Rally-eMag 029 June 2015

midseason Champ

ogier

poland

Issue 29, June 2015

ypres

martin prokop Plus: The Dutchies, ForMyFriends

Poppy fields, blu e skies, dust an d loads of spec welcom to polan tators... d!

Image: Bas Romeny

ott tanak stole

the show in pola

Image: Bas Romeny

nd

jump over every

obdy!

Image: Bas Romeny

they say poland

is a bit like finla

Image: Bas Romeny

nd, wonder why

?

Rally-eMag

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Rally-eMag June 2015 / Contents

This month Who made it?

Publisher: Rally-eMag Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Bas Romeny, Erik van ‘t Land, Andy Crayford

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom Backcover artwork: Dam Charles Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Motorsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport.

How to reach us?

Email: info@rally-emag.com Web: www.rally-emag.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ emagrally Twitter: @emagrally Issuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

WRC Rally Poland 8/43

Ogier Midseason Champ Page 11

The dutchies Abbring, van Deijne and van den Brand in Poland Page 22

interview martin prokop

erc ypres rally

formyfriends

The Ultimate Privateer

Tarmac Fest

Page 40

Page 24

Page 32

Polish Wonders

Rally-eMag June 2015 / News

This month’s wrap up More power, more wings WRC Promoter has announced that during the July 10 age to include bigger rear wings and greater bumper FIA World Motorsport Council meeting in Mexico City overhangs, he expects the cars to look more distinct. new technical regulations for the World Rally Cham- We asked the drivers last year how they felt the championship were approved. The new regulations will be implemented from the 2017 season.

With the goal of heightening the excitement for fans the WRC Promoter went into Daft Punk mode by working hard, to make the cars better so they can do it faster to make the WRC stronger. In a nutshell, the cars will be lighter, more powerful and rock more aggressive aero packages.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

First and foremost the maximum bhp will go up from 300 to 380. Couple that with a decrease of the minimum weight from 1200 kg down to 1175 kg and you get a power to weight ratio improvement of 1:4 to 1:3.1. Yes, that makes the cars nearly 25% more powerful relative to their weight, and it wasn’t like these cars were going in slow motion to begin with. Yikes.

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In addition to the power changes, a long cherished wish of WRC Promoter director Oliver Ciesla came to fruition. Ciesla has long been a proponent of more diversity in the looks of the cars. By allowing aero pack-

pionship excitement could improve and while everyone had their own ideas, there was one desire they all shared: more power. That power increase should translate to more spectacular driving, something the fans should enjoy as well. So by the looks of it, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Image: PR

Lotos Rally Poland / Overview 11/43

Lotos Rally Poland

Based in: Mikolajki Date: 02-05/07/15 Number of stages: 19 Shortest stage: SSS Mikolajki Arena, 2.50 km Longest stage: Stanczyki, 39.12 km Total stage distance: 314 km Surface: Gravel Image: Bas Romeny

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww

ogier midseason champ During the Lotos Rally Poland we reach the halfway point of the 2015 WRC season. Though Ogier has been complaining about the starting order a lot, he is still the man who starts first on day one and two of every rally. This means he is still leading the championship and after Rally Poland it seems unlikely anyone can prevent him from clinching his third consecutive WRC title. Mikkelsen and especially T채nak desperately tried but they did not succeed, Ogier is still the man to beat!

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

12/43

Images: Bas Romeny

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww

Teams and drivers Kevin Abbring was driving the fourth Hyundai i20. His second (out of a total of five) stint in the official WRC was a premiere for the team as it was the first time they entered four cars in a WRC event. The other teams flew to Poland with the usual suspects and did not have many changes to their cars.

The event After last year’s problems in Lithuania, the organizers stayed on their own turf and resorted to a variety of mostly new stages. The character however did not change very much. Basically it is a very fast rally over fairly smooth sandy country roads nearly all situated in open farmland. For the spectators it’s an excellent rally as you can usually see the cars over a big distance. How-

ever beware of the dust. You can recognize the upcoming cars from the huge clouds of dust approaching you. But before you realize, this cloud of dust comes near and covers you in several layers of dry but sticky sand. Three minutes later this process starts all over again. It’s not a real car breaker of a rally but the speeds are very high, consequently if things go wrong, you can easily roll your car. Luckily the number of trees stopping you is not so big, although this means you keep on rolling for quite some time. The jumps are not as high as in Finland but are definitely present, for the rest there are quite a few similarities with the ‘Finnish Grand Prix’. To put it shortly a rally for fast drivers with a big heart!

While attempting to set a good time on the shakedown stage, he rolled his car in the first real corner of the stage. The look on his face after the incident did not do justice to his intelligence. He did not seem to have the faintest clue of what happened to him in that first corner. Was it a lapse in his concentration? Was it a mechanical failure was it…? We probably will never know.

When the car was back in service, the first concern of the service crew was to see whether the roll cage was still intact. According to the FIA officials it was, so the crew started to rebuild the car and, of course, succeeded. When the car was on the starting ramp it was in an immaculate condition. Ogier was fastest at shakedown but Kubica, Latvala and Mikkelsen all managed to Bad start do the same time just 0.5 seconds behind the For Kris Meeke the rally had a very bumpy start. reigning champion.

