Kosciuszko
Retains J-WRC Title Lead in Sardegna
A full complement of four Suzuki Swift Super
1600 drivers took part in the Rally d'Italia
Sardegna, Round 5 of the 2009 Junior World
Rally Championship, this weekend (May 21-24).
A grueling gravel event on the Italian island
saw championship leader Michal Kosciuszko
enjoy hard-earned success in the heat and
dust of the Sardinian hills.
Day 1 saw the 2-litre
Renault of local man Alessandro Bettega lead
the way, but by the end of the second morning
Kosciuszko began reeling him in and Bettega
made a mistake and dropped five minutes off
the road, ending his challenge.
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This then opened the way for a battle
royal between Kosciuszko and Martin Prokop
in the Citroen C2, who finished first
and second in Sardegna in 2008.
Kosciuszko ended Day 2 with a 16.6 second
lead over Prokop with the next two places
filled by the Suzuki Swift Super 1600s
of Aaron Burkart and Yoann Bonato, while
Simone Bertolotti in the fourth Swift
Super 1600 crashed out but was repaired
to take the Day 3 restart. |
Day 3 saw the field go
out into long, sweeping stages and Kosciuszko
battled in vain to keep the massively experienced
Prokop behind him. Two dramatic moments on the
first and third stages saw the young Pole drop
27 seconds to his Czech rival, which he was
unable to recover, but nevertheless led Burkhart
and Bonato to a 2-3 finish, with Bertolotti
fighting to the finish despite his earlier incident.
About the Rally d'Italia Sardegna:
Italy's biggest rallying event, its round of
the World Rally Championship, has moved from
its traditional asphalt-based home in Sanremo
to the rough gravel tracks of the island of
Sardinia in recent years. The event is typified
by blazing skies, fierce heat and extremely
rough gravel stages that take a heavy toll on
the car and demand the very best reliability.
Suzuki entries on Rally d'Italia Sardegna:
Four Suzuki Swift Super 1600s competed in this
weekend's event: the famous yellow colours of
Suzuki were carried by the German crew of Aaron
Burkhart/ Michael Kölbach (number 31),
the Polish pairing of Michal Kosciuszko/Maciek
Szczepaniak (number 32) and the all-Italian
crew of Simone Bertolotti/ Luca Celestini (number
33). They were joined by the distinctive white
car of French pairing of Yoann Bonato and Benjamin
Boulloud (number 35).
News from Michal Kosciuszko (PL): Enjoyed
a trouble-free run through the 17 special stages
in Sardegna, and thoroughly enjoyed going into
a pitched battle with his longtime rival, Czech
ace martin Prokop, for the J-WRC victory.
“The
performance was really strong all weekend,
but as always we had to be careful with
our tyres as the stages are very tough
on them. We were able to pull back a lot
of time on the bigger-engined Renault
of Bettega, and when he went off we had
a good lead but knowing Martin he was
always going to be a threat. After I made
a couple of mistakes I really wanted to
conserve our points lead in the championship
and decided to drive at nine-tenths to
ensure we kept the points for second place.”
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News from Aaron
Burkart (D): Struggled to maintain
the pace of the three leading cars on the opening
day and found the stages to be incredibly rough
on Day 2. Held off all challengers to take a
hard-won podium finish.
“This is a seriously
tough event and to be honest my main concern
was staying on the road a lot of times. The
second day was ruined for me by the stage we
used for the seventh and tenth stages of the
rally, which is an old railway line. Seriously
they might as well have left the tracks down
there, it was impossible to attack it at competitive
speeds. I think in terms of damage limitation
we did OK and the podium finish was very welcome.”
News from Yoann Bonato (F):
The reigning FFSA Suzuki Rallye Cup winner started
rallying in 2002 but started the 2009 season
with only fiveWRC events under his belt. His
best J-WRC result to date was third in Corsica
2007. Away from rallies he works as a ski instructor.
“I'm learning all the time with each rally,
and there was much to learn here in Sardegna.
It was about the roughest terrain I have ever
experienced and that makes getting a good points
finish all the sweeter.”
.News from Simone Bertolotti (I): Simone
began rallying in 2003. His first world championship
rally was Sweden '05 and at the start of 2009
he had nine WRC starts under his belt. Away
from rallying he works for his family business
and likes basketball.
“It was really
disappointing not to be able to challenge for
more points or the podium at my home event.
Going out on Day 2 wrecked it for me, and after
that I just wanted to get to the finish and
learn as much as I could so that I can come
back stronger at the next event.”
Final results:
1. M. PROKOP Citroen C2 Super 1600 4:23:40.6
0.0
2. M. KOSCIUSZKO Suzuki Swift Super 1600 4:23:53.8
+13.2
3. A. BURKART Suzuki Swift Super 1600 4:31:55.4
+8:14.8
4. Y. BONATO Suzuki Swift Super 1600 4:34:45.2
+11:04.5
5. A. BETTEGA Renault Clio R3 4:35:40.2 +11:59.5
6. H. WEIJS Jr. Citroen C2 Super 1600 4:37:14.2
+13:33.5
7. S. BERTOLOTTI Suzuki Swift Super 1600 5:13:03.0
+49:22.4
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