Octavia Cup weekend in Brno: another points-scoring event |
- 28. 5. 2006, Brno -The INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team's three-driver line-up were doing well again in the second round of the Česká pojišťovna - Škoda Octavia Cup series, which was held within the framework of the SUPERCAR 500 event in Brno last weekend. As Adam Lacko was contesting the truck race in Misano, Italy, the team had asked Jiří Jupa to join them for this race and drive Adam's car in order to prevent it from being out of action. The weekend practice sessions and the two races proved that this decision was correct, and valuable points were added to the tally of the team based in the town of Hradec Králové again. In Friday's free practice, Michal Matějovský finished in fifth place while Jiří Jupa was ninth, and Filip Albrecht came fifteenth. In the afternoon official timed practice session, Michal and Jirka were seventh and tenth respectively; Filip was struggling with the adjustment of the chassis of his yellow car and came even nineteenth. Anyway, Michal and Jiří moved on to the Superpole held on Saturday morning, which offered them the opportunity to improve their respective starting grid positions for the first race. Each of them succeeded in doing this: Michal and Jiří moved up and claimed sixth and eighth places respectively. Then, the first race was started on Saturday afternoon, and the Brno Masaryk Circuit saw an unprecedented battle. For example, Jupa and Janák, who were engaged in a duel stretching for almost two laps, offered a remarkable spectacle. Jupa did lose to Janák in the end, but admitted that he probably had not experienced anything like that before. Michal, too, fought like a lion. He had to hold off some really unscrupulous attacks; one of them was in fact 'on a knife-edge'. After the race, Michal complained: 'Petr Fulín just came from behind, running at a high speed, and hit the side of the rear end of my car. And, what is more, this happened when I was entering the corner. So, I was struggling hard to keep my car on the track, driving through the corner in a skid, "with the door handles first". I was praying that no other driver should hit my car in that situation.' Despite that, the results of the first battle were highly satisfactory: Michal claimed fifth place in the end, and Jupa was sixth. Filip Albrecht, too, was successful in several duels, and finished in thirteenth place. The second race was held on Sunday, in the morning, that is, at a lower temperature as compared with the first race. And, the track was damp. According to the propositions, the order of the top six drivers of the first race is reversed for the start of the second race. This brought Jupa and Matějovský into the first line of the grid. Jirka made a perfect start, and was running at the front of the pack for several laps. Then, unfortunately, he lost two battles: one of the them to hard-charging Janák, the second one, to Navrátil. The duel with Navrátil really was a thrilling one; this was one of the most interesting moments of the race. In the and, Jupa claimed an excellent third place. After the race, Jupa said: 'If a driver takes a podium spot, he is naturally happy. I hope that I have attained the results that Standa Matějovský expected. I am glad that everything was running properly. I was a bit beset by the sense of responsibility because I was driving Adam's car, which had won twice in the previous event. And, moreover, I wanted to prevent this car, which was lent to me, from any possible damage in a collision. This was a hard commitment to fulfil, but I liked the fact that the battles and overtaking manoeuvres were conducted in a correct way.' Michal slightly hesitated at the start and finished in fifth place again. He had perhaps calculated beforehand that the two fifth places and the points he had scored by taking the two second places in the previous racing event provide him a comfortable first place in the standings of drivers. Michal really is in the lead now, having gained seventy points altogether. Moreover, the INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team is first in the teams' standings as well. The Octavia Cup continues with another event in the town of Most in two weeks' time, and the team based in Hradec Králové will be contesting there not only this series, but also the races of Division 4 of the Racing Circuit Championship of the Czech Republic. |
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