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The new boy, Kevin Abbring made his second appearance for Hyundai.

Meeke had a bad start and no idea why he rolled on the shakedown.

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww

After the ceremonial start in the centre of host town Mikolajki both competitors and local fans gathered at the famous SuperSpecial near the service centre. The setting sun provided the gathered fans with an appropriately dramatic lighting. And the large crowds loved it. Almost everybody came to cheer their local hero Robert Kubica, especially when he posted fastest time during his run of the special stage. However Sebastien Ogier spoiled the party for all Polish fans and clocked the stage 0.5 seconds faster. However the friendly Polish fans rightfully cheered Ogier too for his stage win.

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Tänak finally emerged!

Tänak’s Mexican adventure will probably never be erased from his memory. And we here at Rally-eMag will help him a bit not to forget by using the title of this paragraph, especially if this title fits the situation so well.

After his Mexican misery the young M-Sport driver seemed to be a bit submerged. He wasn’t lucky with technical issues but after Mexico he had to find himself again. And in Poland he did. Making maximum use of his favourable starting position het started doing three scratches in a row. Until stage 6 he actually led the rally. Was this going to be a ‘Paddonesque’ performance? At the second running of the Friday stages he lost

some time for the hard charging VW trio Ogier, Mikkelsen and Latvala, but he stayed best of the rest and fourth at the second passage of the Super Special in Mikolajki.

Ogier vs Tänak 3-3 Ogier opens the score of Saturday by winning stage 10; Tänak retaliates and wins 11 and 12, Ogier wins 13 so that makes it a draw at 2-2. Stage 14 is cancelled because there are to many spectators and stage 15 is for Mikkelsen, 16 for Tänak again and Ogier wins the SuperSpecial again.

This means on Saturday Ogier and Tänak have been the biggest fighters. But of course Mikkelsen and Latvala are also still there. At the end of the day it’s Ogier first, Mikkelsen second. Tänak prevents Volkswagen from having another triple, but only 1,5 second separates him from Latvala who’s desperately trying to find his form. The difference between number one and number four is just under 20 seconds, so the fight is on for an exciting finale.

Top to bottom: MIkkelsen was closest to Ogier after day two.

Large crowds gathered for each run through the MIkolajki Arena Super Special Tanak took the fight to the VW’s.

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww 15/43

Dramatic finale There are just two stages left, two runs over the Branowo stage. The second run being the PowerStage.

The first test is a trial run for Ogier and he knows how to tackle the stage because he wins it, Mikkelsen in second and Latvala in third. Tänak is fully awake but still has to allow Latvala to nibble 0.4 seconds of his slim margin of only 1.5 second. So they go into the last stage really fighting for the last step on the podium. Meanwhile Thierry Neuville had a miracle escape on the first running of Branowo. Not unlike Meeke during the PowerStage he is catapulted into a roll by some ruts. He slams into a fence and collects some debris and a banner on the way before continuing his way to an eleventh place on the leaderboard for this stage. But as we said the battle continues. Ogier is very eager to gain the extra PowerStage point, but Tänak is equally determined to stay in front of Latvala so there is no other option for both men then to be flat out. After two absolutely top runs Tänak has to bow his head for his more experienced opponent, but only by the smallest of margins: the difference being 0.1 second! Mikkelsen ‘just’ protects his second place in the over all standings and snatches the last bonus point from Kris Meeke who finally found some rhythm. And Latvala? He is victim again of the ‘last stage in Poland jinx.’ In a final attempt to land on the podium again he finds a tree in his

way. He can continue but loses too much time to take third place. The crippled car makes it back to service but clocks in late, and Latvala loses another place in the final standings. For us at Rally-eMag Tänak was the man of the match for challenging Ogier, the Frenchman is in a class of his own and again won everything: the rally and the PowerStage, so he can add up another 28 points to his tally.

Tanak was sensational, but of course, Ogier prevailed to take another win.

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww

Round-up Volkswagen World Rallyteam Sébastien Ogier again was the man no one could beat. So we can be short about him. He was and is the best. Again his skills in tyre preservation showed his excellent driving style. Even if he takes a wrong decision on the kind of tyre to use, he rectifies that by being kind to his tyres. There are simply not enough superlatives to describe this man.

He won the rally and the extra bonus points for winning the PowerStage. The battle for the title now concentrates on who will be the runner-up

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Before the rally we talked to -Matti Latvala and you can read what he said there elsewhere in this magazine. In that interview he said: “if you are pushing a little too hard you can go over the line”. In Poland he proved that point. He was fast but not fast enough during the whole rally and then when pushing very hard to steal the third step on the podium from Ott Tanak he went

off and can only be happy that in the end he reached the finish. So his Poland drama from 2009 was luckily not repeated. The championship seems to be over now, but he is still aiming for some good results, as he said in the interview.

Andreas Mikkelsen is becoming a serious threat to teammate Latvala. The youngster is quick though not as quick as Ogier yet was, but he is often outpacing his Finnish colleague. In Poland he again was faster but couldn’t put enough pressure on Ogier. He did not make any major mistakes but the Frenchman simply is too consistent. The young Norwegian is becoming more mature, proven by the fact he decided against an all or nothing attack. He kept a big enough margin to a hard charging Tanak, but took the points for second place, rather than having the chance to lose them all in battling his teammate.

