After nearly nine months of recovery, František Brutovský will make his return to racing at the Riverside Baja on April 25–26. It is the second round of the Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship.

Brutovský has on the sidelines since August 2024, when a rollover in Stage #3 of the Hungarian Baja resulted in a fractured vertebra. He underwent a four-hour surgery shortly after the accident, during which eight screws were put into his spine. The vertebra shattered again in January, causing cuts to the spine that forced a second operation in late January. During the seven-hour surgery, his organs had to be moved and one of his ribs replaced with a metal implant.

Doctors gave him a clean bill of health in early March, permitting him to resume physical training. Speaking with Terep-Rallye, Brutovský pointed out physicians were surprised at how well the implant had healed.

This past weekend, he got behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 EVO for the first time since the crash for a test session at Hummer Centrum in Prague.

“For months, my motivation was to finally get back in the car,” he said. “This accident was my own fault, I was looking for and causing trouble for myself, so I was very motivated throughout to recover as soon as possible. I tried to stay positive and do everything I could to continuously move forward.

“My attitude towards racing has changed a lot, the importance of safety has increased a lot. I will pay special attention to being properly strapped in, because safety should be a million percent instead of a hundred.”

If Riverside goes well, Brutovský plans to run the rest of the Hungarian Championship as well as making select starts in the FIA World Baja Cup. Starts in the Polish and Greek national series are also on the table.

Of course, he’d also like to finally get to the Dakar Rally. He was supposed to run the 2025 race before his crash.

Featured image credit: Zuzka Furi