THIRD RACE OF ROTAX EURO CHALLENGE 2013 SERIES AT PFI DOMINATED BY HOME BRITISH DRIVERS
Naturally, we were most interested in the most prestigious class, Rotax Senior Max, as the Czech Republic had two representatives in the Final. Doing better was Petr Běžel, who took the 12th place in the Pre-Final securing a good position for the 13th place in the finish of the Final. Jiří Forman had not managed to put up with the pain in his left hand therefore he finished as 26th, which, in theory, gives him not a chance to finish on a better place but 25th. Petr Fulín did not qualify in the morning Second Chance, so will not enter the Final.
The morning programme consisted of the Second Chance, and we could watch our driver Petr Fulín in the Senior Max category. He was moving on the seventh position in the middle of the race, just a bit beyond to qualify. Finishing the race, he bet on qualifying, however, after doing not too successful manoeuvre he slumped to his final tenth place. Nevertheless, his fighting spirit deserves praise; he was in with a good chance to qualify.
The Pre-Final of the Senior Max category was full of thrilling battles; positions were permanently changing in the whole starting field. We were most interested in what was going on in the middle of the peloton of drivers, as roughly in the first third of the race both of our drivers were moving close to each other. Petr Běžel had managed to keep his position and was finally classified as 12th. Jiří Forman had started well and was moving on the tail of the second ten. However, his health handicap was keeping on affecting him in the second half of the race, and after immense pain he would take not better but the 26th place. It is the British who dominated the race, first crossing the finish line Mark Litchfield, followed by Edward Brant and Harry Webb.
The Final was the right racing stuff. It was not until the last two laps when the ranking appeared final. It was again "a British" race; if it had not been "national" liquidation battles in the end of the race, the Final would have been dominated just by the racing drivers from the United Kingdom! At the moment the author of this article was leaving the venue, that is some two hours after the race, a plenty of protests that had been lodged were still being dealt with, for example: Ed Brant, who had won the Final, finished in the 19th place due to the ten-second time penalty.
Therefore the standings here are not official ... What a pity our two drivers had not taken part in those thrilling final battles, Petr Běžel finished in (probably) 13th place in overall, and Jiří Forman racking with pain took (approx.) 23rd place. It was again British drivers who took the first three places, now it was Mark Litchfield before Kyle Fowlie and Connor Jupp. "Those thirteen laps in the Pre-Final, and sixteen in the Final were really beyond my momentary strength. I tried to unweight my hands on straights, but it didn't help. The final five laps in both today's final races, especially, were a real torture for me. It was just a question of how many rivals would be able to catch up with me and overtake me. I wish nobody would endure such suffering I experienced during these races," finished that failed and unlucky racing weekend Jiří Forman.
