Norway : CRT Kopecky - FinishJan Kopecky and Filip Schovánek rounded off their three-week tour of Scandinavia with a fantastic result, with the Czech Rally Team Kopecky taking away a championship point from Norway after an excellent eighth place in the Rally Norway. Although
Jan Kopecky and Filip Schovánek were twenty-seventh after the third stage, their concentrated, flawless performance in the next fifteen stages moved them up to a final eighth place, guaranteeing them a championship point.
“Ending the three-week tour of Scandinavia with a championship point is absolutely amazing for us,” said team manager Josef Kopecky. “In terms of their difficult stages, the Swedish and Norwegian rallies were not just challenging for the crew, but were also complicated because of the weather and the vehicle preparations.”
“Jan entered the final leg with the clear tactic of driving the car to the finish without any complications,” Josef Kopecky continued. “Jan and Filip ended Saturday's leg in tenth position, and they seemed to be too far behind the others to fight for a higher place. On the other hand, Jan had a relatively safe lead. The plummeting overnight temperatures froze the furrowed routes and there was a change in the conditions that had prevailed during the previous legs. Although it was not easy to drive the car in these conditions, Jan coped with all the stages on Sunday flawlessly and thanks to the problems of some of our rivals he was able to move into eighth place, earning him a championship point, at the end of the Rally Norway.
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“Of course I'm very happy we finished the Rally Norway, and winning a championship point is a fantastic achievement for the whole team,” said Jan Kopecky. “This year's Rally Norway was exceptional, not only because it featured in the World Rally Championship for the first time, but also because of the challenging weather with the huge amounts of snow and the absolutely minimum number of service breaks. If you didn't select the right vehicle settings in the service zone, then there was nothing for it but to stick with those settings for several stages. The Rally Norway was exceptionally difficult because of the length of some of the stages too.”
“Eighth place in the Rally Norway is an unexpected achievement for us,” said Filip Schovánek. “The whole team did its best to get a quality result, but even so we hadn't hoped to win a point in Norway because several really good Nordic drivers were taking part.”
“After each stage, Jan and I cleared snow away from the engine area – especially the cooling system. We removed all four wheels from the vehicle and checked the condition and number of remaining studs on the tyres. We placed the two wheels with the most studs on the front axle and the other two on the back. I'm really pleased with the results from Sweden and Norway,” added Schovánek.
