Sardinia : OMV Junior Team - ShakedownIn comparison to the World Rally Cars that can take up to five runs during the shakedown, the junior category is put under pressure. The participants of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship are only granted two runs to find the perfect
set-up.
A fact that doesn't make things easier for the OMV Junior World Rally Team Aaron Burkart/Tanja Geilhausen in order to be ideally prepared for the upcoming 345 special stage kilometres of the Rally Italia Sardegna 2006.
Confident after tenth-best time
The Sardinia Rally may not be unchartered territory for Aaron Burkart, yet it still remains a challenge – which already showed during the 4,3 kilometres long shakedown on Thursday. The result was no priority for the OMV driver. The main focus was on finding the right set-up – which was no easy task, given the tight time-frame. Burkart: “The time granted for testing is so thightly scheduled that we were only able to do two runs. Which also means that we could only try two different shocks set-ups. Given these circumstances tenth time was surprisingly good and makes me confident for the race. After all, 18 teams in the Junior-class mean a tough competition at this rally.
“
Team Manager faces up to responsibility
The OMV Junior World Rally Team can count themselves lucky to have a seasoned pro like Jürgen Bertl amongst them. The native Bavarian has already been head of operations at Audi and Toyota (with Carlos Sainz) and partly responsible for four World Championship titles. References that have 23-year-old Burkart completely trust his boss' experience. Bertl: “Even though we do have a lot of data we weren't able to verify them in practice. Therefore we'll have to decide on one type of shocks and the best possible set-up. But I think we've made a good choice and will be able to fight for WRC points during the next three days.“
Press release Omv
