Rally drivers are known for their precision driving, knifing across deeply rutted roads with inch-perfection and skirting disaster around every bend of a given stage. We’ve seen similarly incredibly performance from, say, forklift drivers who can open beer bottles, but we can’t say we’ve ever seen anything quite like Jan Kopecky’s performance on an early Super Special Stage during the FIA European Rally Championship’s Barum Rally in the Czech Republic. In front of his home crowd, the Czech driver slid through an open gate in the stage, just nicking the bit of wood propping the gate open. The prop kicks out nicely and as Kopecky’s Skoda Fabia R5 disappears into the distance, the gate just closes nice and easy behind him.
We’ve heard of rally drivers who are first on the road dropping a couple of tires purposely to scatter gravel or mud at the apex of corners on a stage, but closing a gate with one’s car to create an obstacle for opponents is a new one. Kopecky went on to win the rally by more than 2-½ minutes over countryman Tomas Kostka with Jan Cerny and Pavel Valousek making it Czechs and Skodas in first through fourth places.
These guys are good! Probably did it on purpose to slow the others down.