M-Sport World Rally Team

Man of the weekend was Ott Tanak, not only for his team but also for most of the rallying fans. All of the sudden everything fell into place. He was challenging Volkswagen and succeeding OK he couldn’t stop Ogier nor Mikkelsen but he lured Latvala into a mistake and only just missed gold on the PowerStage. In a pre rally interview Malcolm said about his drivers: “The best is yet to come. Well this result may perhaps not be the to come but certainly is a very good start.

Never before Tanak reached the podium and in Poland it

was not just a lucky break, Tanak had been fighting till the end and showed the potential of the car.

The same cannot be said about Elfyn Evans. For the third time in a row Lady Luck was not with him. His lack of confidence on the ultra fast Polish stages gave him a slow start this resulted in several ‘moments’ and then an issue with the waterpump ended all his hopes for a decent finish. At the final service, the team decided to retire from the rally in order to be better prepared for Rally Finland.

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww 17/43

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT

Things are not completely cool at Citroën. It became quite clear during the pre event press conference when Mads Østberg expressed his feelings about his team’s decision not to have a pre event test. “How can we win if we don’t have a test before the rally?” The wording was politically correct but his tone of voice was unmistakably clear: he was unhappy. And it showed in his performance: he never reached his own level reflected by his third position in the championship. Eventually we found him back in ninth place. OK it brought some points but definitely not enough to satisfy his hunger for victories.

Meeke’s his rally did not begin as planned. After his roll in his last shakedown run, his rally seemed to be over before it begun. His service crew brought the car back to showroom condition in no time. But Meeke looked concerned and with reason. To put it mildly team boss Yves Matton was not amused. The Argentina win bought Meek quite a bit of credit. Two failures in two succeeding events consumed all of it. So when he actually started, the mental pressure was tremendous.

Considering this his 7th place was not too bad and at least the result kept the team in second place of the constructor’s championship But Hyundai is closing the gap and that is not what Yves Matton needs to keep the WRC team alive. What would anyone do if you have to choose from a highly successful WEC team dominating all events and a WRC team dominated in nearly all events? The PSA management team made it quite clear: Peugeot will be the Dakar challenger, The Citroën brand can choose from WEC OR WRC. One of them will have to go next year.

The brand’s marketing people desperately want presence in China; WRC is not there (yet?). So this is something for the people in high places deciding about future events in WRC. We heard a whisper this would not be impossible but it’s far from certain. Perhaps an Abu Dhabi event could help? We’ll keep you posted on future developments.

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team The Korean team is eager to do well as every other team is. However Hyundai seems to put even more effort in their attempts than the others. In Poland they showed that by entering four cars. Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo were behind the wheel of the latest specs i20. Hayden Paddon in the Hyundai Mobis team had an i20 with some of the new specs and the young Dutchman Kevin Abbring had the i20 of the beginning of this season. Thierry Neuville seems to go through a difficult time. He is not doing as well as he wants to and in the pre event talk we had with him he confided he was very unhappy that the EVO version of his car was not ready by the beginning of the season and that now it would not be due until the first round next year. If this effects his driving is not completely clear but the fact that team mate Hayden Paddon is outpacing him regularly while driving an earlier spec car, is not helping the Belgian to build his confidence and the same goes for a final day roll that did not hurt him too much but still… In the end he was sixth and took some points for himself and the team.

Dani Sordo also did not have the best weekend ever. He lacked a bit of confidence while he wasn’t happy with his set up and a wrong

tyre choice did not help either. His 10th place brought him a driver’s point and a constructor’s point, but that is as positive s we can get about his Poland drive.

Hayden Paddon is on a high the last two events. In Poland he again was the fastest Hyundai driver beating Neuville and Sordo in newer cars. The fact that Sardinia is one of the slower gravel events and Poland one of the faster ones makes him a versatile driver. His future looks bright. Finland is next but Germany is even more important as then he will get the full specs Hyundai.

Not in a full specs car but happy to be in the team was Kevin Abbring.

“It’s all about learning here,” he said. In the Dutchies section you will read everything about his Polish adventures where he reached his most important goal: to finish the rally!

Lotos Rally Poland / Revieww

Jipocar Czech National Team During our pre-Rally Poland interview Martin Prokop confided to us that he sometimes was a bit scared about the speed here, and during day one his stage times proved this. He did not get the right rhythm and wasn’t happy with his driving. Under the setting sun of the day however he won the SuperSpecial in Mikolajki. Perhaps this boosted his confidence a bit as on the following adys things went a bit better, however eleventh place was not what he had hoped for.

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RK World Rallyteam In his home country Robert Kubica is tremendously popular. On the stages Polish flags are waved especially for him. As almost everybody, he was complaining about his notes. Apparently during recce the Polish stages look more menacing than they really are. But things improved when Kubica found a somewhat faster pace. His final 8th position could

Fuckmatié World Rallyteam Lorenzo Bertelli is still fighting for his chance to do another WRC season next year. To do that, he has to show progress to his family business. During the first half of the season he hasn’t been too successful in reaching that goal and although his classification was not a top result, at least he made it to the end without using Rally2.

A puncture was the only ‘major’ incident in his drive to 16th.

