Welcome back after long, long time of hopeless waiting for any report! But we gave you our word, and what rallye fan we would be if we didn't observed it? So, make some coffee and do some time for our press!
After round 6, it was already decided who will be the rightful champion of the second season of the RD Rally Championship (Richard Burns Rally w/ RSRBR 2010/11).
Sebastien Levret won the round and increased his lead with difference of 65 points to 2nd place. With only two rounds remaining, he could start celebrating. "
Of course I am happy for that," he said. "
But next rallyes lose the meaning of fight for the title. First season was closer and I had to fight till the last event. Nothing is pushing me to win now but the honor. I can assure my fans though, I won't let up."
Ludovic Cogotti finished behind
Sebastien and remained in fights for the vice champion. A disaster event for
Jakub Sulej, who ended out of the scoring far far behind. Thanks to him,
Attila Kiss jumped to 2nd place in the overall standings even though he didn't participate this time.
It wasn't similar in Champions League. Current leader
Norbert Leitner haven't shown up. This let the door for the title opened.
Roy Magnes did pretty well and took the first pace and what is more, 3rd overall, slowly but surely caching
Norbert. He jumped to 2nd place in the standings in front of
Yann Laprevotte, who finished 4th, also scoring overall.
Teams standings are expectedly leaden by
Project D, not threaten by anyone. Close battle is between 2nd-4th.
JME/Coke Zero,
Ford Team Poland followed by
Nijo Rally. They are pressed into 7 points difference.
Round 7 took us into overgrown tropical forests of Japan.
Sebastien again dominated and was the fastest driver in 10 of 14 stages, which is 70% of the rallye.
Jakub again finished down the field with no right for points and got down to 4th in the standings. "
It's real suffer. I can't get the car working how I need to and we are not well coordinated with the team. But I am not blaming anyone for it, it's just bad times and I trust we can get better before last round where I am aiming for the win." With
Attila again missing,
Simone Demi replaced him in the overall standings after finishing 3rd just behind
Dariusz Swiderski, who performed great 2nd position.
Champions league experienced surprise of the season.
Roy Magnes didn't let anyone be faster than him and captured the win. Who made remarkable results was
Ondřej Kapal, finishing 2nd in the class and 6th overall, only 7 seconds behind
Roy. "
It's incredible, I can't still believe it. I never stand on podium in such a brilliant competition, not even scored overall. I just hope I will stay with my new performance in the upcoming events. Special thanks to my team, who prepared my car perfectly!"
Kevin Hopkins finished 3rd, getting close to
Nigel Atkins in the overall standings.
Norbert Leitner haven't shown up again, which leaded to very interesting last round, where should be decided, who takes unpopular 4th place, who bronze, silver and gold!
Last round, 8th in a row, Vauxhall Rally of Wales had to decide vice champions in both leagues and title carrier in Champions. By example from last season the final was grandiose, even with already known champion
Sebastien Levret. SuperSpecials were sold out, parking were full, broadcast were online all around the world and stages were overcrowded by spectators. The atmosphere was just outstanding. But stop talking around and lets take a look at the race itself!
At the start was waiting for a green lights
Sebastien Levret, who was expected to win. But who bet on him, did wrong.
Jakub Sulej, after his disappointing results last events began with the fastest time. Then real fight started. They were both changing their places and the fastest times, but in the end,
Jakub was more successful. "
It's big honor to me beat such an icon of rallye in such a conditions. But I wasn't wondering even for a while that this time I would provide bad results. The worst is behind us and it can be only better!" This performance made him, like in previous season, vice champion, losing 85 points to
Seb. This time, we could see
Attila Kiss in his Škoda WRC cruising trough stages, but he shamed himself and ended down the field, 30th.
Tor Anders Berven was after few events finally visible and finished behind
Seb, 3rd. Thanks to
Attila's bad result,
Simone Demi took final bronze after his 4th place.
Norbert Leitner arrived at last to hold his lead. And so he did, even though he finished only 3rd after
Keegan Buckley's disqualification, it was still enough. "
Thanks everyone who arrived to support me. Mostly my fans, they have my recognition, because they waited there for me, even in this bad weather. I am deeply touched!" He almost cried.
Nigel Atkins finish first in the class though. "
That's what I call sweet dot behind this season," he laughed.
Roy wasn't the fastest this time, but he managed to stay 2nd overall and is Champions class vice champion.
Yann Laprevotte ended far behind, and lost his bronze in good of excellent
Nigel.
It is fair to mention how it ended when it comes to Teams. It ended exactly how it was mentioned,
Project D first with big gap of 110 points, second
JME/Coke Zero, third
Ford Team Poland and fourth
Nijo Rally.
It was long, hilarious, hard and very expensive season. We visited tarmac stages, gravel stages, mix of mud, snow and ice, places with hot and tropical weather. Popularity still grows up, newcomers are more frequent.
"
I am very pleased with the second season and how it went. Many thanks to organize team, sponsors and mostly all those fans, it wouldn't be rallye without you. I hope next season, with a lot of changes to make the rallying more comfortable and accessible for bigger amount of drivers, will be as successful as this one. We are planning some more tropical events, more technique and fast ones." says
Rick Bamford, the main director of RaceDepartment Rallye Championship. And what exactly the changes are? Let's review them.
1. New classes:
Because season 2 experienced unexpected large interest, it was decided to extend the classes,
2. Driver grading system:
To keep new, unskilled drivers in competition of their level, it was decided to sort them by their skills. Better results will affect in moving up trough the grade until the star class, driving WRC cars.
3. Parc Fermé
Excessive cutting will be reviewed and punished.
4. New stages
New stages will be driven to add variety.
That and much more!
First round starts pretty soon and to introduce it, we asked as usual
Rick Bamford.
"
Round one once again sees our crews return to the snow and ice of Rally Norway. The fast flowing roads of the scandinavian region always provide close fights and enthralling battles. Warmer tempretures than previous seasons will provide a new and added challenge.
Starting again with the Pribum stage though town, the crews will then move to Mustaselka and Mlynky in the mountains. Repeating these stages in the after noon. Fog will be an issue in the low level Pribrum, but good weather will return for the rest of the day. At this time of year, night falls early meaning that the second pass of Mustaselka will be run in the dusk before full night comes for the daunting Mlynky stage.
Day 2 starts with Kaihuvaara, Sikakama and Autiovaara before midday service. The second pass of these stages will be more mud and ice than snow as the whole field cuts though the surface. care will need to be taken as the road edges are now packed ice and are no longer forgiving to wide lines and corner cutting. It will provide very different stages to the first pass."
One sad note to the end, we had a talk with
Sebastien Levret about his participation in the third season. Unfortunately, he had and argument with his main sponsor chief and couldn't subscribe contract to extend his agency. "
I can't drive in conditions, which they proposed." With his experience and results, it wasn't hard to find another sponsor, but they won't be ready with the car until late rounds, so
Seb decided to stay out of this show this time and give another talent a chance to be a champion. "
At least, the motivation will be bigger in fourth season," he added with smile on his face.
But that's really all for now. We will be back after first round is done with news, results and reviews. Get ready, it starts this week! See you soon.
Looks super cool guys! Good luck with the league!
