The ultimate test of a rally driver? Whether you can put in a scratch time on a cold rainy night in Pindula...
Photography by @World / Red Bull
Words by Luke Barry
The last thing you expect any rally driver to be is scared. But laughing it off as he was, Andreas Mikkelsen’s words still told an intriguing truth.
“Bumpy Tarmac, super risky between the trees, one small mistake and a huge crash – mentally that’s a tough rally,” he said.
“And a rally I’m kind of glad I’m finished with! Greece and Turkey I love to drive because you have to find the balance of pushing and managing the tires and the load the tire is taking.
“But for the mental game, I would say Barum with rainy weather, in the night, Pindula… that’s like… I get shivers when I talk about it. I don’t wanna drive that! No thank you,” he laughed.
Interviewing Andreas for an episode of the Stage Mode podcast, little did he know his hell would become my reality in just a couple of days.
Granted the sun was yet to set, and the rain had stayed away, but we put the car into ‘drive’ (a lot less cool than banging the sequential shifter into first) and headed into Pindula.
Thanks to an invitation from the European Rally Championship, it was time to experience what Barum Rally Zlìn is all about.
One thing's for sure: Barum Czech Rally Zlín is a well-supported event when it comes to spectators
Andreas’ preview is only really half the story. Barum, one of the jewels in the ERC calendar, has built its reputation on fearsome stages but equally fervent fans. Throw those two together, and you’re left with one hell of a rally to win.
That’s no easy feat unless you were born into the Kopecký clan in 1982 and your parents named you Jan. Save for a Dominik Stříteský masterclass in 2024, Kopecký had conquered his nation’s biggest event on nine of the last 10 appearances in the ERC.
Weird, then, that he should have arrived this year doubting whether he could still cut it. He needn’t have, as the Škoda star produced the kind of performance that we’d all laud Sébastien Ogier for had this been the WRC. Cunning, controlled, class.
But even a driver who’s tamed Barum 20 times and won 12 of those attempts knows what a beast it can be.
Asked to explain Barum Rally Zlìn, Kopecký’s response?
“Phwoar,” he exclaimed.
“Like this is enough, I think…”
Kopecký holding a winner's trophy aloft in Zlín's Peace Square has become a routine occurrence. But even he's a bit intimidated by the rally roads...
So back to the start-line of Pindula – a stage ERC stage-end reporter Peter MacKay was desperate for me to see – and almost immediately you come to realize just what a challenge the Barum Rally is.
Fast and flowing is traditionally associated with Nordic gravel but not unheard of in Tarmac rallying circles, and that’s how the stage begins with ERC encyclopedia MacKay already telling me we’re passing the point where Mathieu Franceschi’s title dreams unravelled 12 months earlier.
But seconds later, we’re afforded respite from the sweltering sun as we’re suddenly into the forest this stage is named after. In an organizer-provided Mercedes S-Class, we were travelling in luxury – but even in this, the bumps in the road were insane!
Neither of us could believe it, and Peter was in for an even bigger shock. “There’s not a chicane yet?” he quizzed me, glancing down at the road book in my hands as if to pray it was going to drop the speed down.
“Nope.”
Minds suitably blown, the light immediately beamed again as we were out of the forest, into a quick succession of 90s and onto the main road where we did find our first chicane. Through, and we’re back up to speed before braking hard and into a tight hairpin right – and this is where the stage gets really crazy.
Broken tarmac, lots of dust and detritus on the road surface produces plenty of peril for the drivers
I’ve experience of driving a rally slowly, but if I attempted these lanes I’d make my previous efforts mirror prime Gilles Panizzi. Mikkelsen was right – this is scary. Watching the top drivers keep it absolutely pinned and near the top of fifth in some of these sections on the rally for real only deepened my appreciation of those capable enough of competing in this sport.
If recceing Pindula had provided a taster, jumping into the car for the shakedown stage with Chris Ingram was the full-on meal. Very different in nature, I perhaps took away more about the quality of Rally2 cars and drivers than I did Barum itself – how do they corner so true and just deal with such massive compressions in cuts?
But again the challenge of the roads stood out: surface changes, lurking trees and pollution all add to make this the polar opposite of a snooze fest. The only thing missing this year was the inclement weather.
The spectators weren’t missing though. They never are here. Welcome to the second key pillar of Barum Rally Zlìn.
It’s 10pm on a Friday night. Depending on your age and lifestyle you’re either asleep, thinking about going to sleep or getting ready to hit the town. Kopecký and his mates were, but there’s no need to hit the nightclub. They had the closed streets of Zlìn to dance on instead.
It was a late one (which I can’t imagine thrilled the crews with a 7.30am parc fermé exit the next morning) but totally worth it for the show it provided. Three laps of the route kept cars coming and the firework show come the end was like a rock concert, not a rally.
Turning a stage around a bus station into a genuine spectacle demonstrates how electric an atmosphere Zlín delivers
There’s a saying in a city near where I live that ‘people make Glasgow.’ Maybe they do, but people really make Barum Rally Zlín. Even beyond the hoards of crowds in service and out there on the stages, the fact some passionate developers have accurately modelled so many of the stages onto Richard Burns Rally just says it all.
What was it Henry Hope-Frost once said? There aren’t many rallies that can boast this much fever – a thought glued to my mind as I walked past a group of Škoda Favorits and Felicias tucked up for the night.
They just get rallying in Czechia, and that spirit shows even in a rally designed around the constraints of an FIA ERC round. For the drivers, its fearsome reputation makes Barum both the ultimate test and the cruellest mistress. While that can make it unenjoyable for some, the unavoidable fact is it’ll get under your skin.
I can only talk from one year of experience, but you get some rallies that generally deliver and others that never seem to miss. Factually adding at this point that the price of a beer was $2.10 [£1.60], and I shouldn’t need to spell it out to you which camp I believe Barum is in.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Andreas Mikkelsen, Barum Czech Rally Zlin, Barum Czech Rally Zlin 2025, ERC 2025, Jan Kopecky
Publish Date August 19, 2025 DirtFish
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