Lotos Rally Poland / Results 19/43

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Ogier– Ingrassia Mikkelsen - Floene Tanak - Molder Paddon - Kennard Latvala - Anttila Neuville - Gilsoul Meeke - Nagle Kubica - Szczepaniak Østberg - Andersson Sordo - Martí

Volkswagen Polo R WRC 2:26:11.5 Volkswagen Polo R WRC +11.9 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +23.0 Hyundai i20 WRC +1:14.6 Volkswagen Polo R WRC +1:24.7 Hyundai i20 WRC +1:44.5 Citroën DS3 WRC +1:57.7 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2:08.3 Citroën DS3 WRC +2:18.2 Hyundai i20 WRC +2:48.4

Lotos Rally Poland / Standings

2015 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Ogier: 161 pts 2.

Mikkelsen: 83 3. Østberg: 69 4.

Latvala 66 5.

Neuville: 58 6.

Meek: 53 7.

Evans: 53 8.

Paddon: 44 9.

Tanak: 40 10. Sordo: 39

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2015 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Volkswagen Motorsport: Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT: Hyundai Motorsport: M-Sport WRT: Volkswagen Motorsport II: Hyundai Motorsport N: Jipocar Czech National Team: Fuckmatie WRT:

214 125 123 114 49 43 35 3

points

Rally-eMag / The Dutchies

the dutchies

As we are based in The Netherlands, we’ve got to show some love for our Dutch compatriots tackling the WRC!

Words: Harry van Veenendaal; Images: Erik van ‘t Land

Three Dutch teams started Lotos Rally Poland and although they all impressed in a way, not all of them reached the finish of this high speed rollercoaster.

Kevin Abbring - Seb Marshall Kevin Abbring of course headlined the Dutch assault in Poland. After an unexpected Hyundai debut in Sweden filling in for Dani Sordo, this was his first scheduled event.

“I know what my task is here, and that is to finish and gain as much experience as possible. The car we drive does not have all the latest updates, but that’s no problem for me as we are not too concerned about the pace.

It’s all about getting to the finish and learning as much as possible.”

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On the first day Abbring was struggling with a brake issue that forced him to hit the pedal much harder than usual. “That’s a bit of a nuisance as it keeps you from getting into a nice rhythm. It creates a lot of understeer and that affects the way you slide through corners, making it different from your notes. But that’s also

Although Abbring diligently follows his team orders and focuses on getting to the finish rather than getting there as fast as possible, his racing heart can’t help itself. Codriver Seb Marshall admitted, “We talked in the car and Kevin thought we weren’t going as fast as we did in Sweden. So I started to calculate our relative pace per kilometer and found that while in Sweden we were nearly two seconds per kilometer behind our teammates, here we were within a second.”

Not that they were paying too much attention to the stage times… part of the learning curve. I realize I still have a lot to learn with regard to writing notes, this rally is so fast, it’s very hard to judge that speed when you are doing the recce in a standard car at low speed. “

Throughout the remainder of the event Abbring and Marshall continued to set a steady pace and despite losing a front bumper in the process, managed to stay out of any sort of real trouble. They were rewarded with eleventh overall at the finish, just outside the point scoring positions.

Rally-eMag / The Dutchies

Drive DMack Fiësta Trophy In this year’s edition of the Drive D Mack Fiesta Trophy we have two Dutchies: Mats van den Brand won the Drive D Mack shoot out last year and was rewarded a drive in a Fiesta R5 during a European WRC event. He then started to talk to M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson and quite soon they came to the conclusion that a full DDFT season would be a better way to work on his learning curve. So now we see him with his Belgian co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe at the start of every DDFT event. They had some technical glitches like a turbo sensor sending out the wrong signals, but they were fourth at the end of the penultimate day. They reached this place after a fierce battle with the more experienced Max Vatanen who finished just ahead of them. “Together with the team management we decided to go ‘maximum attack’” van den Brand told us at the end of the penultimate day. A tightening bend however spoilt their hopes. “There was something wrong in our notes,” the Dutchman explained. “So we went in too fast and rolled”.

Unfortunately they couldn’t restart and so it was game over.

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Malcolm Wilson told us both Dutch drivers were good but different.

Van de Brand is the eager one, Van Deijne the calculating one. So let’s look at the calculating one. “We’re not completely happy,” he told us at the end of day one. “We don’t know what it is we’re trying hard but it simply doesn’t work yet.” At the end of the rally he was much more positive. “It was a lot better then last year when we had quite a few problems. We did not have them this year and we’re quite happy about that. But our main aim here was to get more experience and we definitely succeeded in that. Together with his co driver Harmen Scholtalbers he finished in 6th place gaining some valuable points in the DDFT ranking. He is now sixth wit 16 points. Van den Brand did not score in Poland and is ninth in the DDFT ranking with seven points.

Interview / Martin Prokop

one on one with martin prokop

Martin Prokop WRC Starts: 109 WRC Debut: Rallye Monte Carlo 2005 Best rally result: 4th - Rally Argentina 2012 Best WRC result: 9th (2012, 2013, 2014) Best JWRC result: 1st (2009) Words: Steven van Veenendaal Images: Bas Romeny, Harry van Veenendaal, Steven van Veenedaal

In the WRC most of the media attention is usually reserved for the drivers in the manufacturer teams. But the enthusiastic privateers truly form the backbone of our sport. Without them, there wouldn’t be any national championships and the sport’s popularity would suffer greatly.

