Mátyás Keszler: the oldest driver with the oldest car!  

Turning 70, Mátyás Keszler is the oldest driver in the race. Add to that the fact that he also compete with the oldest car in the field (not counting the Historic category) (the Audi S2 is in its 31st season – or rather, has been for that long), it is even more commendable that he has two category wins to his name in this year’s points chase.

Even leaving aside the numbers and the sweetening, the Pécsvárad driver’s opening sentence is enviable: It was 45 years ago that I first got into a racing car, as a youngster in the now legendary Pécs Volán team, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary. To spare the readers, I won’t go through my long career in headlines either, but I will just say that the old core of the Volán team has become a real group of friends over the decades. Many of us have sadly passed on, but we still meet up with the survivors every week to reminisce – he says, looking back a little.

– This year I’m going in the ORC with István Pál. Perhaps not badly, as we took the category winner’s trophy in the P14 Youngtimer 4WD category in Salgo and in the Danube Bend. Well, the cars did fall out in front of us, but at my age, wouldn’t someone know that in rallying, you don’t score points for speed, but for finishing? We skipped the Boldogkő Rallye and went to the Croatia Rallye to learn to be able to create something new at the Mecsek – he says, turning back to today with a joke.

– As I said, the car is not a modern car, so we have to nail it down. I do most of this myself, but Róbert Mérai helps a lot; while Huba Mang, as the head of the department, helps me and the entire FIASKO SE prepare the almost 40 drivers. Unfortunately we didn’t finish the Mecsek last year, the story is that after our spectacular roll-over on the rainy road near the shooting range in Pécsvárad at night, they named that bend after me… This year it will be the longest fast one, but I want to do it properly on the way back. It’s not going to be easy, like none of this year’s courses, especially the Friday night ones. We don’t really have a good light, my eyes are not the same; but our spirit and determination are undiminished, so we want to finish! And maybe score some points this year, which we could have done last year, but we were not worthy of being scored because of the small number of cars, we only got a special prize – concludes the 55th Mecsek Rallye’s senior driver.