The Racing21 competition team was founded in 2015 by mathematician Karel Janeček and rallye driver Vojtěch Štajf.
- Vojtech Stajf’s last planned start with Opel Kadett C GT/E at the 26th TipCars Prague´s Rallysprint in the spring
- Another FIA European Historic Rally Championship with the iconic Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165
- Participation in the Czech Rallysprint series of Cup 2+ with VW Polo GTI R5
- Veronika Havelková to join the team’s current navigator, František Rajnoha
- The experienced Vladimír Zelinka as the team’s back-up navigator
The Racing21 Team enters the new 2022 racing season by participating in the upcoming 26th TipCars Prague´s Rallysprint. It will be characterised especially by the defence of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship title, attractive racing specials and the planned comeback of an experienced navigator.
Saying good-bye to the Kadett in Prague
Driver Vojtech Stajf’s first start this year will be at the 26th TipCars Pražský Rally Sprint, taking place untraditionally in the spring. On Saturday, 26 March, the Racing21 Team will again have an opportunity to show the public the “gold” Opel Kadett C GT/E, which helped Stajf – Zelinka, thanks to its high reliability, to get last year’s title at the European Historic Rally Championship. However, there will be an interesting change on the navigator’s post: “I was delighted to offer the role of navigator for this race to my friend and team-partner, Karel Janecek. In Prague, Karel will have sat in a car with me for the fourth time and I believe that we will both enjoy this unusual spring race in the Kadett a lot. In fact, it will be a symbolic way for me to say thank you to my fans for their support during last year’s excellent season,” says the Racing21 team’s driver and manager, Vojtech Stajf.
On European race tracks with a Japanese legend
After last year’s season, when the team actually fulfilled its ambitions for this year by winning the European championship, the Racing 21 management decided to continue taking part in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship, transferring from Category 2 (vehicles homologated by 1975) to Category 4 (vehicles homologated by 1990). This change practically confirms the ambition of the ACCR Racing21 Team to win the European Championship in the highest category as well, with the support of the Czech Autoklub. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, new equipment is being prepared in the Racing21 workshops: the iconic racing car, Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165. It was with this car that the Spanish matador, Carlos Sainz won the 1990 World Rally Championship. This legendary model, Celica, with a supercharged four-cylinder, 2.0 litre, 269HP engine, was also the Japanese brand’s first four-wheel-drive racing car.
“Historic rally championships have been gaining in popularity. And if we want to strive for becoming overall winners of the individual European rallies, we must use the historically best racing vehicle permitted by the FIA rules. That’s why we chose the 1990 Toyota Celica ST165, whose racing genes, thanks to most of its original homologated parts, come from Toyota Team Europe the factory in Cologne. However, the complete renovation of our vehicle, which we bought in Holland from the famous driver, Erik Wevers, is not easy at all,” says Vojtěch Štajf, adding: “We are having to find many details from the documents of that time, and looking for some parts is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s a great challenge! Fortunately, there are a lot of people who can help us because they know a lot about racing Toyota cars. For example, Josef Juračka, who once worked on the car at the Toyota Motorsports department. We have also been provided with great support and assistance from the current head of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT Team, Jari-Matti Latvala. He and his father use the same car at selected races in the Finnish National Rally Championship.” Vojtech Stajf is taking part in six races of the FIA EHRC and his navigator will be the experienced Frantisek Rajnoha, who took part in the Cup 2+ within the Rallysprint series with him last year. Together, they should introduce the Toyota Celica GT-Four for the first time at the second race of the European Championship, at the 30th annual Historic Vltava Rally in the Czech Republic.
Double comeback on the Czech scene
In its demanding international racing programme, the Racing21 Team will be taking part, like last year, in six races of the Czech Cup 2+ within one-day rallysprints. And in this context, driver Vojtech Stajf will enjoy two interesting comebacks. After her maternity leave, Veronika Havelkova is returning to the post of navigator from Rally Plzen. She was Stajf’s team-mate, for example, during the overall victory at the Qatar rally within the 2018 Middle East Rally Championship. This year, they will be competing together at the Cup 2+ in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, which they both know very well from the previous years. “Racing with the R5 keeps me in good shape, which is the reason of my staying in the one-day races. Veronika and I want to become the overall winners at the Cup 2+, which, unfortunately, I didn’t manage last year. I believe that our returning to the top-class Polo GTI R5 gives us the chance to succeed this year. The Racing21 Team has ambitious goals for the 2022 season and I really enjoy great challenges. That’s one of the reasons I’m looking forward to it a lot,” says driver Vojtech Stajf, explaining his motivation for this year.
The role of back-up navigator remains the responsibility of the experienced car racing matador, Vladimír Zelinka, who largely contributed to last year’s success at the FIA EHRC series. Moreover, in 2022 the Racing21 Team will also be using the Ford Fiesta XR2 Mk1 at the Czech Historic Rally Championship, which is also a very attractive racing car of the previous years’ rallies.
For more information on the team, see
www.facebook.com/racing21rallyteam
Racing21_rallyteam
www.racing21.cz
Communication:
Tomas Vanek
PR Manager, RACING21
E-mail: tomas.vanek@vizus.com
Mobile: +420 734 313 315
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