Although the first waves of official championships have already started, we will touch the tests once again. A few weeks ago, all the cream of the Czech rally gathered in the northern part of the Czech Republic, where the Sosnova track is located. It is used very widely – rally, rally-cross, drift, and other disciplines are located there. The track is used also in the Richard Burns Rally game, which has two versions of it. And people gathered there because the start of the country rally championship is near. So it was the perfect opportunity to train the muscles and metal to be able to push in the Bohemian Rally from the first kilometers. Test Rally Sosnova.
22 crews gathered to this occasion. Although the quantity does not seem to be large, there was a quality! All the fastest Czech racers with R5 equipment like J.Černy, J.Kopecky, or V.Štajf. One Porsche 997 GT3 and several weaker front-wheel drive cars. The role of the course car was played by the national rally legend – M.Prokop with the Ford Fiesta WRC. But it wasn’t the only WRC car. And we’ll take a closer look at that other crew driving it.
The first about the car. The Ford Focus WRC 2006 is one of the few specimens that still collects dust in special stages rather than in garages and museums. 8 out of 33 totally produced this generation Focus still can be seen racing. Some run more events, others less. This specimen has seen life and has been and is used intensively. He was initially used by M. Hirvonen, J. Latvala, and A. Mikkelsen. Then the car then landed in Italy for 6 years before arriving in the Czech Republic. From 2015, Czech rally spectators have been able to enjoy this M-Sport creation to this day, and it was driven by Jahn Dohnal. Dohnal won one rally with Focus and finished fourth in the Czech championship twice. And since 2020, the car has fallen into other hands but will remain in the Czech Republic. And the former owner will move this season to a very different, but also old and glorious – Renault Clio S1600.
It is gratifying that this Focus WRC has fallen into good hands – Vaclav Pech Jr. from now on will delight the audience with this fourteen-year-old antique. Even people who are not at all interested in the Czech rally have usually heard the name or at least seen cars decorated with Euro Oil advertising. And there were a lot of different cars. And nothing strange, V. Pech has been running on Czech and European roads for 24 years. During that quarter, this Czech became the Czech champion 7 times, the Slovak champion 3 times, and once took third place in the European Rally Championship. The Bohemian Rally will be the 256 start of his career. As he describes himself, he is simple. After 16 hours on weekdays in the metal anti-corrosion treatment business, weekends are busy with rallies and other hobbies. Racing is his dream, which he has successfully realized so far. And so since 1998, when the sponsors were found, they started driving full seasons, although the parents were not very happy. On the other hand, Vaclav’s namesake dad himself raced for 25 years. Another crucial moment in this career is a childhood friend sitting next to him since the first starts – Petr Uhel. Where Vaclav Pech is and his friend, all those 24 years. Through these years, the crew drove Toyota Corolla WRC, Ford Focus WRC, Škoda Fabia WRC, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, Mini Cooper S2000 1.6T, Porsche 997 GT3, and in recent years followed the fashion and ran with the Ford Fiesta R5. In other words – for a serious man, a serious technique. And such a crew also has a serious fan base that is still active.
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Photo by – Stanislav Hadik
