Just two points from the Championship Title, despite the biggest score

Petr Fulín came second in the overall standings of the Octavia Cup series, having missed the title by just two points Despite the fact that the promoter's press release had taken into account various eventualities for the series' last racing event at the Brno circuit, the actual results and their impact on the final standings of the Česká pojišťovna - Škoda Octavia Cup surprised everyone.

The dramatic development began to unfold in the free practice. As expected, this session was dominated by the drivers of the 'ACA Autocentrála Hlučín' team, followed by the red cars of the 'Auto Brejla' team and by M. Kárný, who was in great shape at his domestic circuit. Petr Fulín only managed sixth place. In the qualifying, Petr's situation remained unchanged, but it was not plain sailing for him. That is to say, Laura Hájková was at her best at this weekend racing event and surpassed Petr by 0.008 seconds. This put her to the sixth place, ahead of Petr. Petr was hesitating whether to change the front axle tyres. 10 minutes before the end of the session, he came to the conclusion that wet weather conditions were to be expected for the Sunday race. So, he resolved to use his only two slick tyres left for his last attempt to improve his qualifying result. Petr's last, very fast lap time was only 0.150 seconds from that of third-placed J. Dostál, however, this was only enough for Petr to move up to the sixth place of the closely fought qualifying. So, Laura came seventh. Jirka Jupa, who replaced Milan Martínek in car 6 for the last racing event, claimed the ninth spot of the grid. Dan and Tiki came eleventh and fourteenth respectively, while Tadeáš, who struggled with the rear-axle wheel alignment, took the 21st spot of the starting grid of Sunday's Race 1.

After the start of Race 1 on Sunday, our drivers, unfortunately were not able to prevent collisions. Jirka, who tried to avoid Nemec, hit the side of Laura's car. Laura consequently crashed into Bareš and had to retire from the twelve-lap race still before the first corner, as one of the tyres of her car was damaged. 'It is a pity. After yesterday's qualifying, perhaps my best ever, I was looking forward to the race. After the race, I watched the recordings of several cameras, together with the other drivers involved, and I realized that no option had been left for Jirka to avoid the collision with my car. So, for the time being, I must forget about the opportunity to move up from the seventh place,' said Laura, disappointed after the race. Petr, by several excellent manoeuvres, moved up from the sixth place, gradually passing Brejla, Vršínský and Dostál, and claimed the third place. The team were delighted by the excellent results achieved by Dan, who hit form towards the end of the season. By coming second in the morning warm-up session, for example, he literally gave the entire paddock a shock. Dan continued his steady, fine performance in Race 1 and claimed the eighth place, after loosing two spots just in the last lap, due to an unlucky coincidence. Tiki, too, achieved his best result of the season. After several fantastic battles, he finished in thirteenth. Jirka Jupa struggled with the impaired wheel alignment after the collision with Laura and took great pains to claim the sixteenth place. Tadeáš dropped down due to his fierce battle with Milan Vaňkát and only came 19th in a race that started very well for him.

After Race 1, the team evaluated the overall standings of the individual drivers. Petr surpassed Vašek Brejla, having secured at least the third place for himself. So, this objective was considered to have been fulfilled. Moreover, the team's analysis suggested that, despite the strict calculation method (each driver's two worst results were to be deleted) Petr surpassed J. Dostál by one point. Michal Vorba by that time, in all probability, had already secured the Championship title. At that time, however, no one could have anticipated the dramatic course of the season's last race.

Petr started Race 2 from the fifth place of the grid. He did not start well, however, and, still before the first corner, dropped down to seventh. After several laps, there was a small shower and the track was very slippery suddenly. In the next lap, the order of drivers started to change. Petr gradually moved ahead, overcoming all of his rivals, including Vorba. On Lap 4, Petr was running second and started to close his gap on Lisowski, who lead the race. On Lap 5, the stewards probably got a fright of their responsibility and resolved to interrupt the race. So, red flags were put out, and the drivers stopped their cars in the pit lane. Then, a 'wet race' sign appeared under the starting lights. It was evident that a thrilling battle was to be expected. That is, some drivers fitted wet tyres, while others did not, ready to continue the race with slicks. The situation was tense, and Petr, to regain his composure in the short break, even had a cigarette, his face still covered with the fire-proof mask. All of our drivers started the warm-up lap with wet tyres, and the starting procedure, the third one, was to begin. At the moment, when the cars arrived back at the grid, mechanics with lifting jacks emerged and some drivers put slicks on again, instead of the wet tyres fitted a moment ago. At first, Petr asked the mechanics to change the tyres of his car as well. But then, he saw Vorba's car with the wet gear, and decided for the same material, to avoid any risk. Jirka Jupa, on the other hand, decided for a tyre change. The other drivers of the Vekra Racing - ČSMS team kept the wet tyres.

