2013 Season has started just after the New Years Eve when we left together with German crew Armin Holz – Sebastian Giepel to the Austiran Jänner rally with Honda Civic type R. Starting without troubles, they won in their level in group 8. After this success and really hectic last season we wanted to relax during the witner break but the truth was the opposite. Immediately after Jänner rally we started to build new Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX group 3 for our permanent crew Richard Kirnig – Jiří Hovorka therefore the old Mitsubishi was totally damaged during last race after the accident in Austrian Ärbo rally Admont. New preparation of a new car was offered at the beginning of February so new model HONDA Civic type R-FN2 appeared in our workshop. This car is in group 8 as well and it is for the crew of Martin Trojek – Mastacan Jan. From this semi-finished product we have developed competitive car in a very nice design within two months.
At the beginning of April everything was ready for new season so we left with couple of Honda for our first rally called Rally Vrchovina. This race was not successful, because crew Marin Holek – Petr Navrátil had to retire the race due to unserious accident from the third rank. The series of rally sprints in Lužické hory, Podkopná Lhota, Krkonoše and Kostelec, where we participated mostly with two or three cars, was followed. Richard Kirnig and his co-pilot Jiří Hovorka in their Mitsubishi were the best. After the underwhelming beginning of the season, where careful driving style was visible because of serious accident in Austria, rallysprint in Krkonoše has caused that all the problems were forgotten. Great performance of the crew has gained third rank in group 3 so they defended last years success by 8. rank in a total qualification. Similar success was achieved in Kostelec by 9. rank absolutely where they improved their taste after unsuccessful Rally Bohemia in which they crashed. After reparation of the car they could continue in the race within super rally but without points and success.
Second car in these rallysprints was driven by Martin Trojek – Mastacan Jan. As Martin is beginner at super stages, so his only aim was to get the experience and international licence necessary for Czech Republic International Championship. Required number of rallysprints to get „big“ licence was passed so the crew could participate in Barum Rally Zlín. Unfortunatelly after a driving mistake in the end of the rally they had to retire from Barum Rally Zlín from 3. place in group 8.
During the year many drives, mostly foreign, changed at the wheel of Honda Civic type R. Next to above mentioned Armin Holz, also fixed star of our team, doyen of the Czech and Austrian rally Johann Drapela, further Ewald Gartner and very quick austrian crew Klaus Ostermann – Roland Wurm were drivers of the car. From the Czech crew we can name Bronislav Kalus with Jiří Obručník, Martin Sopúch with Laďa Greschner who took part in the rest of rallysprints in the season. The biggest surprise and simultaneously pleasure was comeback of our experienced driver and friend Robert Vodička. After forced financial break this easy-going Pilsnerer, who participated in a lot of seasons with us, has decided to sit at the racing wheel again in Mikulášský rallysprint in Slušovice. In this race he even gained silver rank. We hope that this experience will not be isolated and he will appear in some of races in 2014 season. Hopefully 2014 season will be at least as successful as 2013 season where we did not have any technical failure in our cars. It worth to say that 85 Honda races in a row have passed without technical failures. For this fact we are grateful to our mechanists Petr Pola, Milan Fišer, Honza Kratochvíl led by boss of the mechanists Mira Pilař.