maximum performance that could be achieved. In the past races we drove with Honza Kopecký more or less equally, here he sped off all the time. We thank for the support.”

Petr Uhel: “We had planned victory, but somehow it failed,” joked the co-driver as usual, and added seriously: “Rally Bohemia was beautiful and we perfectly enjoyed it.”

Štěpán Vojtěch: “No, the result did not bring tears into eyes, even if it is after so many years, as you say. We were just driving here and they gave us cups. And when you look at the young modern technology and young aggressive crew, it must have turn out well,” started the driver in a relaxed way as before, and added more seriously: “We had different problems with this car before the race but then the car worked without a problem for the whole competition. So we drove at a comfortable pace, there were crowds of people all around, so we enjoyed it and we ourselves were surprised with the times in comparison with modern cars. It is a sort of reminiscence. The result is definitely more than we expected, and it seems that we can compete even with the newer cars.”

A loser of the competition was Jan Dohnal, who had to withdraw from the third place before the final section due to a technical defect of his Ford Focus RS WRC. Esapekka Lappi with Škoda Fabia R5 of ŠKODA Motorsport Team demonstrated a fighter ride after yesterday’s defect of a tyre and he won most special stages of today’s leg. His fighter ride stopped right below the winning positions, on the fourth place. The fifth place was occupied by Pavel Valoušek with Škoda Fabia S2000.

In class 3 of production cars, Jan Votava – František Synáč won the first place after the accident of Josef Semerád in the last special stage. Category 2WD was won with a big lead by Egon Smékal – Monika Hýbnerová.

All the information and results about this year Rally Bohemia can be found on the official website of the competition www.rallybohemia.cz. The traditional general partner of Rally Bohemia is ŠKODA AUTO.

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