The 8 finalists at the Plzen G-7 Worlds with in the middle, next to Vlado Okali, new world champion Yli-Sipola (with red and white car in his hand).	Wing cars ready to start. Pictures courtesy to Zdenek Benes

No, Vladimir Horky didn't succeed to be the first racer in history winning both the Wing Car Worlds and the Scale Racing Worlds. He could only win the Group 27 race. Later he reached without problems the main final of the Group 7 Worlds, but during the fourth segment on lane 5 all things went wrong: he only could realise 115 laps (against 124 for Schöne and 129 for Yli-Sipola). One segment later he had to retire from a third position.
In total 33 racers showed for the main event, among them one American (W.H. Skinner) and two Brazilians (Luis "Gugu" Bernardino and José Mario Serra). The 2001 world champion, Paul "Beuf" Pedersen was not there to defend his title. Absent too were all other American top guns, Paul Ciccarello and Mike Swiss included.  Finland had 10 racers at the start, Sweden 8, Germany 4 (but not Thomas Weckerle, Assi Maisenbacher and Frank Müller), Holland 3, Switzerland 2, Brazil 2, home country Czechia (only) 2 (not Josef Korec, not Zdenek Benes), Slovakia 1 and the United States 1. The two Italians Claudio Balducci and Claudio Battistini entered only the G27 Light race, just as the Austrians Oliver Sonnbichler, Thomas Trantura and Adam Sinderbal, just as France's Pascal Bauvallet, etc.
At the qualifications Antti Immonen, the European record holder, was expected to realise the pole, especially after he improved the track record  in G-27. He put a 1"800 on the clock, just as did Czechia's Josef Hájek (the Cahoza boss). Three racers did better: Vladimir Horky in 1"795, Juha Yli-Sipola in 1"790 and last but not least Mario MSP Schöne in 1"785. Other fast times were realised by Sweden's Michael Landrud (1"807) and Lasse Äberg (1"816) and by Brazil's "Gugu" (1"820).  Three racers could not achieve a clear lap: Tuomo Iso-Aho, Marko Pirinen and Jari Porttinen. The four fastest qualifiers - Schöne, Yli-Sipola, Horky and Immonen (in that order) - were bye for the quarter finals. Of the remaining 29 Germany's Ralph Klose (2"062), back in wing car racing after 10 years of absence, decided not to start. So we had four Quarters with seven racers each. Race procedure was that the two first of each Quarter moved to the Semis, together with the four fastest of the not already qualified other racers.

QUARTERS: SILÉN, GUGU AND SOYRINKI ARE THE WANBOFFERS
Quarter D was rather slow, since the winner, America's W.H. Skinner, came no further than 366 laps, four ahead of Jari Porttinen. Newcomer Kristoffer Johansson (S) caused a stir by finishing third with 361 laps, although it was far from certain that this should be enough to make the move. We lost "Gugu" at mid-race (he had already technical problems in the real first segment) and Holland's greezer, Philip de Vries (already finalist at the ... 1978 G-7 Worlds!) at the seventh segment.  Out too were Brazil's José Mario Serra, Finland's Pekka Sippola and Switzerland's Fritz Kopriva.
Quarter C went much faster with Lasse Äberg in 396 laps and Vlado Okali in 391 laps. But also four other racers did better than 360: Kimmo Rautama (SF) 379, Janne Ekman (S) 366, Veli-Matti Kantaama (SF) 364 and European champion Marko Pirinen 360. Normally Mikael Silén, the winner of this year's RL Nats, should have finished among the top-3, but in the real last segment he lost his third place with technical problems, so that he was out for the rest of the event.
Quarter B saw four racer coming higher than 360 laps with Sweden's Michael Landrud (389 laps) beating his country mate Anders Gustafson (378 laps). Douwe Banning (NL) was nearly sure to make the move, since he achieved 375 laps.  Bad luck for Stefan Törnfeldt, since 362 laps was at least two short to take one of the four remaining free places going art this very moment to Rautama (379), Banning (375), Ekman (366) and Kantaama (364). Also out were Petteri Pirhonen (SF), Tuomo Iso-Aho (still 2nd at the start of the last segment!) and Jan Mantjes (who retired after three segments).
Quarter A was the slowest. Finland's Esa-Pekka Soyrinki seemed on his way to realise an easy win, when two segments before the finish he ran in problems, and dropped from the first to the fifth place. So Josef Hájek (CZ) had an easy win with 364 laps. Germany's Gerd Krösing finished second, so that he could make the move with only 352 laps. Another greezer, Sweden's Per Persson, the famous track builder with the always sorrowfull face, finished third, but with only 343 laps, 21 less to take Kantaama's place (364 laps). Also out were Switerland's Kurt Rölli and Germany's Rolf Baumann.

SEMIS: SKINNER (9th), BANNING (10th) AND VERY UNLUCKY ANDERS GUSTAFSON

Plzen Steve Ogilvie Blue King	Organiser Zdenek Benes (left) with top favourite Vladimir Horky (mid)

JUHA YLI-SIPOLA WINS HIS FIRST WORLDS
Two serious questions at the start: (1) Could Vladimir Horky eventually win his first Wing Car Worlds (especially after he won so easily the G-27 race) and (2) could good old Lasse Äberg win his third Wing Car Worlds and to join Paul Pfeiffer (1980-1982-1984) at the Hall of Fame? After two segments we knew already the answer on the second question: Lasse missed top speed to follow the three leaders. Of them Mario Schöne (270 laps) was already 7 laps clear of Antti Immonen and 14 of Horky. Then followed Okali (at 16 laps), Yli-Sipola (also at 16 laps), Äberg (at 33 laps), Rautama (at 38 laps) and Kantaama (at 40 laps). During the third segment Horky could pass Immonen to take the second place, after having reduced his arears on Schöne from 14 to 10 laps. Third now at 11 laps was Yli-Sipola with Immonen coming 6 laps further. During the fourth segment Horky's car showed all signs of fatigue and it became obvious that for him the battle was over. Positions at mid-race were: 1. Schöne (D) 523 laps, 2. Yli-Sipola (SF) 504 laps, 3. Horky (CZ) 499 laps, 4. Immonen (SF) 499 laps, 5. Äberg (S) 490 laps, 6. Okali (SVK) 485 laps, 7. Rautama (SF) 480 laps, 8. Kantaama (SF) 460 laps. At segment 5 Horky had to retire: big deception among the Czechs. The difference between Schöne and Yli-Sipola remained stable: 19 laps. Immonen was now third at 26 laps, whilst Rautama moved after a splendid run on lane 3 (131 laps) from the seventh to the fourth place, one lap clear of Okali.  Segment 6 was full of drama for MSP Schöne, since he lost more than 30 laps in the pits, and came back in second position, be it only ...one  lap down to Yli-Sipola and one to Okali. Positions with two segments to go were: 1. Yli-Sipola (SF) 753 laps, 2. MSP Schöne (D) 752 laps, 3. Okali (SVK) 743 laps,  4. Rautama (SF)  739 laps, 5. Immonen 739 laps, 6. Äberg 720 laps, 7. Kantaama 694 laps, 8. Horky (retired). During the two remaining segments Immonen and äberg run in problems and drop in the standings. But for Schöne not all problems are solved, since he looses 17 extra laps on Yli-Sipola.  During the last segment he can take 5 laps back, not enough to win his second Wing Car Worlds. So the congenial Juha takes over the rainbow shirt from Paul "Beuf" Pedersen, the man who did not the smallest effort to defend his title. Rather a shame, no?

JPVR