We therefore find it fitting to every now and then divert from the regular path of the top drivers, and focus on those dedicated privateers,

the people that can drive fast but who have to do so much more than that just to make ends meet. The ones that also warm our hearts, but are fighting every weekend just to be in the WRC. In Poland we spoke with Martin Prokop, who could squeeze in some time for an interview between the shakedown, debriefing his team, and discussing the future development of the car with Malcolm Wilson.

Q: We wanted to talk to you, because you’re one of the top privateers and we want to learn what it’s like being a privateer in the WRC. Can you tell us something about the team? How many people are working for you?

A: Well I don’t know exactly. That is a question for the team manager. But let’s see we have five guys who are working on the car, then I have a PR manager, and I have my girlfriend, she is doing everything, all in all the whole crew is about ten people.

Q: So they all have dual jobs…

A: Exactly, so there is one main mechanic, he is the boss for the car, he is taking care of all the stuff on the car and the rest they have to do everything else that is necessary. For me that’s the biggest difference in comparison to a factory team.

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Q: What is the difference with a full works team?

A: We have everything, but the most important difference with a factory team is that one guy has to do multiple jobs. You know I have just five guys on the car from the eight or 10 people I have. So for instance the jobs like tyres, the guy from the left front wheel, he has to do the tyres, the guy from the rear wheel he is taking care of catering.

Q: Are they in full time service of the team o are they free lancers?

A: At this moment one of the guys he is a freelancer, the rest are working for the team all the time, but we also do other projects. I drive in the World Championship but I’m also involved with more people in Czech. I have a circuit car; we are running a second Fiesta in Slovakia, so there are a lot of different jobs.

“The most important difference with a factory team is that one guy has to do multiple jobs”

Interview / Martin Prokop

Q: What else do you do besides driving in the WRC? A: I’m always trying to sit in something, because I cannot sit in a World Rally Car more than twelve days a year. Then we have our PR days, and then I can sit in the car more when we have these PR days. But it’s really about twelve days that I can actually sit in my car. I’m trying to do more, but it’s not enough, or not as much as I would like. It would be better to sit in the car much more. But that’s not possible due to many reasons one being the budget. Of course we have the test days. But there is an FIA limit that gives us one or two days and I don’t really have the chance to drive something else apart from the things I said before like the circuit, car at least I then hold some steering wheel.

Q: Have you always been driving with your own team?

A: Yes I always had my own team. We have some support from MSport and we get spare parts and if we’re having trouble the guys are coming to help us or they provide us with an engineer. But from 2005 I have always been running my own team.

Q: So the relationship between you and M-Sport is just that you bought the car?

A: I think the relationship with M-Sport is really very good, we are getting everything we ask for and for and that we have a budget for. When I was driving for Citroen before in the junior team it was completely different. It was quite difficult sometimes to get the proper parts that Ogier was using when we were fighting each other in 2008. So we did not have the same car we were always complaining because it was a car for customers you know. We knew they had some different parts but it was difficult to get it. This is not happening in M-Sport, of course the factory cars are different but we understand that. These are factory cars so we know it, but for the rest we can get it, if we have a budget for it we can get it.

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Q: What about the new car, was it completely built by M-Sport or was you team involved as well?

A: Well M-Sport built it but I was there at M-Sport during the last

days of completion of the car. And I was always looking at the cars of Tanak or Evans and saying I would like this and I would like that.

Then they said OK you can have it. They promised us we would get a factory car, so finally we got it. Of course the things I asked for were details. The car basically is perfect but if you are trying to find some tenths of seconds in your times you need to look at the details.

But finally I got most of it so I’m happy with it, still you know that there are some differences, not much but still.

Interview / Martin Prokop

Q: How do you like the new car?

A: As far as handling or speed, it is perfect; the car is better than before. I’m happy with it and I did some good times, but I don’t know, how strong it is. We had a lot of troubles in Portugal because the car was built to fast. There was always something with a sensor or something else I was unhappy with the job. In Sardinia the hardest rally we always managed to do good results because we knew that we had to

be careful with the rough stages, but this time we destroyed the car completely. We destroyed the engine and had a lot of damages to the car. We had the same hits in the years before but this car is not strong enough.

Q: Where do you see that?

A: For me it is a bit like a circuit car because under the sump guard in the front, the gearbox and the oil pump are to close. Before it was a different style of engine and of gearbox so if you got a massive hit from the bottom, the car bottom cracked but you could just go on. But now if you hit something really hard it is going straight away to the gearbox or the oil pump. Two cars retired and that shows the car is not strong enough. We once hit something it was not really different, it was standard, massive, but it should have survived. So on this point I’m really disappointed because I think I drive carefully. I know how to drive the rough rallies and I made really good results on rough rallies. This time we came to the finish with a blinking oil pressure sensor and so it was all over so on this point I’m not happy. But with the speed and the balance of the car I’m really happy.

Q: Can you discuss these problems with M-Sport and do the do something with it?

