JANBÚ – Czech truck pilot Tomáš Tomeček had to deal with unpleasant problems shortly before the start of the Dakar Rally.
It was only during administrative clearance that he found out that all crew members must have a license from the International Automobile Federation as well as a truck driver’s license, which his twenty-year-old son Metod does not yet have. Tomeček, who will go to the legendary competition as the so-called sharp assistance of the South Racing team, had to look for a replacement at the last minute. The crew was finally completed by the Slovak Tomáš Kazarka.
“We didn’t know about the rule at all, probably because we never had any problems with it. I immediately started calling all over the place to find a replacement.” said Tomeček in a press release.
He was the first to contact his longtime colleague Ardo Munster from the Netherlands, but he could not fly. “It was similar with other candidates. In the South Racing team, there were people with a group C driver’s license, but none of them had an FIA license. Finally, I tried to call Radovan Kazarek in Slovakia. And he recommended his son to me.” said the fifty-five-year-old racer.
Tomáš Kazarka accepted the offer and immediately headed to Vienna on a plane to Jeddah. The sad Metod Tomeček, who had to postpone his Dakar premiere by at least a year, went in the opposite direction.
Thirty-year-old Kazarka started at the Dakar in 2023, when he was seated in the Buggyra Racing team’s Tatra truck driven by Róbert Kasák. The third member of Tomečka’s crew is South African mechanic Grant Ballington. The Dakar Rally started in Saudi Arabia with today’s prologue.
- Author: © List/
- Source: CTK
