Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Barum Czech Rally Zlín with a Hungarian TV star

20. 8. 2014 - Petr Linhart, Barum Czech Rally Zlín

Zoltán Bessenyey is the reigning European 2WD Champion. However, many people don't know the Budapest native is not only a fast rally driver, but a TV star on the field of motoring journalism as well.

Together with his team, Zoltán has been producing a popular TV show similar to famous TopGear, named Garász TV. "Since 2005 we've made more than 480 episodes. Our show belongs to the most popular TV series, it attracts more than a million of viewers every month. During the production we have visited more than 30 countries all around the world, I've had about 550 different cars in my hand," says Zoltán about his successful project.

Experience with various cars helped the Hungarian in rallying very much. Later he switched from the role of journalist and spokesman to a rally driver, where he soon started to collect very competitive results. First at his home soil, then in Slovakia and in the Central Europe Zone rally cup. "After collecting several championship titles in Hungary and Slovakia we decided to move forward. In 2010 we entered the WRC event in Bulgaria, where we finished 22^nd overall and with our Opel Astra GTC reached the best result of diesel-powered car in the WRC history. Later we changed to Subaru and competed in the CEZ series, which we won as well. At that moment we did another logical step – moving to the FIA ERC," explains Zoltán his way to the continental top series.

But participation in the highly-rated European Rally Championship can be financially demanding and also Zoltán was facing that. "We weren't able to collect appropriate budget for at least five ERC events so we tried to find a manufacturer, which could support us. Finally we made a deal with Honda. Through its Hungarian importer we could meet people from Honda Racing who decided to help us. Everything happened so quickly, it took only three weeks before the end of 2012," tells Zoltán who adds why they choose a Honda Civic Type-R R3: "It's simply the fastest rally car with a Honda badge."

And Bessenyey made use of that in 2013 very well – he won overall the ERC 2WD category. And now, prior to the Barum Rally, he also leads the 2014 series. What is his relationship to the Zlín-based event? "It's one if my favourite rallies. It's close to Hungary so we can almost speak about my home event. The route characteristics are quite similar to those in my country and there have always been many fans from Hungary as well, which is good for us. Barum Rally itself is very fast and weather plays a key role. But this year it will be my second time in Zlín so I believe we can utilize our experience from 2013 – we have an idea about car's setup and we know some tricky places as well. It's a shame that the scrutineering won't be in the sports hall anymore, but the city special stage with its great atmosphere will be a good compensation," says Bessenyey.