Octavia Cup finals did not come up to expectations |
- 27. 8. 2006, Most -The truck weekend event held at the Autodrom Most racing circuit from 25th to 27th August also included the final round of the tenth year of the Česká pojišťovna - Škoda Octavia Cup. Before this event, there was a strong probability of the INTERNET EXPRES Prima Team's winning the title in the teams' competition, and Michal Matějovský was well set to take the title of the winner of this season. Unfortunately, coincidence, bad luck, and unlucky chance impacted relentlessly. Michal only finished fourth in the overall standings, and the team had to settle for the second place. Three of the team's yellow cars took part in the race, and Michal was joined again by Jiří Jupa and by Mirek Forman, who participated in the Octavia Cup series after a one-year pause in order to replace Adam Lacko, who had to give priority to the MAN truck this time. Not only in the Friday free testing, but also in the Saturday free practice session and official qualifying session, Michal was clocking the third or second best times. Jirka Jupa was approximately tenth, and Mirek Forman backed up his team-mates from the second half of the field. So, Jiří and Michal had the opportunity to try one more lap in the Superpole qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. The track was wet after the rain; consequently, lap times increased by a good 12 seconds. Owing to his fine driving manner, Jirka Jupa improved his position and moved up to eighth. Michal made a small mistake on the wet track, and dropped from the second to the seventh place. On Sunday morning, the cars were standing on the starting grid of the first race. After the red lights went off, Michal made an excellent start, and began to move up in a perfectly competent manner. He was running third after a short time, behind Brejla and Janák, who was in the lead. Then, Michal overtook Brejla in a perfect manner, and started to close the gap on Janák, who had high ambitions as well, since he had taken the overall victory in the previous year of the series. Then, just before lap eight, Michal was coming to the home straight, carefully accelerating from the right-hand bend. At the home straight, with the car running at full throttle, when he was changing to fifth gear, the gearshift lever suddenly broke off. Michal could do nothing but stop his car at the end of the home straight near the exit from the pits. The shattered chance of the overall win really was very bitter. Jupa finished in seventh, and Mirek Forman was tenth. Michal was getting ready for the afternoon race with the aim of contesting at least the second place of the overall standings. However, there were other four drivers with similar intentions. That is to say, Jiří Navrátil, Erik Janiš, Václav Brejla, and Jan Dostál, with their respective point scores, really stood a chance. Michal started from the very end of the starting grid, his situation being the worst among those drivers involved. However, after the start, he moved up in a really tremendous pace. The final race was incredibly close, and the time difference between the first and last racer still was only twelve seconds at the end of lap five. In the second half of the race, Michal was running even fifth. Janiš had to retire from the race before that moment, due to a rear wheel puncture. However, Brejla was in the lead, Dostál was second, Jupa third, and Navrátil was fourth. On lap fifteen, Jupa had to retire from the race because of the broken axle shaft, and so Michal claimed the fourth place in the end, while Forman was eighth. Then, the score evaluation mathematical methods were applied, with all the tricky rules involved. That is to say, the Cup's regulations stipulate that only those points are to be included that were gained by the driver in no more than eight races out of the overall number of ten, and the worst result of one of the first races and the worst result of one of the second races respectively can be deleted. The overall sum of Michal's points was 128, with no points to delete. Anyway, Janák was first. Navrátil attained two good placings in the final weekend event, which helped him to gather 133 points in total. Václav Brejla scored 144 points in total, but had to delete 16 of them, so his final score was 128, equal to that of Michal. In a situation like this, according to the regulations, the decisive factor is the number of better placings attained in the season; since Brejla won the last race, it was him who came third overall in the end. On Sunday evening, Michal laconically observed: 'The number of accidents and unlucky coincidences was really high this year. Unfortunately, that is how it goes in motor sport and nothing can be done about it.' Michal, who always kept one of the leading positions throughout the whole season, regularly ranking among the best three drivers of the qualifying sessions, had to settle for the fourth place. In order to have the full picture, let us add that Adam Lacko, who took part only in three out of the five weekend events, was eighth in the end. Jirka Jupa scored points only in two events, coming eleventh in the end. |
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