Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Barum Rally stars: Tänak, Breen, Lappi, Magalhães and many others

18. 8. 2014 - Barum Czech Rally Zlín

The keenly awaited list of entries to the upcoming Barum Czech Rally Zlín 2014 is finally here! And it's not only numerous, but also high-quality. The event belonging to the FIA ERC as well as to the Int. Czech Rally Championship is full of star names. Overall 121 crews from 25 countries have send their entries to the rally. Biggest favourites are former Ford factory driver and Estonian rally champion Ott Tänak, the actual ERC leader Esapekka Lappi from Finland, Irishman Craig Breen, Bruno Magalhães of Portugal or local Czech champion Václav Pech.

No other ERC event in this year had so extensive and quality starting field. The BCRZ list of entries contains 24 S2000 or R5 cars. Only the Belgian ERC round matches the Zlín-based event as there appeared 23 top cars in Ypres. 45 competitors will come to the Barum rally from abroad - from 25 countries in Europe as well as from the USA or Japan. Ott Tänak (Ford Fiesta R5) won the previous ERC round in his homeland, other medal aspirants are Škoda factory drivers Esapekka Lapp with German Sepp Wiegand (both Škoda Fabia S2000), fast Irishman Craig Breen, Kevin Abbring from Netherlands, multiple Portugal rally champion Bruno Magalhães (all Peugeot 208 T16) or Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland (Ford Fiesta R5). Amongst Czech top crews are multiple Czech rally champion Václav Pech (Mini John Cooper Works S2000), three-time BCRZ winner Roman Kresta (Škoda Fabia S2000), Tomáš Kostka (Citroën DS3 S2000), Miroslav Jakeš (Citröen DS3 R5), Jaroslav Orsák, Jaromír Tarabus or Pavel Valoušek (all Škoda Fabia S2000). Other fast drivers aiming to place in the Top 10 are Robert Barrable from Ireland (Ford Fiesta R5), Neil Simpson from Great Britain (Škoda Fabia S2000), Frenchman Robert Consani (Peugeot 207 S2000), or Czechs Roman Odložilík (Ford Fiesta R5), Antonín Tlusťák, Jan Jelínek and Martin Vlček (all Škoda Fabia S2000).

Great competition can be found in the Production cars category. One of the biggest attraction is British multiple champion Mark Higgins (Subaru Impreza STi). For the podium will also fight Hungarian András Hadik and Polish Sebastian Frycz (both Subaru Impreza STi), while Vitaliy Pushkar from Ukraine (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X R4) or Czech Martin Hudec (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX) want mainly to score the points to the ERC Production Cars cup.

The 2WD category is full of drivers competing in the Junior ERC and these youngsters are the ones who are targeting on the top positions in 2WD as well. Namely Jan Černý from the Czech Republic, Stéphane Lefebvre from France, Chris Ingram from Great Britain, Gino Bux from Belgium, Andrea Crugnola from Italy (all Peugeot 208 R2), and then Simone Tempestini from Romania, Hungarians Kornél Lukács (both Citroën DS3 R3T) with Zoltán Bessenyey (Honda Civic Type R), Italian Elwis Chentre (Škoda Fabia R2) and Czech drivers Egon Smékal (Citroën DS3 R3T), Adam Kobliha, Josef Peták (both Renault Clio R3) or Václav Dunovský (Peugeot 208 R2).

There will appear also several female drivers such as Ukrainian Inessa Tushkanova (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX) competing under Finnish licence, Ekaterina Stratieva from Bulgaria (Citroën C2 R2 Max) and Martina Daňhelová from the Czech Republic (Renault Clio R3). Also celebrities will enhance the starting field like the popular singer and actress Olga Lounová (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX) or actor David Suchařípa (Renault Clio Sport).

The rally fans can look forward to it, the upcoming edition of the Barum Czech Rally Zlín will be a great spectacle! Together with 66 competitors in Star Rally Historic, there will appear almost two hundreds rally cars at the Barum rally route!

The complete list of entries is avalable HERE, rally maps can be download HERE (resp. for Star Rally Historic in its dedicated section).