Season
Jan Kopecký was betrayed by a faulty brakes valve on the left rear wheel
Friday’s leg of the Rally de Portugal from the viewpoint of the Czech Rally Team Kopecký can be called jinxed. Right at the initial super special stage of Friday’s leg in one right handed turn a boulder was left on the track following the passing of the previous pilot, which was not visible when entering the turn. Jan Kopecký attempted to react to the situation, but unfortunately hit the stone with his left rear wheel. However, the contact with the stone was not the cause of the great time loss and the ensuing retirement from this super special stage of Friday’s leg. Jan Kopecký and Filip Schovánek were betrayed by a break valve on the left rear wheel, which due to faulty material had a blind flange come off the technological opening and all the break fluid leaked out from the break system. The two special stages that remained before the service zone were impossible to complete with a zero braking effect.
“Unfortunately at the start of the Friday’s leg we were surprised by a technical malfunction, which forced our crew to retire from today’s leg. Jan, during today’s initial super special stage, had to significantly hold back, because the brake system was completely non-functional. Jan and Filip attempted to fix the defect during the transfer to the next special stage. Even through the negative outcome of this effort, Jan wanted to finish the next two special stages without the functional brakes to get the car to the service zone. During the third special stage he has correctly decided not to risk driving a car without brakes and retired from Friday’s leg.
During the second special stage in the right handed turn, Jan was already unable to avoid the large boulder that was on the track, and which was not visible when entering the turn. He damaged the left rear wheel when hitting this stone and obviously at first, the nonfunctional braking system was accredited to this impact. However, once in the service zone, the true cause was quickly discovered. Due to faulty material on the left rear wheel’s brake valve, a blind flange came off from the technological opening and all the brake fluid quickly poured out from the system. The brake valve was inspected by the manufacturer’s representatives and they stated that the break down was clearly caused by the faulty material. It is clear that Jan and Filip were unable to fix such a defect on the transfer with just their own on the spot efforts. After re-inspecting the car we have discovered that not even the wheel alignment was effected by the impact with the stone.
We prepared the Škoda Fabia WRC car in the service zone for the start of Saturday’s leg, which the Crew of Czech Rally Team Kopecký will not be absent from tomorrow,” said the manager of the team Josef Kopecký following Friday’s leg.
Saturday’s leg has six special stages in store for the crews with a total distance of 153 kilometers and start of the initial super special stage is at 10:48 AM of daylight savings time.
