- Rally Norway, 18.2.2007

  Jan Kopecký and Filip Schovánek rounded off their three-week tour of Scandinavia with a fantastic result, with the Czech Rally Team Kopecký taking away a championship point from Norway after an excellent eighth place in the Rally Norway.
  Although Jan Kopecký and Filip Schovánek were twenty-seventh after the third stage, their concentrated, flawless performance in the next fifteen stages moved them up to a final eighth place, guaranteeing them a championship point.
  
   ‘Ending the three-week tour of Scandinavia with a championship point is absolutely amazing for us. In terms of their difficult stages, the Swedish and Norwegian rallies were not just challenging for the crew, but were also complicated because of the weather and the vehicle preparations. The engineers and mechanics of the Czech Rally Team Kopecký were excellent, as the Škoda Fabia WRC was fault-free throughout the two rallies. The vehicle preparations, especially considering the severe frost, were extremely difficult and they all deserve our admiration and thanks.
  
  Jan entered the final leg with the clear tactic of driving the car to the finish without any complications. Jan and Filip ended Saturday’s leg in tenth position, and they seemed to be too far behind the others to fight for a higher place. On the other hand, Jan had a relatively safe lead. The plummeting overnight temperatures froze the furrowed routes and there was a change in the conditions that had prevailed during the previous legs. Although it was not easy to drive the car in these conditions, Jan coped with all the stages on Sunday flawlessly and thanks to the problems of some of our rivals he was able to move into eighth place, earning him a championship point, at the end of the Rally Norway,’ said Josef Kopecký, the team manager, at the of the Rally Norway.
  
   ‘Of course I’m very happy we finished the Rally Norway, and winning a championship point is a fantastic achievement for the whole team. I would like to thank all our partners and especially Škoda Auto a.s. for enabling me to start these two challenging winter events.
  
  This year’s Rally Norway was exceptional, not only because it featured in the World Rally Championship for the first time, but also because of the challenging weather with the huge amounts of snow and the absolutely minimum number of service breaks. If you didn’t select the right vehicle settings in the service zone, then there was nothing for it but to stick with those settings for several stages. The Rally Norway was exceptionally difficult because of the length of some of the stages too,’ added Jan Kopecký.