A: Yeah the guys have been working with the car this week everyday, till late night, to try to use new things that should help with just protection. It’s not really new things because you cannot change the oil pump or change it’s position nor can you change the gearbox position. They are trying to find something that will help in case of some huge impact. The impact will not hit these things only, but this solution would spread the forces through the whole car. But the guys are still working on it. So I hope that it will be stronger.

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“As far as handling and speed go, the new car is perfect”

Interview / Martin Prokop

Q: Now I can imagine it’s not really possible for you to compete with the top teams, there are a few other privateers but they are not always around. What is your challenge in the WRC? A: Yeah that is always the question what are we doing there. I think I can drive to do the same speed like the fastest guys, but I don’t know for how long. Because I can’t damage three cars a year, there is a limit. It was nice when Henning was driving a whole season or some other guys, but now Bertelli and Kubica are here, so there is always somebody to fight and we are trying to do good times and to approach the fastest guys. We try to be lose less than one second per kilometre. The aim was, and still is, to try to be on the podium, because at three rallies we fourth. I don’t know if it is possible but that is what we are trying. You never know on what rally you can do it because sometimes you are confident and motivated and sometimes you are really slow and not in contact with the others, or like in Sardinia it was not very good in the beginning, but later we were really close. I think it was the best chance for me to be on the podium. But the aim is to be really close to the fastest guys losing as little time as possible. Because if they have a puncture or some other problem, making them lose two minutes and you already lost some five minutes then you have no chance to go over but when you are really close like one minute behind, you can go over them. And So you see there is the plan. The drive Paddon showed in Sardinia, being on a crazy speed right from the beginning, will not happen for me. We have other strategies, more like Dakar strategies or for an endurance race.

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Q: We’re almost at the halfway point of this season, how do you look back on the first half?

A: It started really well, we were scoring every rally and we were looking forward to the new car. But when the new car was there it was going a little bit down where we expected the opposite way.

But I was really happy with Sweden and Mexico these were my best times in the World Championship. We were really confident and fast in Sweden, and in Mexico it was the same. Then the endurance race in Argentina where we decided to spare the car, we were fourth, so it was a really good beginning of the season. But I think that we will really miss the points from Sardinia. The plan was to be in the top eight therefore therefore we will miss these points, but let’s see the rest of the season.

Interview / Martin Prokop

Q: Your aim is being in the top eight at the end of the season?

A: Yeah my aim is to be in the top eight and to go for a podium. It’s been the aim for the last few years and it still is.

Q: You said earlier the guys in the team have dual jobs.

Does that go for you as well? Do you as a privateer have to do more than the manufacturer guys?

A: Yeah absolutely you have to take care of the team; that means you have to do two things: you have to pay the guys and find the budget to pay the guys, so that is a lot of things together. This means that after the rally I don’t have time to evaluate the last rally like checking the data and checking the video from WRC or something. You are looking into the next rally so you are working on things like logistics and thinking about standard team proceedings.

You know it’s like a business: find the budget and use the budget as low as possible to safe money. I think it is more work than the other guys and I also have to try to find time for myself like some workouts and relaxation. It’s quite busy and I would prefer to have more time to work with the data and so on, but I don’t have time for that. When I come to a race I don’t know who is starting there because I did not check the entry list. I don’t know the names of the stages and on site I try to get an idea about the map and so on, but I’m not ready before. But I’m used to doing it like this for many years so…

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Q: And if you’re looking for the budget, what kinds of things do you do for your sponsors to reel them in and keep them?

A: Yeah well I have to say I’m quite happy that it works quite nice for me. That in a small country that Czech Republic is we found the budget and it’s still getting better, companies will support me in my quest to be in the World Championship. It’s going quite well but it can be still better Q: Jipocar has been there for a long time?

A: Yeah it’s the main sponsor and the company has been helping me for many years. Also during hard times, when I was deciding if I was going to to continue in WRC, they helped me a lot

Interview / Martin Prokop

Q: Do you have a multi-year plan with them or just year-by-year?

A: Yeah most of the time it is year by year. But when I bought a junior car I knew that I would use it more years, when I bought an S2000 I knew I was going to use it for more years. So it’s not that I can change from year to year because when you buy an expensive car like a WRC you have to use it four or five years so we always plan a project longer but with this car we can only use it two years because then we have the 2017 car.

Let’s see what the future will bring. I’m also getting old so at this moment I do not know what I will do next year [laughs]. I would be happy if they do a privateer championship but the FIA is not really, ehhhh… how do you say that nicely, not ready to do it, or they don’t know how to do it.

I don’t understand why they don’t know how to do it. It would be easy: some trophy for a championship like for eight races. That would be nice.

We’ve been talking about it for a long time and they are still not ready for it. They promised to do something but nothing happened yet. But it would be nice if we had a real championship then we would race for something and more guys would come.

Q: Would it help you in finding sponsors if you would say I’m doing the privateer world championship?

A: Yes you can see that from guys like Nasser Al Attiyah he moved from WRC to WRC2 because he needs some exposure. It’s the same course, the same car but not so much money. But I think a lot of these guys would choose for the private championship if it would be just eight races where you can score instead of the thirteen of today.

