Central Europe: Tomáš Enge: “I dream of being able to compete in a WRC rally”

Now aged 47, the Czech driver continues to race. The one who notably evolved under the Prost colors in F1 is competing in a rally program in his country. At the CER, it was with undisguised pleasure that he played the role of ushering car.

Published on 28/10/2023 à 17:47

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Central Europe: Tomáš Enge: “I dream of being able to compete in a WRC rally”

After testing all the disciplines Tomáš Enge wants to try to participate in the WRC next year (Photo: Loïc Rocci)

Are you a regular at the specials?

I'm not a rookie (laughing). I started doing rally in 2003 at national level in the Czech Republic. Since then, I have never completely stopped. I have already driven WRC (Skoda Octavia and Fabia, Ford Focus, Editor's note), but also cars in the historic category (Ford Escort, Editor's note). This year, I am registered on a Toyota Yaris in the Czech championship. That must be almost 50 races in total.

Did you find that there was a big difference between the stages of the three countries?

There indeed were. Czechs are very fast, narrow, bumpy and super twisty. In Germany and Austria it is much straighter with crests and intersections on good quality tarmac. What is similar to all three stages is the strings. In my country, the organizers are obliged to prevent drivers from cutting so as not to destroy the roads and risk no longer having authorization to use them in subsequent years.

What was the atmosphere like at the edge of the stages?

Amazing ! It perhaps tended to be a bit too much at times even especially when there are drunk spectators standing too close to the road in areas between the trees. We had this problem on Friday and it happened again today, but the stewards managed to resolve the problem.

Would you like to take on this rally next year?

Absolutely. I dream of competing in a round of the world championship. I have already participated in the Dakar, 24 Hours of Le Mans, to GPs of F1 and the Indy 500. If I manage to be at the start in 2024, I will have tried almost everything. For a Czech, what joy it would be to be aligned in this event which is partly run in my country.