History and Archive

1971 - 1. rally started on May 8th. From the contemporary contest fans’ point of view this race consisted of „funny“ one special stage. At the beginning Rallye used to be run only as a local competition. Later with the growing level of its performance as the Championship of Slovakia. Although some teams from abroad usually participated in the race, the importance of this race never overpassed the borders of Slovakia. 

1982 - The competition became a part of the Czechoslovak Championship series. Well known teams appeared at the starting line - Škoda Mladá Boleslav, Barum, Agroteam Slušovice, Chemopetrol Litvínov, Stavba Praha. They showed their driving skills to the spectators in 20 special stages in Košice surroundings. Excellent drivers like Sedlař, Blahna, Sivik, Trajbold, Pavlík, Sibera, Křeček, Abrahám, Arazim were among regular contestants. Rallye itself gradually was gaining not only its name but the space in media as well. 

1994 - This rally represented a real breakthrough and a quantum leap. After 5 year break organisers succeeded in recovering the Rallye idea and prepared the 20th jubilee race. Recovered and ambitious team of organisers set up a very ambitious goal: to get this Rallye to the group of best races in Europe. It was the cooperation with Hungarian ASN and incorporation of the Rallye VSŽ Košice in the series of Hungarian Championship that contributed to the extension of drivers field and to the growth of the competitions quality. The competing cars introduced themselves to tens of thousands spectators on the routes in Košice vicinity. Also live transmissions of TV from attractive city „circuit“ special stages and permanently growing presence of domestic and foreign TV staffs and journalists contributed very much to the Rallye popularity. Slowly but steadily Rallye VSŽ Košice became an important event in the world of automotive sports. 

1997 - FIA decided to incorporate the Rallye VSŽ Košice in the series of the FIA European Championship with the coefficient of 2. 

1998 - The organisers prepared an extraordinary delicacy for the fans Košice event was counted in the FIA European Championship and Championships of additional three countries - Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. This was something unprecedented! Top drivers could be seen at the starting line, the drivers that are seldom visible at contests with the highest coefficients: Enrico Bertone, European champion together with manyfold champion of Slovakia Michal Koči, champions of the Czech Republic Dolák and Palivec, actual champions of Hungary Tóth - Gergely, present Hungarian #1 crew Kiss - Bukki, Slovak champions Bereš - Kurus and so on. And what about the cars? Just a bit of statistics would do. There were 85 cars at the starting line, 13 of them were of the strongest class A-8, four of them in WRC version. As many as 14 cars competed in the A-7 class including Škoda Octavia kit car, 17 vehicles were in the N-4 class. The Rallye could be savoured directly at the track by as many as 300 thousand viewers at places, or at the screens of the Slovak television. The record number of 98 journalists and 25 TV representatives were accredited. 

1999 - 2004 - Under the new name Rallye Košice already traditionally perfectly organised competition counted for the FIA European Championship, Championship of the Slovak Republic and Cup of the Slovak Republic. 

• View archive of Rally Košice 2005
• View archive of Rally Košice 2006
• View archive of Rally Košice 2007
• View archive of Rally Košice 2008
• View archive of Rally Košice 2009
• View archive of Rally Košice 2010
• View archive of Rally Košice 2011
• View archive of Rally Košice 2012
• View archive of Rally Košice 2013
• View archive of Rally Košice 2014
• View archive of Rally Košice 2015 | View maps 2015
• View archive of Rally Košice 2016 | View maps 2016
• View archive of Rally Košice 2017 | View maps 2017
• View archive of Rally Košice 2018 | View maps 2018
• View archive of Rally Košice 2019 | View maps 2019
• View archive of Rally Košice 2021 | View maps 2021
• View archive of Rally Košice 2022 | View maps 2022
• View archive of Rally Košice 2023 | View maps 2023