Hayden Paddon’s title defense in the European Rally Championship has faced a setback on Barum Czech Rally Zlín, as he was forced to stop and change a wheel on what ended up becoming Saturday’s final stage.
Paddon had been holding seventh overall at the midpoint of the first full leg of action, only two places adrift of main title rival Mathieu Franceschi.
But in the afternoon a storm descended on the roads surrounding Zlín, making the already famously slippery asphalt lanes treacherous, especially for those who hadn’t included wet tires in their selections.
Rajnochovice was meant to be the penultimate stage of the day but became the day-ender, as flooding prevented a second pass of Bunč. And it proved to be a dramatic one: Paddon had to stop and pull over to change a wheel, costing him over three minutes and dropping him out of the points to 18th place – handing a golden opportunity to Franceschi in the title race.
Franceschi had spent most of the afternoon in fifth place but was passed late on by 2019 ERC Junior U28 champion Filip Mareš. Even with the late position change he’s still set to take the championship lead by eight points, having started the rally seven behind Paddon.
Jan Kopecký's stranglehold on ERC victories in Zlín finally looks to be over after 12 wins in a row
Jan Kopeckŷ goes into every edition of the Barum Rally as the odds-on favorite: he’s won the ERC classification for the last 12 editions in a row. But that legendary streak now looks to be over: he had to stop a change a puncture in the morning which cost him two minutes, then lost another half minute when he slid off the road on Rajnochovice.
That trip off-road also caused an impact with a bank which damaged a wheel, then subsequently skated far away from the road and through a vast field. By the finish line, he admitted he’d been “f***ing lucky” to have reached the finish line at all.
Czech national championship points leader Dominik Stříteský is leading the rally’s overall classification. He’d been battling Kopeckŷ for the lead until the latter’s puncture on Bunč. Erik Cais then began to make inroads, making amends for a 20s time penalty for being late out of a time control, and narrowing Stříteský’s lead to only 4.2s prior to Saturday’s last stage.
But when the heavens opened on Rajnochovice, Cais’ lead charge fell apart. With no wet weather tires in his afternoon selection, he lost over 40s and dropped to fourth, promoting fellow Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 runners Simon Wagner and Adam Březík up a place.
ERC regulars Efrén Llarena, Miko Marczyk, Hermann Neubauer and then Kopeckŷ make up the rest of the top 10 runners.
