Porizek in the lead after the longest day of HOFEKA Cup

The longest day of HOFEKA Cup was full of adventures for almost all competitors. After the second day of the fourth round of the Hungarian Championship and ninth round of the Central European Zone Championship Czech Republic’s Zdenek Porizek is in the lead in cars, Karoly Fazekas in trucks, Akos Jobbagy in SSV and Csaba Pajer in bikes.

Zdenek Porizek

Zdenek Porizek

“Super,” answered Slovakia’s Juraj Ulrich when being asked about the tracks of HOFEKA Cup, in the surroundings of the town of Gyula in the southeastern part of Hungary, and the other competitors agreed, although most of them had smaller or bigger “adventures” during the longest day of the rally.

After the first two specials in the morning, the crew Zdenek Porizek – Pavel Vaculik took the lead from Friday’s winner Ulrich, while local driver Zoltan Kaposi didn’t seem to enjoy the advantage of the home track. At km 5 of the first special a stabiliser broke, forcing the Hungarian crew to return to the service park.

In SSV, Friday’s winner Gyorgy Kovacs had technical problem, so the crew of Szilveszter Kery and Barbara Bartha took the lead, although they almost lost the steering wheel in the first special and later received a one minute penalty for being late from the start of the next special due to repairing. Akos Jobbagy finished second after having a hot moment on track: thrown by a hole, the Can-Am had quite a flight but landed without problem.

In trucks, former Africa Eco Race winner Miklos Kovacs won the first special but his Scania suffered minor steering problem in the second so they had to stop for reparation, so Karoly Fazekas took the lead in front of Viktor Merkovics and Miklos Kovacs.

In bikes, Richard Hodola, leader after Friday had to withdraw because of mechanical problems. After the first two specials of Saturday, Lajos “Laller” Horvath took the lead with a 32 second gap in front of Viktor Majer, while Csaba Pajer finished third.

In the afternoon, the competitors raced the same tracks as in the morning. Zdenek Porizek was again the fastest in both specials. Juraj Ulrich had two punctures in the first track, and since he had only one spare, he wasn’t able to start in the second one, but even with the penalty received, after Saturday he occupied the second position behind Porizek and in front of Zoltan Kaposi.

Zoltan Kaposi

In trucks, afternoon was about the battle of the Scanias. Miklos Kovacs fought back winning both specials but that was still not enough to catch race leader Fazekas. Viktor Merkovics finished the day in third place.

In the battle of the SSVs, there was again a change in the lead, this time Akos Jobbagy taking the first position after the technical problems of Szilveszter Kery and Gyorgy Kovacs.

In bikes, Csaba Pajer won both specials in the afternoon in front of team mate Lajos “Laller” Horvath, but for the third position there was a fierce battle between Viktor Majer and Gabor Klima. At the end of the longest day of the rally the order was Pajer, Horvath, Majer, Klima. The only Challenge crew and the only female crew, Alexandra Miklos and Alexandra Miklos (no, this is not a mistake!) brought home the former Dakar Hyundai Terracan without major problems (but with some hot moments meeting the local fauna).