“I call her Duckarka and I already know that this Duck will definitely be able to do it, and maybe I will too,” Bára Holická, a rally driver, describes her car with a laugh. The beige Citroën 2CV, nicknamed the Duck due to its swaying in corners, will be transformed into a wildly colored special with which it wants to go to the Dakar Classic race for the first time.
Bára Holická describes herself as a normal girl who got into car racing very late, at the age of 26, but she sacrifices everything for it. “All the money I earn goes to the races. I don’t go on vacation, I race on the weekends, train, mess around in the car. It’s everything to me,” says the smiling thirty-five-year-old.
She started forty-six times at the Czech Rally Championship and won six times in her class. She won the Women’s Cup twelve times and also won Eliška Junková’s award in the Golden Steering Wheel poll.
Now he is preparing for the Dakar Classic race for the first time ever. “I am close to the veterans, for eight years I have been helping to organize the Prague Revival veterans’ races. Last year I met Ollie Roučková, who already drives the Suzuki Samurai in the Dakar Classic. She got me excited about the race, saying that it can be done, this year I she went to see her. And once you’ve been there, you want to experience it yourself,” she describes.
In February, she bought a well-preserved Citroën 2CV, nicknamed the Duck for its typical wobbly driving style in corners. “It was clear that I wanted to drive a Citroën at the Dakar. I’ve only raced them all my life, I have a DS3, before that I drove a Sax. I’ve always liked the timeless design of Citroëns. People often say they’re a bit weird with the new models, but then it often turned out that it was necessary to experience it, that the design was a step ahead of the others,” he describes his enthusiasm for the French brand.
“And the Duck is ideal. There is no better way to race in a historic Citroën. In addition, it will attract attention. It is also technologically great. If it could drive with farmers through fields with eggs and sacks of potatoes at sixty, it can also handle the Dakar,” the racer laughs.
So far, her beige Citroën 2CV, which she now uses for regular driving, is quite ordinary. But soon a radical transformation awaits him. It will get a safety frame, its engine will be strengthened, its chassis will be improved to make it more durable. And its roof will be replaced with a metal one, on which one spare tire will be placed. Another one will probably stick to the hood. Historic Citroën specialist Tomáš Neruda helps Báře with all his modifications.
Then it gets a special design, which is in charge of the artist Josef Rataj. And promises great “wilderness”. “It will look like my paintings, it will have hearts on it and, of course, ducks everywhere. And probably the number 903, which Emil Zátopek had during his endurance race. For me, it is a symbol that if you want something, it will come true ,” describes Rataj. “And we won’t just stay with the car, I’ll also spray Bara’s overalls, helmet and hever, in short, everything. If she doesn’t do well in the race, at least let her look great in the race,” laughs the artist.
The Citroën 2CV will appear at the Legends car show, then it will go to the workshop, in the fall Bára should go to the Berounka Revival Rally in it. In November, the car will need to be loaded in the port of Marseille in the direction of Saudi Arabia.
“The only thing I’m afraid of is that we get enough funding. According to the budget, a total of 1.6 million will be needed, of which 600,000 is the car and the modifications on it. That’s why it’s still open who I’ll have as a passenger, or if I will manage to get enough sponsors so that I can take Tomáš Neruda with me as a mechanic,” says Holická.
That’s why she wants to reach out to the fans through the Donio donation platform, and this year she won’t start any rallies in order to, as she says, save every penny. “I’m a normal person with a normal salary. But I’m already 100 percent sure that this car can handle the Dakar, and maybe I will too.”
