Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Kopecký has re-written the history with his fifth triumph

30. 8. 2016 - Petr Říha, Roman Ordelt

Czech rally driver Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia R5) has again widened his collection of Barum Czech Rally Zlín winning trophies. In the 46th edition of this rally belonging to the FIA Euroean Rally Championship as well as to Czech national rally championship he secured his fifth overall win and collected the historical Challenge cup.

His biggest rival Alexey Lukyanuk from Russia (Ford Fiesta R5) didn't manage the rally finale as he damaged his car on the route of the ultimate stage and dropped down to 16th. After this the overall rally podium became completely Czech with second Tomáš Kostka and third Jan Černý (both Škoda Fabia R5).

After Saturday's leg the margin between Kopecký and Lukyanuk was only 0.5 sec. and rally fans looked forward to great battle on Sunday. Both drivers were intensively fighting for the leading position, however in the end Kopecký was slightly in better position and after Russian's problems he secured the overall win. "I don't remember any Barum rally like this. In the battle with Lukyanuk it was completely flat-out," said happy Kopecký in the rally finish.

During the Leg 2 the third remaining position on podium was occupied by several drivers like Tomáš Kostka (Škoda Fabia R5), Bryan Bouffier from France (Citroën DS3 R5) and Jaromír Tarabus (Škoda Fabia R5). First it seemed like Kostka would retire due to technical problems, however after retirement of Bouffier and Tarabus' accident Kostka managed to stay in front of Jan Černý (Škoda Fabia R5) who was finally placed third. "It was a difficult day as we were running without front differential. That caused the time loss, but other drivers had also troubles. That's rallying," said Kostka who even improved his best results in the Barum rally - third place from 2012 and 2014.

For the first time at Barum rally Jan Černý could step up on the podium. "It's amazing. We didn't wish anything bad to Lukyanuk, but this is our life's result. On the penultimate stage we caught up Fabian Kreim and lost a lot of time behind him. So we are really happy to be on the podium," said Černý.

On Sunday Václav Pech retired from the rally as his Porsche 997 GT3 suffered a gearbox problem. As his car doesn't have an international homologation the multiple Czech rally champion was running with high starting number 91 in the national field. Pech successfully passed ten special stages, but then had to retire. At that time his time was corresponding to eighth place overall. Few moment later also Latvian Ralfs Sirmacis (Škoda Fabia R5) retired after accident. Also this young driver was about to finish in the Top 10.

The ERC2 classification was ruled by Italian (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), both ERC3 and Junior ERC competitions were won by Chris Ingram (Opel Adam R2) from the Great Britain. The fastest 2WD driver overall was Slovakian Martin Koči (Citroën DS3 R3T).

Overall classification Barum Czech Rally Zlín (after SS 15):
1. Jan Kopecký, Pavel Dresler (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) 2:07:34,7 h.
2. Tomáš Kostka, Ladislav Kučera (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 2:34,0 min
3. Jan Černý, Petr Černohorský (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 2:41,9 min
4. Pavel Valoušek, Veronika Havelková (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 3:47,7 min
5. Fabian Kreim, Frank Christian (DEU, Škoda Fabia R5) + 5:16,1 min
6. Martin Vlček, Jindřiška Žáková (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5) + 5:17,9 min
7. Vojtěch Štajf, František Rajnoha (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5) + 5:43,3 min
8. Miroslav Jakeš, Marcela Ehlová (CZE, Škoda Fabia S2000) + 6:00,5 min
9. Cedric Cherain, Filip Cuvelier (BEL, Ford Fiesta R5) + 6:40,4 min
10. Roman Odložilík, Martin Tureček (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5) + 7:02,0 min

ERC2:
1. Giacomo Scattolon, Paolo Zanini (ITA, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX) 2:20:56,7 h.
2. Tibor Érdi jr., György Papp (HUN, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X) + 13:30,8 min

ERC3:
1. Chris Ingram, Elliott Edmondson (GBR, Opel Adam R2) 2:20:55,1 h.
2. Luca Rossetti, Eleonora Moriová (ITA, Toyota GT86 CS-R3) + 17,8 s
3. Łukasz Pieniążek, Przemysław Mazur (POL, Opel Adam R2) + 23,3 s

ERC Junior:
1. Chris Ingram, Elliott Edmondson (GBR, Opel Adam R2) 2:20:55,1 h.
2. Łukasz Pieniążek, Przemysław Mazur (POL, Opel Adam R2) + 23,3 s
3. Nikolaj Grjazin, Jaroslav Fjodorov (LVA, RUS, Peugeot 208 R2) + 4:03,8 min

2WD:
1. Martin Koči, Lukáš Kostka (SVK, Citroën DS3 R3T) 2:20:08,8 h.
2. Chris Ingram, Elliott Edmondson (GBR, Opel Adam R2) + 46,3 s
3. Luca Rossetti, Eleonora Moriová (ITA, Toyota GT86 CS-R3) + 1:04,1 min