ŠKODA Customer Teams Weekly 24/2017

There was a podium full of ŠKODA FABIA R5 cars at the Rally Acosta Ñu (11th to 13th August) in Paraguay as reigning Paraguayan and CODASUR champion Gustavo Saba led home a One-Two-Three finish for ŠKODA drivers. Saba, alongside co-driver Fernando Mussano, was driving for his own Saba Competicion team and claimed what was his fourth victory in six rallies in the Paraguayan championship this year.

In wet and muddy conditions, with winds so strong that one of the tents in the service area was blown away, Saba won the opening special stage and then consolidated his lead as over fellow FABIA R5 driver Miguel “Miki” Zaldivar for the rest of the day to lead by a margin of almost 17 seconds. On the second leg, Saba employed all of his experience and knowledge of the car to cope with the challenging conditions and extended his lead considerably, ending up 1 minute 47.9 seconds ahead of the field by the finish.

Miki Zaldivar / Edgardo Galindo held onto second place in their FABIA R5, while 1 minute and 4 seconds behind them, Didier Arias / Hector Nunes moved into third place as other driver struggled with the slippery conditions on the course. The result means a FABIA R5 has won all six rounds of the Paraguayan Rally Championship so far and Gustavo Saba has extended his lead at the top of the overall championship standings and is close to retaining his title with just two rounds remaining.

The next and penultimate round will be the Transchaco Rally from 29th September to 1st October.

David Bogie and his co-driver Kevin Rae claimed their third victory of the year in the Scottish Rally Championship at the Grampian Stages Rally (12th August) in Aberdeenshire. Their win in this six-stage event was a dominant one. They led from the start and when arriving in the service park for the first time, they already had two special stage wins to their name and a gap of 14 seconds back to their closest rivals. And there was no let-off afterwards as Bogie continued to show his class in his ŠKODA FABIA R5. He won the crucial SS3 Drumtochty North by a margin of 12 seconds and never looked back, winning the final three stages too to end up a huge 58 seconds ahead of his closest rival.

The next and final round of the Scottish Rally Championship will be the Galloway Hills Rally on 9th September.