Dream Team Came Up In A Long And Tough Fight

During the three-day PROHUN 500 race the drivers had to complete a 525,6 km speed section. The service park of the event was set up in one of the streets in the center of Gyula, while the parc-ferme of the race was right next to the service area, where the vehicles were stationing between two speed sections and at night. The 5-6 km super special was held in the sand mine near Gyula, the selective stages crossed seven nearby villages (Doboz, Kötegyán, Méhkerék, Sarkad, Sarkadkeresztúr, Tarhos, Újszalonta). On Saturday, the second day of the race the competitors drove two shorter (38 km) and two longer (82 km) selective sections in the area around Gyula.

The service park in the town is very busy in the morning – the other parts of Gyula are quiet, for the most of the fans are waiting for the rally cars at the visitors’ points. But there are still some people who prefer to see their most favourite car or racer in the service park: there are a few who take photos of themselves with László Palik and there are people who walk by with their children and examine the rally cars. Around 11 o’clock the Cheetah rolls in, but the mood is not the best: the members of the Honvéd Dream Team fell into a ditch in the fourth heat, thus they have moved to the 14th place.

Miklós Benyó, the sports director of the team is hopeful when he says: “We started the preparations in February, the Hungarian championship started in April, so it was a forced march, they had two months. But I think we have selected two good racers, Barnabás Honfi and Zoltán Bálint, so in the first three races we were in good positions, nevertheless, the driving technique training of the guys is continuous. Unfortunately, now they slid into a very deep ditch and even though we have solved the problem, they have moved to quite an end position. Nevertheless, the race has just begun, we will try to catch up, but it’s true that we have lost a lot of time. I hope we’ll manage to get among the first ten."

It is almost noon so we leave for Méhkerék, next to the road there are more spectators, families, and of course the sports judges waiting for the start due at 13.45. The sweltering heat does not discourage the young fans, the families and sports fanatics, there are some forty or fifty people standing at the start. The cars arrive soon, and László Palik’s team starts first, then all the other cars depart one by one. At the start Imre Kristóf, the member of the Spider Rescue Team of Miskolc assures me that fortunately, they have had no serious cases, they quickly pulled out Honvéd Dream Team’s car from the ditch and now there won’t be any problem. After a short drive we arrive at Doboz, where couples playing cards, children playing on bales of straw, and young girls equipped with cameras are looking for a safe place further away from the road. As far as we can see the children are the most excited about the big dust raised by the cars. The Cheetah passes by the cordon with a great speed, then this section ends as well, and they are heading for the next station. The cars finish the section in Sarkad at around 4 in the afternoon, and the teams go to the service park again.

Saturday was long and tough, but the last day of the race was still to come, and it was not in vain: the Zoltán Bálint–Barnabás Honfi pair have jumped from the 15th to the 9th place in the first two selective stages on Sunday. The Balázs Szalay–László Bunkocki pair won the race, Erik Korda came in second, while László Palik came in third.

The next heat of the championship, the Hungarian Baja will take place on 20-22 August in Veszprém.