For this event the Suzuki Sport Europe Team fielded two cars; one for seasoned Suzuki driver – Aaron Burkart and the other for Suzuki newcomer Karl Kruuda. The two Suzuki pilots were up against stiff competition from no fewer than five other JWRC competitors. After the 4th stage Burkart surged into the lead in front of Neuville in a Citroen and Abbring in a Renault, eventually finishing the first day with a 7.5 second lead.

Kruuda in the second Suzuki was not so fortunate and was forced to retire from Day 1 due to collision with a previously non-pacenoted concrete block on the side of the road.

Day Two began with the early retirement on Stage 1 one of Citroen driver; Neuville due to gearbox trouble. Burkart’s Suzuki steadily increasing the gap over Renault driver; Abbring who eventually suffered electrical trouble and was passed on the leader board by another Renault driven by Broccoli culminating in a 1st place final result for Day Two for his fault free Suzuki S1600 claiming 7 out of 8 stage wins and a 4 minute advantage over Broccoli in 2nd with Abbring in 3rd. The second Suzuki driven by Kruuda also faired better, gradually increasing his speed and performance.

The task for Aaron Burkart on day three was to keep the impressive gap he held and to drive conservatively despite the extremely difficult slippery and muddy conditions. The weather working in his favour by forcing the organisers to cancel 3 out of the 6 stages due to very poor road conditions ensuring that a risk free performance was to result in retention of his position. Kruuda also benefitting and finishing Day 3 of the event without further trouble in 6th place.

“This is a very good start to the 2010 JWRC season and the first gravel success for me. The Suzuki Sport Europe Team worked very well, we had no trouble at all with our Swift S1600 apart from a couple of slow punctures and with the gap we held we could cope easily with these issues. We tried to push on Day 1 and then once we had the lead we just had to make sure we kept it to the end. Our first win, 1 WRC point and 25 JWRC points put us on top of the leader board and we are very happy. Our opposition Neuville and Abbring will for sure improve as the season goes on and we shall have to work hard to keep in front of them”… commented after the event.

Karl Kruuda also completed the shortened Day 3 without troubles and let him score 8 points for his 6th position.

“This event has been much harder than the Jordan Rally two weeks ago. I tried hard to avoid any mistakes but unfortunately did not make note of a roadside concrete obstacle during recce and my collision with it caused our retirement on Day 1. Re-starting the rally on Day two with a 37 minute deficit meant that a position greater than 6th was going to be very difficult. I am very disappointed and sorry for the team”…commented Kruuda.

Team Manager; Yasuhiro Ishii added: “In 2009, extreme rocky rough gravel conditions caused us a few issues and in order to rectify this, we homologated new steering and suspension parts over the winter break so that we could be more competitive in 2010. At this weekend Rally of Turkey, our new parts worked perfectly. Extensive pre-season testing focussing on suspension and setup with the Reiger suspension engineering support meant that we could achieve our maximum potential, we are very happy with Aaron (Burkart) and ecstatic that all of our efforts have resulted in this amazing win. We are sorry for Karl’s (Kruuda) trouble, he is young a relatively in-experienced, but he has a high potential, and he is learning fast !”

The second JWRC event for 2010 will be held in Portugal at the end of May. The Suzuki Sport Europe drivers and team will look forward to returning then and hopefully scoring more points towards earning the 2010 JWRC Champions title.