Czech Driver Jiří Forman Having Dominion Over Central European East Zone
The final round of the CEE - Central European East Zone Rotax Max Challenge 2013 witnessed the Czech driver Jiří Forman's dominance. However, his championship in the entire series, unambiguous at first sight, was not that easy! As early as in the previous battle there had been evident effort to make the Czech pilot's journey to win his championship more difficult. Then he was penalised for something nobody could understand. Despite the penalising Jiří Forman managed to win the next session to increase his lead in the total standings. "We were pretty sure that the race should be done on the track not at the organisers' desk. Therefore we got shocked when the organisers were going to decide instead of a driver again, and were not able to rise above the fact that it was not their favourite but somebody else who was winning," commented on this battle the ČESKOSLOVENSKÝ MOTORSPORT (Czechoslovak Motorsport) team's boss Stanislav Matějovský.
Jiří Forman started Race 1 from the third position, but could not start the engine in the pit space, so he was closing on the pack in a pace lap. He managed to get back to his position just at the red line, however the organisers immediately "doled him out" ten-second penalising instead of another pace lap - as usual world-wide in all races alike; that means they virtually eliminated him from all battles for the championship. "First, I couldn't believe that it was me who had been penalised, not someone else. Then I told myself I'd fight for the best position and I'd see in the finish," did not hide his surprise Jiří Forman. Although he had come second in that race, he was pushed back somewhere deep in the pack of competitors owing to that penalising.
In theory, there was only one competitor who was able to draw ahead of Jiří Forman in the total standings providing he would have come third in that race at his worst, however he finished fifth, and after our pilot's penalising he took fourth place. That means: Jiří Forman won the TITLE before the final race!!!
"After consideration, the team finally decided not to enter the final race as we could not feel sure whether our driver would not be dished out another fabricated punishment on purpose. We are feeling extremely proud we succeeded in all battles on the track, and made win despite all those problems behind the scenes. We're looking forward to Jiří Forman's performance in the Rotax Grand Finals in New Orleans, the USA, he qualified for by the total win," explained the ERT Erik Magyaricz team's boss.
The Czech pilot Jiří Forman took first place three times in four racing rounds, that means eight races in total, once he finished second, and third place went to him twice, that means the clear championship in the CEE Rotay Max Eurochallenge series, and the qualifying for the Rotax Grand Finals. What it also means is that the Czech Republic will have two representatives in this prestigious top racing event, namely in the Rotax Seniors category, first in the country's ten-year karting history! Besides Jiří Forman also Petr Běžel advanced from the Czech championship.
