The drivers of Skoda cars take the start in the leading positions of the championship, both Fabia S2000 cars will drive in RS retro-design and the visitors will definitely not be bored in the Skoda Motorsport park: Skoda is looking forward to its home performance at the Barum Czech Rally Zlín . Defending champion Jan Kopecký will also take part in the highlight of this year's European Championship season from Friday to Sunday, who will test the new supercharged engine for the upcoming Fabia R5 competition car in competitive conditions.
"Our successful factory car will run as it did at Rally Bohemia in a color scheme matching the 200 RS cars from 1974. The enthusiastic reactions around Mladá Boleslav prompted us to commemorate the 40th anniversary of these cars once again with this special and successful design." says Skoda Motosport team boss Michal Hrabánek .
The Skoda 180 RS and Skoda 200 RS models are considered to be the founders of the successful history of Skoda RS cars, which in the seventies and eighties of the last century was represented in particular by the legendary model Skoda 130 RS . Since 2000, the automaker has revived this tradition again in the form of RS versions available for regular customers as well. The highlight of this range so far is the new Skoda Octavia RS – the fastest and most powerful series-produced Octavia of all time. The abbreviation RS stands for " Rally Sport ".
40 years later, the crews of Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm and Sepp Wiegand / Frank Christian will take to the start with the current Fabia S2000 car in the design of 1974. Lappi will enter the eighth of the total eleven competitions of this season of the European Continental Championship as the leader of the overall classification of the ERC with 118 points ahead of Wiegand (78 points).
"The Barum Rally is one of the most difficult in the entire calendar, with fast passages on narrow forest roads with specific Czech asphalt. Every second here requires one hundred percent concentration," says Esapekka Lappi . The Finnish driver already triumphed in the ERC series competitions in Latvia and Northern Ireland this season with the Fabia S2000.
His teammate Sepp Wiegand finished second in Northern Ireland this year and was third in Belgium. The German driver has good memories of the Barum Rally in Zlín, he placed fourth last year in his factory team debut. "It would be nice if I could repeat this success. But Barumka is an extremely tricky competition in which local riders traditionally play an important role. But it doesn't scare me". In addition to Lappi and Wiegand, the British pilot Neil Simpson will also enter the competition in a Fabia S2000 car, starting with the support of Skoda UK.
The Barum Czech Rally Zlín starts on Friday morning with qualifying on a 4.44 kilometer track. On Friday evening, the first special stage follows in the center of Zlín, which is traditionally watched by thousands of spectators. Until Sunday, 15 special stages with a total length of 237.33 kilometers await the crews.
Fans will also find their way outside of their own competition, namely in the Skoda Motorsport park in the center of Zlín. From Friday to Sunday, the park, which is accessible free of charge, will offer a diverse mix of sports and entertainment activities, several concerts and a children's program. On Friday, visitors will also be able to meet the riders live at an autograph session, which starts at 4 p.m.
Among them will be European champion Jan Kopecký , who triumphed at the local competition last year with a Fabia S2000 for the third time. This year, Kopecký is concentrating on the Asia-Pacific Championship ( APRC ). After the Malaysian rally, the fourth of the six events of the season, he leads the overall standings. At the Barum rally, he and co-driver Pavel Dresler will test the turbocharged engine for the Fabia R5 in the Fabia S2000 body. "I won't be right in the starting field, but the course for me will be the same as in a normal competition," says Jan Kopecký .
Michal Hrabánek is looking forward to the next stage of development of the new Fabia R5. "We successfully completed the test of the new engine for the R5 special at Rally Bohemia and we would like to thank the ERC and the organizers of the Barum rally for the opportunity to test our new engine again under competition conditions." The homologation of the new Skoda competition car is expected in the middle of 2015 at the latest.
Meanwhile, the current Fabia S2000 model added two more chapters to its successful history. The crew of Pedro Meireles / Mario Castro , supported by the Portuguese representative of Skoda, secured their first title in the Portuguese championship two races before the end of the season. Experienced driver Raimund Baumschlager in the Fabia S2000 also won the twelfth title of the Austrian champion. Hrabánek: "Congratulations to the riders and colleagues from Portugal and Austria. It's great to see the successful Fabia Super 2000 project bearing further fruit in the form of the first two titles for 2014. We hope to be able to celebrate even more this year.”
Source: Skoda Motorsport
