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While Abarth
missed out on the Intercontinental and Italian Championship titles this year,
Italian honour has been capably upheld by Josef Béreš who has claimed the 2008 Slovakian
Rally Championship crown at the wheel of a JM Engineering-run Grande Punto
Abarth S2000.
The 24 year-old Slovakian driver kicked
off his national title challenge this year with plenty of
top-level rally experience under his belt, including 20
World Rally Championship starts since 2003, having recorded
a string of solid results including 9th overall on the
Rallye Monte Carlo in 2004 at the wheel of a Hyundai Accent
WRC.
Two years ago Béreš contested the Junior
World Rally Championship, collecting 22 points from 6 rounds
at the wheel of the Suzuki Ignis S1600, and turning in a
series of very consistent performances: Swedish Rally (6th),
Rally RACC Catalunya (4th), Tour de Corse (5th), Neste Oil
Rally Finland (5th), Rally of Turkey (3rd) and Wales Rally
GB (10th). Last year in the Junior series, driving a
Renault Clio S1600, he took part in six events and picked up
22 points: Vodafone Rally of Portugal (3rd), Rally d'Italia
Sardegna (6th), Neste Oil Rally Finland (retired), ADAC
Rallye Deutschland (6th), Rally RACC Catalunya (4th) and
Tour de Corse (2nd).
For 2008 Béreš switched to the crack
Czech Republic-based JM Engineering team to contest the
Slovakian Rally Championship at the wheel of a Grande Punto
Abarth S2000, the car running under the Tempus Stylex RT
banner. His toughest competition would come from his team
mate Grzegorz Grzyb, who would also be driving one of the
rapid Italian Super2000 machines. The season kicked off in
early April with the Start Auto Rally Eger, with Béreš
finishing 6th (1st in Group N) while Grzyb retired. Three
weeks later and Béreš cemented his serious title aspirations
with a win on the Iveco Rally Rožňava, while his team-mate
once again failed to finish.
A month later, victory went again to a JM Engineering-run
Grande Punto Abarth, but this time it was Gryzb who took the
honours on the Slovnaft Rally Bratislava, while Béreš
collected more useful points after finishing on the final
step of the podium. In September, on the AquaCity Rally
Poprad 1, Béreš led out an Abarth 1-2 with Gryb following
him home. A week later on the AquaCity Rally Poprad 2, the
roles were abruptly reversed, Grzyb claiming his second win
of the year while problems saw Béreš finish well outside the
points in 30th place.
The Slovakian
title thus came down to the final round of the series, the
Tempus Rally Košice, a month after the AquaCity event, and
with five drivers still having a theoretical chance to win
championship before this event got underway. Besides both of
JM Engineering’s Abarth pilots, Bereš and Grzyb, three other
drivers, Igor Drotár, Jaroslav Orsák and Peter Gavlák, had a
chance at the ultimate prize.
Total length of this event was 125 km of special stages run
over two legs, but held in ideal weather conditions as an
‘Indian Summer’ gripped Slovakia. Béreš started with simple
tactic of just aiming to finish and collect points, while
Grzyb, if he wanted to win the title, needed to win, as did
another pretender, Drotar (Skoda Octavia WRC).
Unfortunately for Grzyb, on SS2 he lost his power steering and finished the
stage with more than a minute’s gap to the leading crews, losing the chance for
victory in the process. Drotar stopped on SS3 due to an electrical problem, and
after Orsak’s crash on the first stage of leg 2, there was nothing to stop Bereš
from winning the title. He duly won the Tempus Rally Kosice and became a very
worthy champion for the year. Second finisher in the rally was was Tibor
Czerhalmi (Mitsubishi Evo IX) and in third came Grzyb to make it two Abarth
machines on the podium, this result ensuring he claimed third place in the final
championship points classification. JM Engineering success on the Slovakian
stages was also boosted by Maciej Rzeznik in the team’s Suzuki Swift S1600, who
won 2WD category on the Tempus Rally Kosice to collect the title in this class.
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