A: Yeah this idea is exactly for these guys. We call tem the race tourists, but Dennis Kuipers was really fast and Merksteijn is OK not so fast, but I think for these guys it would be nice and I think the World Championship needs this. Not just Ogier. For guys like him people come to rallies, okay but nobody will travel a thousand kilometres for just five cars.

Q: Have you considered the European Championship? There they say the privateer teams are the backbone of the sport.

A: The thing with the European Championship is they are missing interesting cars. I was watching Ypres and it was not really interesting. The privateer should get a chance in the WRC. The promoter should look into that. Then I’m sure Nasser and Fuchs and Protasov would come. If we have 6 or 8 guys it would be a nice championship with nice fights.

It would be good for more interest in more countries as well. The television audience want drivers from their own country. In Czech they are also interested in me. That is not different in other countries. Then the media would have more to write and they would do it. If they write: “Prokop is Q: Some years ago we have been talking to Peter van Merksteijn and often in the top ten”, that is not very interesting but if I would fight for something then it would be really interesting for them.

Dennis Kuipers who wanted to do a limited season.

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Q: But something like that did exist some years ago?

A: Yeah but they made it too expensive. It was too many races and you had to travel overseas and things like that. We would like it more freely, then the guys would come. The privateers are stressed by to many rules.

Like now we are Manufacturer 2 or how is it called. It’s quite difficult because you have so many restrictions and for quite a small team that is difficult. We would need something more free, then I think more guys will come. Everybody wants to drive this car. Of course WRC2 is nice but this one is different so I think these guys would like to do it and for me too it would be a motivation to stay longer in WRC.

“It would be nice if we had a real [privateer] championship, then we would race for something and more guys would come.”

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Kenotek Ypres Rally / Overview 32/43

kenotek ypres rally

Based in:Ypres Date: 25-27/07/15 Number of stages: 17 Shortest stage: Mesen, 7.48 km Longest stage: Hollebeke, 23.33 km Total stage distance: 254 km Surface: Tarmac Image: FIA ERC

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Review

tarmac fest

As always, this year’s 51st edition of the Ypres Rally provided one of the best non-WRC entry lists of year. Hyundai factory driver Kevin Abbring was drafted by Pieter Tsjoen to pilot his Citroën DS3 R5, Bryan Bouffier appeared in similar machinery and Stephane Lefebvre was drafted by the Peugeot Rally Academy to join Criag Breen in an attempt to win the event for the French manufacturer. And then there was Freddy Loix, the nine-time winner and widely regarded as the ‘King of Ypres’, who had a brand new Skoda Fabia R5 at his disposal.

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: Steven van Veenendaal

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Review

That’s not all Apart from the obvious fab five up front, there were various other outsiders. No less than 22 R5, RRC or S2000 cars took the start for drivers from all across Europe. Local experts who could possibly spur a surprise were Kris Princen, Cedric Cherin, Vincent Verschueren and Bernd Casier, while the Irish Moffett brothers also bring a lot of tarmac experience, albeit not so much from the very typical Belgian roads. ERC Regulars Robert Consani, Jaromir Tarabus and Jaroslav Orsak were also present, just like former ERC rally winner Bruno Magalhães. The only main absentee really was Kajetan Kajetnowicz who opted not to start in Ypres.

A class of their own

The fast tarmac roads around Ypres provide the opportunity to be successful with other types of machinery as well. The RGT class with its gorgeous Porsches was well represented with a Belgian-French duel. Heroes of the past Patrick Snijers and Marc Duez represented Belgium while Francois Delecour and Romain Dumas defended the French honour. Being only rear-wheel drive, the cars are no match on gravel stages, but around Ypres there is plenty of traction from the tarmac and the long straights provide them ample opportunity to utilize the full potential of their mighty engines.

still improving rapidly. Abbring powered through the opening stages with only Bouffier able to beat him once. Unfortunately for the Dutchman he suffered a puncture on the fourth stage that dropped him down from first to fifth. After service Abbring went right back to business and stunned the opposition by taking back six seconds on stage five. Perhaps he was pushing it a bit too hard because on stage six he suffered a heavy off. After going a bit too fast through a left-hand corner, the car hung in a ditch. The only option of ever getting out of there was for Abbring to keep his foot down, which he did. Unfortunately the ditches around Ypres are marred with little cross Abbring shows his class sections and inevitably one was coming up. AbLast year Kevin Abbring held his own against Loix bring hit it and the car somersaulted into the field in Ypres, but this year he clearly showed he is behind, ending his rally.

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Abbring started furiously, but his charge ended prematurely in a ditch.

The rear wheel drive Porsches provide an awesome spectacle.

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Review

Breen moves up Abbring wasn’t the only one to hit trouble. Loix suffered a puncture in the exact same corner and also lost a considerable amount of time. During the day all stage wins were divided between Abbring and Bouffier. The Frenchman was a bit inconsistent though and as a result the lead at the end of the day belonged to Craig Breen. Bouffier followed by just under five seconds with Lefebvre quietly moving up to third and Kris Princen in fourth. After his puncture, and having difficulties finding the proper rhythm all day, Freddy Loix was down in fifth. Best of the Porsches was Romain Dumes who was up to ninth, soms fice seconds seconds ahead of Francois Delecour.

