 'Dennis Kuipers wins Lausitz Rallye' Persbericht: ERC
Foto: William Heuvink | Rallycenter
The Lausitz Rally in the German state of Sachsen was full of surprises. That was, of course, to be expected with this eccentric rally that almost entirely consists of gravel stages.
A gravel course is definitely Erik Wevers forte, but even he had some difficulty adjusting to the gravel configuration of his Ford Focus RS. This didn’t stop the new Dutch Champion from battling from the very beginning for the lead in the race. He received some furious competition from local driver Ruben Zeltner with his Skoda Octavia WRC. It was on the eighth stage that everything went terribly wrong. In the battle for first place, both Zeltner and Wevers made slight errors in judgement. This resulted in the Focus RS WRC06 from Wevers becoming complete stuck in the lose sand and having to retire from the battle. Despite this disappointment, the leader in the ERC standings could still let the champagne flow, with the results of the Lausitz Rally handing Erik Wevers victory in Group A of this first edition of the international competition…… the Euro Rally Challenge 2008.
After the retirement of Wevers, it appeared that Dennis Kuipers was heading for second place overall and first place in this ERC heat , but then things only started to get better. With an outstanding time on the closing stage of the race, Dennis Kuipers and Kees Hagman turned their 14 arrears into a 10 lead, which gave Kuipers Jr. his first ever overall victory. An outstanding performance from Dennis who was driving only his 5th race in the Ford Focus RS WRC06 and his first ever on gravel!
'Before the race, in the shakedown, I drove a few rounds with Matthias Kahle and listened very closely to his tips. That really made a difference and helped me a lot. After the last stage, it took me a while to realise that we were actually 24' faster than Corazza and had of course won the race,' delighted Dennis Kuipers.
The second place went to his father René and his navigator Erwin Mombaerts. With this result, René Kuipers slides into second position in the standings of the Euro Rally Challenge in Group A, while Dennis draws even with Mark van Eldik for 4th place. Father and son Kuipers drove, in addition to their outstanding performances, a fastest overall time in the last phases of this challenging rally.
The debut of Leszek Kuzaj in the Euro Rally Challenge didn’t go unnoticed. The Polish driver clocked up some great times but these were immediately overshadowed by problems with the fuel flow on the very first stage. Kuzaj was forced to retire Friday evening, but got a fresh start on Saturday. This cost him a 5’ penalty for missing SS2 and his chances for scoring points in Gr.N/S2000. There the win went to Michael Pedersen, who because of problems with his turbo pressure had to go into full on attack mode to fight off Janina Depping. The German driver remains in the running for the Gr.N titel as she stands 8 points behind, but 10 points for a win in the Condroz Rally ensures that Pedersen will have to fight to the end to hold on to the title.
In Group R the race was already decided as Jan de Winkel didn’t have any competition. After some problems with the suspension of his Clio R3 (leaking shock absorber),at the beginning of the race, de Winkel drove the rest of the race with incident. The Danish team Hans-Ole Funch also had a reason to celebrate with their Opel Kadett GT/E giving them a victory in group H.
Fifth Round Euro Rally Challenge 2008:
Lausitz Rally, Boxberg, Germany.
Course: 398,66 km in total, 150, 34 km stages, over 9 SS's
8 competitors started, 7 finished
Results1 Dennis Kuipers-Kees Hagman (NL, Ford Focus WRC, A8) 1h30'52'5.
2 René Kuipers-Erwin Mombaerts (NL, Ford Focus WRC, A8) +53'0.
3 Michael Pedersen-Mie Petersen (DK, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 N4) +7'30'8.
4 Janina Depping-Sabrina Beier (DE, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7, N4) +7'54'6.
5 Leszek Kuzaj-Craig Parry (PL/GB, Peugeot 207 S2000, N4) +10'49'0.
6 Jan de Winkel-Radboud van Hoek (NL, Renault Clio R3, A7) +24'49'7.
7 Hans-Ole Funch-Thomas Funch (DK, Opel Kadett GT/E, D3) +37'17'7.
Retirees
SS 8 Erik Wevers-Jalmar van Weeren (NL, Ford Focus WRC, A8).
Standings Euro Rally Challenge
Group A
1 Erik Wevers-Jalmar van Weeren (NL) 36.
2 René Kuipers-Erwin Mombaerts (NL) 25.
3 Harry Kleinjan-Annemieke Hulzebos (NL) 21.
4 Mark van Eldik-Michel Groenewoud (NL) 18.
4 Dennis Kuipers-Kees Hagman (NL) 18.
6 John Temmink-Henk-Jan Elbert (NL) 9.
7 Mihali Hodula-Mark Varhidi (HU) 6.
Group R
1 Jan de Winkel-Radboud van Hoek (NL) 40.
Group N/S20001 Michael Pedersen-Mie Petersen (DK) 40.
2 Janina Depping-Sabrina Breier (D) 32.
3 Dennis Kuipers-Kees Hagman (NL) 18.
4 Edwin Schilt-Peter Verschuur (NL) 11.
5 Leszek Kuzaj-Craig Parry (PL/GB) 6.
5. Gerard Sharkey-John F. O’Mahony (IE) 6.
Group H
1 Hans-Ole Funch-Thomas Funch (D) 30. |