The drivers lined up on the grid in the order which was recorded two laps before the race interruption rather than immediately before that moment. So, Petr had to move back again, behind Dostál and Vorba, to the fourth spot. During the first two laps, drivers with wet tyres had the advantage of those with slicks. Petr even managed to overcome Vorba and Dostál again, and started chasing Lisowski, who was first. But then, the track, except for two bends, dried up and the situation changed in an unbelievable manner, as the drivers with slicks got the upper hand. The first to pass Petr was Jirka Jupa, followed by Vršínský, Bareš, Gotwald and others. Nevertheless, Vorba was still behind Petr. It was evident that each of the two favourites was struggling with his car. The initial analysis of the standings only took into account the eventuality that each of them comes within the top four positions in this race. No one had anticipated the eighth or ninth places. Moreover, these places were not the final ones as the final placing in Race 2 was to be calculated as a sum of the results of the first and second parts. Consequently, the name of this year's Champion was not known until the moment fifteen minutes after the race. The situation was complicated, if only for the fact that Vorba needed all his points from the second race while our driver's points from this race certainly were to be deleted as his worst result, and some of his better placings was to be included. The promoter's statement, however, was sad, as Petr missed the title by a tiny margin of two points.

Although the other drivers of our team were not involved in the contest for a top position in the final standings, their experiences of the second part of Race 2, i.e., driving with slick tyres on the wet track, or, on the other hand, the one-sided battles they undertook in their cars with wet tyres on the dry track, certainly surpassed everything they had experienced in the preceding racing events of this season. Jirka Jupa made up for his unfortunate experience from Race 1 (until the end of that race, he believed erroneously that his collision with Laura was his fault, whereas, in fact, it could not be avoided) by simply winning Race 2. Dan, in the very finish of the race, surpassed Vorba and came behind Petr, however, the combined results of the two parts put him to the tenth place. Tiki took on a new lease of life in the second part of the race. In the first corner, his car went into a skid and left the track. When he was coming back, Konopka of the ACA Hlučín team shot by with a terrific speed. To a great extent, it was a lucky coincidence that he did not hit Tiki's car. The thought of Konopka crashing into the left-hand door of Tiki's car sends shivers down the spine. After struggling with the car with wet tyres, Tiki came 18th, followed by Tadeáš, who experienced the same trouble. Laura made up for the first race a bit by coming fourteenth, despite the wet tyres.

Despite the cold weather conditions and the results achieved, the team's drivers agreed that the final racing event was the best in the entire season. Petr, too, shared this opinion. He undertook numerous fantastic battles and really enjoyed the weekend. The fact that he missed the title in the end did not spoil his good mood. Moreover, he achieved the most steady results among the almost 30 drivers involved. Before the deduction of the two worst results, he had 230 points while Vorba and Dostál, who were second and third respectively, had 211 points each. Last year, ironically, Petr missed the title in the BMW Challenge series due the fact that no elimination of results was applied. This year, it was exactly the opposite.

And, here is Petr's assessment of the entire season and the results: 'Naturally, I am a little bit sorry for the two points and, in fact, for the entire result-calculation system. However, I immensely enjoy racing, overtaking manoeuvres, preparation and testing. A fine position in the final standings is in fact just a small, nice reward on top of all that. Moreover, I should take into account the fact that I have been holding my racing licence only for two years. I have not had any previous racing experience, while most of the other drivers of the Octavia Cup series have been involved in this series for a longer period of time. Some of them even started at the age of six years in karting. So, the second place is fantastic satisfaction for me. I think that now, when this year's Octavia Cup is over, it is time to express immense praise to all mechanics of the Vekra-ČSMS racing team. They were working in an absolutely flawless manner and, moreover, gave themselves to their work to such an extent that they almost did not have any time for their families.'

And, it only remains for us to add, 'Thank you, Petr!'