Finland : Junior Rally Championship - PreviewAfter a well-deserved break for the C2 Junior Experience drivers, it's strictly back to business during the first weekend of August. The fourth round of this year's Junior Rally Championship takes place over the rapid gravel
roads of Finland, on the rally which is also well-known as the ‘1000 Lakes.'
The event is the third and final gravel round of the season for the Juniors – and it is also one of the quickest and most demanding events on the calendar. Yves Matton, Citroen Sport's customer competition manager, commented: “This rally is far from easy, but our cars have always been competitive in Finland. Dani Sordo's win with the C2 Super 1600 in 2005, and some excellent performances from Kris Meeke and Julien Pressac in 2006 show that Citroen has a great deal of potential in Finland, despite the well-known difficulty of the stages.”
The Citroen C2-R2 drivers will welcome a newcomer to their midst in Finland: Yoann Bonato. The Frenchman will drive a C2-R2 run by Bernard Piallat's PH-Sport team for the next two events. Along with his long-time co-driver, Benjamin Boulloud, Bonato aims to make his mark on the C2 Junior Experience. Yoann has made his way up through Citroen's junior formulae over the last five years, and he has much more experience of asphalt than gravel, but the chance to build up some knowledge of Finland's unique stages was too good a challenge for Yoann to miss.
Matton added: “We are very pleased to see Yoann in a Citroen once more. He's a very talented driver who made himself known on the French Citroën C2 Rallye Challenge.
His participation in these two Junior Championship events, which was also partly an initiative from the FFSA (French Motor Sport Federation), underlines our key objective: to take young drivers into the World Rally Championship and give them the opportunity to get noticed at the highest level. It's also very pleasing to see that the FFSA also believes the C2 Junior Experience to be an excellent way to promote young drivers in the World Rally Championship.”
The current C2-R2 series leader, Shaun Gallagher, will therefore face another strong adversary along with his usual rivals Raphael Auquier, Gilles Schammel and Stefano Benoni.
The C2 Super 1600 drivers were hardly putting their feet up during the summer break either. Conrad Rautenbach became the youngest-ever African Rally Champion, aged 22, Aaron Burkart took two class victories in the German Championship, and Martin Prokop took a podium on the Bohemia Rally – part of the European Championship. All three are now ready for the challenge of Finland. Rautenbach and Prokop are both competing on the event for the third time, and they hope to take advantage of the absence of their key rivals, Urmo Aava and Per-Gunnar Andersson. Aaron Burkart comes to Finland for only the first time. Despite the tough task ahead, he hopes to finish in the top five.
Matton, eagerly anticipating the rally start on Thursday night with the Killeri superspecial, concluded: “The C2 Super 1600 drivers are bound to match fit for Finland after competing all summer, which will help them greatly. Knowing our car's potential on this territory, I think that Prokop, Rautenbach and Burkart should all be competitive. If they do a good job, there's no reason at all why they shouldn't be on the podium.”
Citroen Sport