It’s not over yet On Saturday morning Craig Breen set about to defend, or if at all possible, expand his lead. He did so by winning the opening stage and although Freddy Loix won the next two, Breen extended his lead over Bouffier to over twelve seconds.

Things went downhill from there though. On the first passage of the infamous Kemmelberg stage Breen suffered a puncture. In an attempt

to regain the time lost on the next stage, he pushed too hard and went off into a field. Plowing through it to get back onto the road Breen collected a decent amount of debris in his front grill. This blocked the flow of air into his engine, causing it to overheat. At the stage finished they tried to remove the debris but to no avail, the engine had switched into protective mode and would not restart.

Hollebeke strikes Hollebeke was the stage were Breen ended his rally, and it turned out to be deciding stage of the rally. Not only Breen retired, his teammate Lefebvre was in trouble too when he lost three minutes with a puncture.

The demise of the Peugeots promoted Bouffier into the lead, but he had to keep a very close eye on his rearview mirror as a certain Belgian in a Skoda crept closer and closer.

It wasn’t Bernd Casier who was another victim of the Hollebeke stage when he rolled his Fiesta R5 out of a solid top five position. It was of course Freddy Loix who was starting to get more and more to grips with his new Fabia found himself just four seconds off the lead.

Top to bottom: Breen led after the opening day, but couldn’t hold on.

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A puncture hampered Lefebvre’s charge for top honours.

The King of Ypres still reigns supreme.

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Review

Finale Loix had been playing the waiting game. Early on he wasn’t completely at ease in the Fabia R5 and rather than taking huge risks by pushing beyond a pace he felt comfortable with, he settled behind the front-runners.

Knowing fully well how tricky the rally can be he opted to keep a steady pace and focus on improving the setup of his car, waiting for others to hit trouble. And sooner or later, they all did. Abbring was the first to retire and on the second day Breen and Lefebvre fell out of competition too.

With only Bouffier to deal with, Loix started putting on the pressure. Chipping away at the lead a second at a time he inched closer and closer until Bouffier faltered on the 15th stage when he suffered a puncture and lost two minutes. With just two stages left there was no way Bouffier would be able to make up the time without any problems for the Belgian. Those problems didn’t come and thus Loix was able to cruise home to take his milestone tenth win at the Ypres Rally.

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Juniors A similar battlefield could be found with the ERC Juniors. The championship leaders were all quick, but also hit trouble. Griebel and Bergkvist were the early pace setters with Gago and Ingram in hot pursuit. Bergkvist and Ingram both retired early on the second day seemingly handing vic-

tory to Griebel. Gago closed in on the German, but was too far behind to put up a serious challenge. Everything changed on the final stage though when Gago had to retire and Griebel lost nearly minute. Consequently, Alex Zawada was the man with the biggest smile as he pipped Griebel to take the win with just over a second to spare ahead of Griebel.

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Results 37/43

Overall final classification 1. Loix – Gitsels 2. Bouffier – De La Haye 3. Verschueren – Hostens 4. Magalhães – Magalhaães 5. Lefebvre – Prevot 6. Orsák – Smeidler 7. Tarabus – Trunkát 8. Duquesne – Cuvelier 9. McCormack – O’Reilly 10. Vanneste – Snaet

Skoda Fabia R5 2:21.29,9 Citroën DS3 R5 +1.27,5 Citroën DS3 R5 +2.02,5 Peugeot 208 T16 +2.53,1 Peugeot 208 T16 +3.01,9 Skoda Fabia S2000 +3.20,8 Skoda Fabia S2000 +4.25,0 Ford Fiesta R5 +5.46,2 Skoda Fabia S2000 +5.48,2 Ford Fiesta R5 +5.48,3

Kenotek Ypres Rally / Standings 38/43

2015 FIA ERC Drivers Standings 1. Craig Breen Peugeot 208 T16 2. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 3. Robert Consani Citroën DS3 R5 4. Alexey Lukyanuk Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X 5. Bruno Magalhães Peugeot 208 T16 6. Freddy Loix Skoda Fabia R5 7. Jaromir Tarabus Skoda Fabia S2000 8. Siim Plangi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 9. Bryan Bouffier Citroën DS3 R5 10. Dominykas Butvilas Subaru Impreza WRX

124 pts 103 pts 55 pts 43 pts 38 pts 35 pts 34 pts 28 pts 28 pts 26 pts

Rally-eMag / For My Friends

for my friends When travelling the world to snap the WRC, our photographer Bas Romeny comes across many interesting scenes, both rally related and not-so rally related. Here are his finds from Portugal and Sardinia.

Lake district anno 2015..... and anno 100 years ago

As we are a biking country, why not see Warsaw in this way? we loved it!

I like this license plate for classic cars

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Or as cold as the back side of your pillow, as we say in Holland.

Push Sordo, push!

At ceremonial start: Ogier greets a Polish hero

The tips of the stork’s wings are exact copies. How won derful nature is..

In a blink of the eye, I read: Gypsy grabs me by the balls. Ah well..sigh.

I see on the left a girl with red hair and a knitted hat, kissing a dark colored rabbit.

I agree, my fantasy is running wild, now and then..

Wrong T-Shirt...

In the eye of the Golden Boy Bertelli, never saw a selfie with the interior of a WRC car and me standing outside..

see you next time...