Records and woes for Skoda.

Right after the centennial motorsport anniversary celebrations Skoda Motorsport has today proved its world class credentials clinching its biggest success since entering the Skoda Octavia WRC in a World Rally Championship, with Armin Schwarz/Manfred Hiemer finishing 3rd overall in the legendary Safari Rally Kenya.

In what is agreed to be the most gruelling rally event in the world, within the manufacturer nominated entries Skoda, clinched 3rd, thus adding four valuable points to its tally and increasing its point score to 15.

However, the joy over the podium success was overshadowed by an accident involving team mates Bruno Thiry/Stephane Prevot who crashed in the very last competitive section and were forced to retire. The drama prevented Thiry from taking a well deserved 5th place he had been holding until then.

The Safari Rally rolled out well for Skoda with Armin Schwarz/Manfred Hiemer winning the very first competitive section, 117,46km long Oltepesi - Olepolos. This has represented the second special stage triumph for Skoda Octavia WRC since the launch of the WRC project and put Skoda for the first time in the team's history into the lead in a FIA World Rally Championship event. Boosted by this success, Schwarz continued with an excellent performance, finishing no fewer than four other times within the top three in section classification and being more than an equal competitor to the leading WRC entries.

Team mates Bruno Thiry/Stephane Prevot, who had only limited experience in Kenya, also proved themselves more than equal to the tough conditions and, in line with Skoda's pre-rally strategy, were working on bringing the car safely to the finish. Thiry's performance was consistently impressive and he crossed the finish line twice in fifth place. Until the very final moments of the rally it seemed that the Belgian would break the bad luck that has dogged him on previous Safari outings.

Thiry had complained of exhaustion in the service prior to the very last section as he had to drive with power steering failure almost 70 kilometres. After the physiotherapist and medical assistance the Belgian driver continued to fight his up-to date successful african battle but with 30 kilometres before the very end he lost the concentration on the pace notes, the car hit a ditch and left the road.

Both Thiry and Prevot were helicoptered to the Nairobi hospital where it was later discovered that the co-driver had a broken lower vertebrae. Even though Stephane's injury is not serious, according to the FIA medical delegate it could possibly affect his ability to perform on the next event. Except for complete exhaustion Bruno has not suffered any physical injury and will be kept in the hospital through the night just for observations. If there will not be any complications, Thiry should be released by Monday morning. Stephane's unvoluntarily visit to the hospital will most likely be extended to Wednesday.

Thirty eight year old Schwarz said that his team mate's accident was the only thing to mar what had been a tremendous rally. "I have lots of reasons to be delighted," he said. "The car performed very well throughout the whole event which made it possible to drive up to the limit. I would like to devote this victory to my mechanics who did a fantastic job. Also, it's proof that the car has made great improvements on the technical side. The only thing which spoils my feelings is what happened to Bruno. I wish him the best."

Team manager Pavel Janeba, who said the Thiry accident was a blow, but the overall success of Skoda was pleasing: 2We knew it is a tough rally, but we also knew that we were well preprared. The result exceeded my expectations. It's very encouraging to see how competitive the car was. Last year, we were trailing the winner by about 58 seconds , this year the gap was less than 18. That demonstrates what progress we have made in the car's performance."

The 2001 Safari Rally Kenya brought another rally success to four times world champion Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi), followed by Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot). Only 15 cars, out of the 41 original line up ,finished the rally.