|
Back-on-form
Abarth is turning its attention to the next round of the
Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Barum Rally Zlín
in just over a week's time with Anton Alén set to rejoin
Giandomenico Basso in the bid for victory. Alén sat out
the last round of the IRC, the Rali Vinho da Maderia
earlier this month, with a virus and was replaced by
Italian Scandola for the Atlantic island event.
The Abarth
factory duo will be supported in the quest for vital
manufacturer points by two very quick privateer drivers in
the Super2000 category Abarth Grande Punto: two-times winner
of the Barum Rally Renato Travaglia (Italy) and Volkan Isik
(Turkey). Completing a roll call of six Abarth cars on the
rally entry list are two machines entered by local drivers.
The organizers
of the 38th Barum Rally Zlín are expecting a whole array of
star crews and cars battling with the Abarth team for
victory. This year's entry will be of the highest quality
amongst Czech rallies in history. The rally also has the
best entry list of the European Rally Championship and
Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). All in all 125
drivers from 12 European countries have applied for the
rally. 22 Super 2000 cars will take part in the rally and
the new Škoda Fabia S2000 will be introduced as a
forerunner.
Two drivers of the Peugeot Team Benelux with Peugeot 207
S2000 cars of Kronos team from Belgium will come to Zlín.
The first one is the last-year winner of the Barum Rally and
the leading driver in the IRC, Nicolas Vouilloz (France)
while the other is Freddy Loix (Belgium). Luca Rossetti
(Italy), who is top of the standings of the European Rally
Championship, will be also be in action driving a Peugeot
207 S2000. Also the reigning IRC champion Enrique Garcia
Ojeda (Spain) in a Peugeot 207 S2000 will take part in Barum
Rally. There will also be other rapid drivers, including
Bryan Bouffier (France) and Brice Tirabassi (France), both
in Peugeot 207s, Bernd Casier (Belgium) will drive a
Volkswagen Polo S2000 while Cedric Robert (France) will be
at the wheel of a Renault Clio R3.
Many excellent
drivers will come from Italy to join Rossetti, Basso and
Travaglia. These include Luca Betti, Giovanni Manfrinato,
Alessandro Perico, Marco Cavigioli. Hungary will be
represented by János Tóth Jr and Róbert Bútor, Poland will
be represented by Michal Solowow and Grzegorz Grzyb, Slovak
Republic will be represented by Jozef Béreš jr., Peter
Gavlák and Tibor Cserhalmi. Honda will introduce a new car,
the Honda Civic Type R R3, through the Procar team. It will
be driven by Alessandro Bettega from Italy.
The rally fans
can look forward to the Czech elite. Three time winner of
the Barum Rally Zlín, Roman Kresta, will be driving Peugeot
207 S2000 as a member of Tescoma Rally Team. Pavel Valoušek
will be driving a similar car, since he was selected within
the frame of the BF Goodrich Drivers Team project. The aim
of the project is to enable the promising and talented
drivers from the organizing country to join the IRC. The
sitting Czech champion Václav Pech with a Mitsubishi Lancer
EVO IX is also one of the favourites. Among the drivers with
Super 2000 cars will also be Josef Peták, Roman Odložilík,
Tomáš Kostka (all with the Peugeot 207 S2000) and Jaromír
Tarabus (Grande Punto Abarth S2000). The other fast locals
are Jaroslav Orsák, Jan Jelínek, Václav Arazim, Vladimír
Barvík, Jan Votava, Karel Trněný (all in the Mitsubishi
Lancer EVO IX), Jan Štěpánek (Subaru Impreza STi), Antonín
Tlusťák (Citroën C2 S1600) and others. It will be an
interesting fight between Czech drivers with production cars
and drivers with Super 2000 cars. Škoda Motorsport team will
introduce Škoda Fabia S2000 which will be driven by Jan
Kopecký as a forerunner.
|
