ŠKODA Customer Teams Weekly 28/2017

ŠKODA FABIA R5 driver Manvir Baryan (Multiple Racing Team) is on the brink of the FIA African Rally Championship title after victory at the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally (8th to 10th September), the penultimate round of the ARC season. It was his third victory in a row and means that he is all but mathematically certain of being the champion.

Knowing that the title was his to lose before this rally, Baryan and his British co-driver Drew Sturrock were keen to avoid any unforced errors in Rwanda and so took a cautious approach to this rally. But despite that, they dominated proceedings with a composed and impressive drive, winning every special stage on the way to a comfortable victory. They ended up 3 minutes and 34 seconds ahead of their closest rivals.

Baryan leads the championship from Zambia’s Leeroy Gomes, who only finished fourth in Rwanda. ŠKODA driver just needs to finish at the final event of the season, the Zambia International Rally, which takes place on 21st and 22nd October, to be sure of the title.

At the Rallye Niedersachsen (8th to 9th September), the seventh round of the German Rally Championship, there was a first ever win in the series for Dominik Dinkel. Driving in a ŠKODA FABIA R5 for Brose Motorsport, with the car prepared and run by Baumschlager Rallye & Racing team, Dinkel and co-driver Christina Kohl finished 19.6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Fellow FABIA R5 driver Fabian Kreim and co-driver Frank Christian also finished on the podium in third place for the ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland team. Their car was also prepared and run by the BRR team. It was Kreim who had won the previous three rounds and set the early pace with five wins from the first eight special stages. But in wet and slippery conditions in SS9, Kreim found himself stuck in a ditch and it was only with the help of many spectators that he was able to get his car back on the road. But the error saw him slip down to third place and he did not have enough time in the four remaining stages to make up the time he had lost.

That left the way clear for the Dinkel to secure his first ever German championship win. It was a composed drive in difficult and changing conditions from the young German, who won four stages himself and only finished outside the top three once as he secured the points which moved him up to second in overall championship standings and ensured that if Fabian Kreim wants to retain his championship title, he will have to do it at the final rally of the season.

Kreim was very pragmatic about his misfortune during the rally and - in the end - was happy with the points he won.

That final deciding round of the championship will take place on the 20th and 21st October. Fabian Kreim goes into it with a healthy 21 point lead over Dominik Dinkel, with René Mandel, one point further back, also capable of winning it too.

There was an impressive victory for ŠKODA FABIA R5 driver Filip Nivette at the Rajd Dolnośląski (8 to 9 September), the fourth round of the Polish Rally Championship, which has extended his championship lead.

Nivette won the opening two rounds of the Polish season at the Rajd Świdnicki and the Rajd Gdańsk and he was once again in merciless form as he powered to victory by a comfortable margin of 1 minute and 21 seconds, winning eight of the nine special stages driven in the process. Driving alongside co-driver Kamil Heller in a FABIA R5 prepared and run by Kresta Racing, Nivette was briefly challenged by Lithuanian and fellow FABIA R5 driver Dominykas Butvilas, who won the SS2 to take the lead in the rally. But a mistake on the new SS3 in Duszniki Arena, forced him to retire (although he did return to the rally in the second leg) and from that point on Nivette was never troubled at the front.

Filip Nivette now holds an advantage of 39 points over his closest championship rival, Tomasz Kasperczyk, who finished third here. That means he can clinch the title with a good performance at the penultimate rally of the season. That will be the Rajd Nadwiślański, which takes place from 29th September to 1st October.

Burak Çukurova took the lead in the Turkish Rally Championship after his victory at the Istanbul Rallisi, the fifth round of 2017 season. Çukurova and co-driver Vedat Bostanci claimed their second successive win in a ŠKODA FABIA R5, which was prepared and run by Topp-Cars Rally Team under the BC Vision Motorsport moniker, after their success at the Yeşil Bursa Rallisi earlier this summer.

He once again found himself in a tight contest with championship rival Yagiz Avci at this event, with Avci holding the lead at the end of special stage 7. But he was forced to retire during SS8 and that left the way clear for Çukurova to claim what was - in the end - a comfortable victory, by a margin of 3 minutes and 12 seconds, with four stage victories en-route too.

The other FABIA R5 taking part, which was also a BC Vision Motorsport car prepared and run by Topp-Cars Rally Team, was driven by Erkan Güral and co-driver Burak Kocoglu. They finished just off the podium in fourth place overall.

The next and penultimate round of the Turkish Rally Championship will be the Rally Turkey which takes place from 20th to 22nd October.

ŠKODA Motorsport works driver and the new WRC2 Champion Pontus Tidemand made a guest appearance at the final round of the Swedish Rally Championship, the East Sweden Rally (8th to 9th September), in preparation for the next round of the WRC2. And he tasted victory on home soil.

But they didn’t have things all their own way as Per-Gunnar Andersson and his co-driver Emil Axelsson, who was Tidemand’s partner in 2015, put in an impressive showing in their ŠKODA FABIA WRC. They won and led the standings for three stages, before being forced to retire on SS5. That left the way clear for Tidemand, but he didn’t hold back, driving at full speed to give the fans a show despite the wet and slippery conditions.

The other FABIA R5 to finish high was the Riflex Sport car of Martin Hagman / Göran Schönqvist, who finished fifth in the overall standings and third in the Swedish championship results.