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Rapid Czech driver Jaromir Tarabus is to get
factory Abarth support on the next round of the
Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the 39th Barum
Czech Rally Zlín, which takes place later this
month, as the Scorpion brand seeks to continue
its newly-found winning momentum. His Super 2000
Grande Punto Abarth will be run by the recently
formed MT3 Project team, and Tarabus will become
the first non-factory driver to receive FPT
Racing's new evolution engine that has very
quickly demonstrated its winning potential on
the recent IRC rounds in Russia and Madeira.
These changes
have though brought
the end of a highly successful partnership with the much-respected JM Engineering team, which
has achieved top results in both the Czech Rally
Championship and also in the P-WRC, including
Tarabus' strong fifth place on the Wales Rally
GB at the tail end of last season, as well as
outings on this year's P-WRC rounds held in
Norway and Portugal. The JM Engineering
operation also ran the Czech driver on last
year's edition of the Barum Czech Rally Zlín
although he retired early on during SS2 with an
engine problem.
The
MT3 Project team has been established with the
target of repeating these previous successes and
Tarabus has got off to a flying start as well as
warming up for the Barum Rally Zlín, which takes
place from August 21-23, by winning the
hotly-fought Slušovicích-based 17th Impromat Rally
Sprint Kopná last month. The
new outfit was set up following negotiations with
the Abarth factory and FPT
Racing representatives in Italy with the result that Tarabus and co-driver
Daniel Trunkat will be supported for the forthcoming Barum
Czech Rally Zlín.
The
team's head
negotiator Marek Fuks describes the particular areas of cooperation:
"After several days of negotiating with Abarth Spa and FPT Racing top management
an agreement was made to provide full service support of MT3 team, which was
divided in two sections, team preparation and competition itself. As for the
team preparation we have agreed on technical innovation support, in cooperation
with MT3 team technicians, which covered the car adjustment to 2009-specification. We
also received an offer to use X-track transmissions under the agreement.
However, this offer had to be rejected for time pressure and impossibility of
quality testing of the system. So we decided to use verified transmissions Sadev.
Although the factory team fully uses X-trac, Abarth have decided to provide a
technician and full support of using spare parts by Sadev. A part of the support
is the presence of Abarth junior engineer in the 'T&T' crew as well as a support
truck with spare parts for MT3 team.
"Especially for Barum
Rally," Fuks continues, "a
deal was made with FPT Racing – exclusive motor provider for Abarth team – to
lend a motor of the latest specification E3,
which has been used only by factory
pilots so far. We are convinced that the results, which Basso and Rossetti have
achieved in Russia and Madeira, give evidence of Abarth’s progressive rise
back to the top. We also believe that the new motor will help the local pilot
to achieve great results. Thanks for help in negotiating motor usage also go to
K2 Engineering representatives, the Czech partner of FPT Racing."
The
Barum Czech Rally Zlín is noted for being very
tough on gearboxes, and on last year's event
transmission problems ended the Abarth team's
challenge for honours although Giandomenico
Basso was able to post times comfortably within
the top-five to demonstrate that the Grande
Punto Abarth is will suited to this event.
However using last year's Sadev transmission
instead of the X-trac unit that the Italian
factory cars have swapped to this year is a very
big risk to take. "We are fully concentrated on providing Jaromir
with optimum conditions," says Trunkat.
"Although the negotiations of becoming a third
factory crew have failed, it is a commitment as
well as a great honour to be a part of the
'Scorpion team' to battle for team points to
count towards an overall position in the IRC
championship."
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