Second Place on the MT-Rally in Poland Going to Svoboda Team
The Polish MT-Rally 2014 finished last weekend in the Military Polygon Konotop in the Drawsko Pomorskie region close to a Polish seaport, Szczecin. Over a hundred drivers took part in the rally divided into categories (more information on www.mtrally.pl). The Czech Republic was represented in the TRUCK category by as many as three trucks Tatra, as the Jansa Tatra Team's Tatra, and the Svoboda Tatra Team's Tatra Jamal and Tatra 815 4x4 "Dakar" appeared in the rally. The Svoboda Tatra Team nearly gained a win, but due to a defect in Stage 3 they would finally finish in the second place. Jansa's Tatra took overall fourth place.
The MT-Rally race in Konotop began on Wednesday, 9th April 2014, with an afternoon's prologue, and went on with a hard night stage, in which both Svoboda Tatra Team's Tatras would take first two places. The Svoboda Tatra Team's successful entry on Wednesday went on also in Stage 2 (10 / 4 / 2014), which had length of approx. 200km, likewise Stage 1, as the team's crew František Svoboda, Luka Seidl and Martin Kalous would take first place having Václav Svoboda, Zdeněk Novák and Milan Drázda at the heels, so finishing in second position.
However, the successful Svoboda Tatra Team's race took decisive turn in Stage 3 on Friday... The cold and rainy weather in northern Poland cleared up in the morning on Friday, nevertheless the shining sun, unfortunately, would not bring the team good luck ... Both Tatras got off to a good start, but while fighting their ways through harsh terrain Václav's Tatra suffered from a defect in the right rear tyre. Both vehicles had to be put to a halt to change the tyre, which would cause over one-hour delay. More cruel luck struck in the second half of Stage 3 when František Svoboda's Tatra experienced serious transmission failure, and the crew had to pull out of the competition. It was only Václav Svoboda's truck that finished Stage 3 despite a considerable delay at the beginning of the stage and would finally finish in seventh place.
What was awaiting the drivers was the Friday's night stage and the final Saturday's Stage 5. Václav Svoboda and his crew managed to fight out second position in both of the final stages, and to win excellent second place in overall standings, just behind a Mercedes of Leon de Wit from the Netherlands.
"As usual, the crews on the MT-Rally are even. You can see seasoned drivers who have been driving in such competitions for years, they have experience in both navigation and driving, so we equal, as to the professional level. But just one defect in a tyre - what happened to us - and a sudden one-hour loss, difficult to catch up with. The Polish MT-Rally is a competition that allows us to test the technical equipment after a winter break, so we feel satisfied with the second place. Surely we are able to make it to the top in rallies alike with both cars,"Václav Svoboda feeling content said in the finish.
