Skoda’s Kopecky Dilemma. It is believed that Skoda Motorsport are delayed in making decisions about their 2017 WRC2 programme because of a conflict in programmes for Jan Kopecky.
Jan Kopecky at Valasska Rally.Kopecky’s Czech championship hopes are threatened if he enters Rally of Portugal, which this is one of the three WRC events for which entry this year is mandatory. This event is the same date as the third Czech round (Cesky Krumlov).
Meanwhile, Kopecky had a dramatic start to the Czech season. He won every stage on the first day of the opening round (Janca Valasska Rally), but only after overnight deliveries from the factory for urgent repairs as Kopecky crashed his rally car in pre-event testing.
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The FIA has removed the scrutineering proviso in the results of Rally Mexico, after the gearbox on Sebastien Ogier’s car was inspected and pronounced legal. Ogier is confirmed unconditionally second.
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Details about the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, tenth round of the FIA World Rally Championship, have been released, announcing that the official start and a super special will be held in the Saarland capital of Saarbrucken.
The service park will be at the inland resort centre of Bostalsee (returning there after 11 years) with the headquarters at nearby Bosen.
This year the rally does not go to its long time base at Trier.
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While Ford and Skoda take their official R5 entries to the World Championship in 2017 as competitors in WRC2, Peugeot and Opel take their official competition cars to the European Rally Championship.
At Peugeot, Jose Suarez and Pope Lopez will drive 208 T16 R5 cars, while at Opel there are three entries in Adam R2 cars for Chris Ingram, Tamara Molinaro and Jari Huttunen, all entered in the Junior categories.
The first ERC round (Azores Airlines Rally) starts at Ponta Delgada on Thursday afternoon (March 30) and finishes Saturday evening.
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Fomer twice World Rally Champion co-driver, Luis Moya, will be the official ambassador for the Rally Legend historic event (now rescheduled to 19-22 October) in the Republic of San Marino.
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From Belgium it is reported that Cedric Cherain’s victory in a Citroen DS3 RRC in their championship Herock Spa Rally has been disallowed because of a misunderstanding of which tyres he could use.
Winner now is Fabia R5 driver Benoit Allart.
- Martin Holmes