DirtFish was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Škoda Motorsport team manager Pavel Hortek, aged 76.
For a quarter of a century, Hortek was at the very forefront of the firm’s rallying activities. He was a man across absolutely everything. If Pavel didn’t know about it, there was a very good reason for that: it didn’t happen.
The former co-driver started working for the Czech manufacturer in 2001, just at the point where Škoda was establishing itself as an overall force in a sport where it had long set the benchmark for class domination. Initially working alongside Pavel Janeba and Martin Muehlmeier, it was with current motorsport director Michal Hrabánek that Hortek really put Mlada Boleslav on the map.
The successive Fabia S2000, R5 and Rally2 cars have dominated the sport’s second tier for more than a decade.
The Fabia has been the benchmark through its various guises
A Škoda Motorsport statement read: “We have received the sad news that Pavel Hortek has passed away. We have lost an integral part of our team. As team manager and sports director, his precise work contributed to the greatest successes in Škoda Motorsport’s 125-year history. Together, we achieved victories we never dreamed of. We are devastated. Pavel, we cannot fully express our gratitude — there is probably no one who has done as much for the team as you. We will never forget you.”
From the moment Hrabánek joined Škoda, you rarely saw him and Hortek apart in the service park.
But if it was a story you wanted, Pavel was the man. He was one of those people with whom one cup of coffee was never enough. An hour could turn to two in the blink of an eye as he recalled another moment, another tale. His recollection of the meetings with David Richards and Colin McRae when the pair tried to take Škoda Motorsport over at the end of 2005 were riveting.
Remembering the troublesome clutch change which cost a Rally Australia podium for the Fabia WRC-driving 1995 world champion, Hortek said: “As a team, we were all crying.”
Talking to him about that moment gave me goosebumps. I remember commiserating with him that sunny – yet deeply miserable – Sunday morning in Langley Park, Perth.
We talked at length about that moment when we met in Prague a couple of years ago. Tomáš Wanka (eWRC owner) and I were going to talk to Pavel about the potential for a future collaboration with Škoda.
I was stuck in traffic, somewhere in the outskirts of the city. I called Pavel. He was typically completely calm and relaxed. The traffic eased in time for me to find car park after car park full. I called Pavel.
“Bring your car to this point,” he said. “I’ll send you a pin. I have arranged parking for you.”
Prague was his place.
It was both a pleasure and a privilege to know Pavel Hortek
He took Tomáš and I to Kavárna, without doubt one of the most beautiful cafés around. Yes, we talked about how we could work together and what might be possible – but his eyes shone brightest when he talked of his city and the Smetana Hall, a similarly spectacular opera house, which sat just the other side of the wall.
All too soon, the afternoon was done and time had beaten us again. The conversation continued on WhatsApp thereafter with picture after picture of the sights he’d talked so richly of.
It was both a pleasure and a privilege to know Pavel Hortek. His co-driving roots ensured absolute precision in everything he said and did. Fastidious to a fault, he was warm, polite, interested and, without a doubt, a force for the very good in our sport.
DirtFish sends its deepest sympathies to Pavel’s family and many friends throughout the sport.
