Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

135 crews reported in the Secretariat of Barum rally

24. 8. 2017 - Roman Ordelt

The Secretariat of Barum Czech Rally Zlín passed acid test, Barum rally being a part of FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and TrueCam Czech Rally Championship 2017 (MCR). Total of 135 crews from 22 countries have sign up for this rally by Wednesday afternoon. Apart from the French favourite Sylvain Michel, the other top drivers arrived and many of them were previously seen on Tuesday evening giving autographs to almost thousand eager fans in the Shopping and Entertainment Golden Apple Centre.

Some of them have already completed official test near Vizovice. The favourites for the 47th Barum rally are the five-time winner of this rally Jan Kopecký from Czech Republic (Škoda Fabia R5), the current leader and defending champ of ERC Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland, then Russian Alexey Lukyanuk and French Bryan Bouffier (all on Ford Fiesta R5). There will be 32 cars R5 category waiting for the whistle!

The Secretariat of Barum rally, of which a long-term head is Marta Regnerová, opened its doors at midday on Tuesday. 'The first ones to present were teams Castrol Ford Team Türkiye, starting number 25 Murat Bostanci, Onur Vatansever and starting number 42 Bugra Banaz, Burak Erdener. They were here couple minutes before opening and they were nice and showed interest in many things,' Marta Regnerová said, the head of Secretariat of Barum Czech Rally Zlín. By Tuesday almost 130 crews came to the permanent Secretariat and during Wednesday morning the remaining few finally arrived. 'Out of the 151 crews that entered, sixteen have been excused or didn't come at all,' the head said.

Crews began reconnaissance on Wednesday morning on the roads of special stages. First ones on the schedule were special stages of Leg 2 (SS Maják, Pindula, Košíky and the Qualifying Stage – Shakedown Žlutava), on Thursday it's going be Leg 1 (Biskupice, Semetín, Troják, Březová) and finally around midnight there's a test drive in the streets of Zlín for the popular Spectators' Super Special Stage. The 47th edition of Barum Czech Rally Zlín begins on Friday 25th August at 4 p.m. on the square in front of Zlín's city hall and the three-day event ends on a finishing ramp on Sunday 27th August at 4:25 p.m. at the same place. This year's Barum rally is 683.52 km in length, has 15 special stages on eight sections of length 205.57 km. The Qualifying Stage, Shakedown, in Žlutava on Friday morning is kind of a foreplay for the whole event.

The following crews did not pick up their itinerary:
15 Sylvain Michel, Jérome Degout (FRA, Škoda Fabia R5, Sylvain Michel)
33 Massimiliano Rendina, Emanuele Inglesi (ITA, Škoda Fabia R5, Motorsport Italia SH)
41 Dariusz Polonski, Balbina Gryczynská (POL, Peugeot 208 R2, Rallytechnology)
43 Sebastien Bedoret, Thomas Walbrecq (BEL, Peugeot 208 R2, JB Malherbe Racing Spirit)
46 Kristóf Klausz, Botond Csányi (HUN, Peugeot 208 R2, Klausz Motorsport)
51 Artur Muradian, Pavel Chelebajev (RUS, Peugeot 208 R2, Neiksans Rally Sport)
56 Patrik Rujbr, Veronika Římalová (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5, TNT Počernice s.r.o.)
58 Petr Trnovec, Miroslav Staněk (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5, Petr Trnovec)
66 Tomáš Růžička, Jaroslav Novák (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5, Kimi Racing)
80 Jiří Navrátil, Josef Král (CZE, Peugeot 208 R2, Jiří Navrátil)
86 Pavel Vedra (CZE, Citroën DS3 R3T, Pavel Vedra)
102 Jiří Jírovec, Kateřina Janovská (CZE, Porsche 997 GT3, EuroOil – Invelt Team)
105 Václav Stejskal jr., Stanislav Viktora jr. (CZE, Renault Clio R3T, Václav Stejskal jr.)
126 Marcel Havlásek (CZE, Peugeot 208 R2, Marcel Havlásek)
133 Tomáš Hauptvogel, Jiří Kulštejn (CZE, Opel Adam Cup, XTG Motorsport Klub v AČR)
153 Diana Nohálová (CZE, Škoda Felicia, Diana Nohálová)

Changes and other additions to the list of entries:
Starting no. 45 – co-driver Vladimír Osička
Starting no. 49 – co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini (Italy)
Starting no. 55 – co-driver Ondřej Krajča
Starting no. 63 – change of car to Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX
Starting no. 70 – co-driver Torstein Eriksen (Norway)
Starting no. 77 – co-driver Martin Zigler (Czech Republic)
Starting no. 79 – co-driver Martin Kouřil
Starting no. 84 – Luigi Cavagnetto (Italy)
Starting no. 93 – co-driver Jiří Hlávka
Starting no. 101 – co-driver Petr Novák
Starting no. 113 – co-driver Kateřina Janovská
Starting no. 127 – co-driver Karel Žáček
Starting no. 134 – co-driver Diana Nohálová
Starting no. 147 – co-driver František Gahura