DEFEND

19.6.2005Rehak from the Defend Motorsport team again victorious

A domestic competition represents extraordinary motivation for every team. That’s why the Defend Motorsport team entered four teams in the 13th annual Impromat Rallysprint Kopna. All of them performed superbly.
Miroslav Brezik and Vlastimil Tomsu (Skoda Felicia Kit Car) finished in an incredible 19th place overall. Radek Rehak with Martin Behula (Skoda Felicia Kit Car) won the classification of category A5. The promising David Tomek with Richard Nesvadba (Skoda Felicia Kit Car) for the first time tried the sprint atmosphere. Vlastimil Bruzl and Petr Nemec are successfully continuing in tests of the Skoda Fabia Kit Car.
Miroslav Brezik made it into the elite 20, though before the start he didn’t feel much like singing. During Tuesday’s tests of the Felicia his oil pump cracked and the motor seized.
“Jarda Vancik, who put the motor together, helped us a lot. Jarda Brazdil tuned it and on Thursday the car was ready.” evaluated Brezik his colleagues appreciatively.
He entered the contest afraid whether the motor would last until the finish. Apart from a minor problem with oil pressure, however, nothing troubled the vehicle. The driver was worse off. This was the second time in his life that he had sat in a Felicia kit car, and had to get used to driving on slicks.
“Under these circumstances, and with the excellent competition that has gathered here, 19th place is excellent,” praised Brezik, who occupied 6th place in the packed full and prestigious A6 category.
Radek Rehak continues in his victorious assault. After successes in Pelhrimov and in Tisnov, he found no vanquishers in Slusovice either. Though like his colleague Brezik, he was dogged by major problems. He ended the last competition in Tisnov handicapped; upon examination doctors found he had a liver infection. Luckily he managed to recover for the domestic rally sprint.
Problems however didn’t end. After the first test he was a close fifth, but started the second leg with a 40 second penalty. During the morning servicing mechanics had to change the transmission, and exceeded the limit by 4 minutes. “In the evening it stopped shifting, I didn’t sleep the whole night. But the mechanics did an excellent job,” he commented.
On Saturday Rehak took off for a superb pursuit ride. He began in 11th place, after the sixth test he moved up to the front and his lead continually grew. At the finish he was 1:22 minutes ahead of the second-place Novak.
“Last year I raced in this competition with a kit car for the first time, and exactly one year later I’ve won. I made perfect use of my knowledge of the domestic location,” rejoiced Rehak. “In the last test, when I was already racing against myself, I almost lost everything. I made a mistake and had to return to the track through bushes. But luckily nothing serious happened,” he breathed a sigh of relief.
Eighteen-year-old David Tomek, who up to now did hill climbs and dried two Free Cups, couldn’t have picked a more difficult premiere in sprint championships. But he managed the competition, which is considered by a number of drivers as the most demanding in the championship, perfectly. He finished in 32nd place without any more significant mistake. In the A6 category evaluation he had 9th place.
“I had respect for the premiere and the difficult tracks. I like the overall result, and am also satisfied with individual successes on the RZ’s,” he remarked.
The promising driver experienced how large the difference is between the Free Cup and the sprint championship. “In the cup the emphasis is on the tests not being too tough. Here on the other hand things were demanding. But I liked it a lot,” he declared.
Vlastimil Bruzl sat in a Skoda Fabia Kit Car for the first time in the season, but didn’t have much time for preparations. For he was devoting himself to improving the first modification of this novelty, with which Jan Kopecky started at Kopna. Because a model for the current national champion took precedence, he didn’t find out until on the track during the prologue that the brakes in his vehicle don’t work.
“It shook me up quite a bit, that’s why I then did hours” he confessed. “On Saturday morning we were tuning the car, but the brakes were working. Luckily we succeeded,” commented the driver, who took 9th place in the A6 category.
He took his start, the first since last summer, as a test. The Skoda Fabia Kit Car is a complete novelty, for now there are only two specimens in existence. “The car is going to be very fast, but it still needs a lot of work,” he indicated.