PRESS RELEASE No. 33

French Jean-Joseph strengthened his lead in the European Championship by the Zlín´s victory

French couple Simon Jean-Joseph and Jack Boyere with Renault Clio S1600 won in the 34th edition of the Barum Rally Zlín, the sixth rally of the totally nine ones of the European Championship. Sympathetic 35-year old driver from Martinique increased its lead in the European Championship when his biggest rivals Italian Luca Pedersoli and Belgian Bruno Thiry retired. Pedersoli´s petrol pump stopped working in the end of Leg 1, Thiry broke the front left tire suspension.

The Czech crews finished as the first and second runners. Josef Peták and Alena Benešová with Peugeot 306 Maxi finished in the second position losing 2:15,2 minutes to leading Jean-Joseph. Miroslav Jandík and Roman Chrastecký with Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VII came with the bronze. Jandík from Zlín was also the fastest driver in the production car category.

Jean-Joseph was in the Czech Republic for the first time and right on he celebrated the victory in Zlín. “I´m very glad to win here. This rally is very well organized. I would say it has the best organization in Europe.” Peták broke the bad-luck, which went along with him in Zlín in the previous years. “From the previous starts I never came to the finish of the Barum Rally. Finally we broke the bad luck.” Home driver Jandík finished the third. “We were going surely and quite fast. There was nothing to blemish, there was no sense to change the strategy.” Apart from the first Jean-Joseph, all the other positions in the top eight belong to the Czech drivers.

34th edition of the Barum Rally was 693 km long, consisted of 15 SS with nine sections of total length of 284 km. The difficulty of the track can be proven by the fact that from total 115 crews in the start only 52 cars evaluated in the European Championship reached the finish