2WD Winners in ERC Bosphorus Rally!

Last weekends Bosphorus Rally is the longest round of the Turkish Rally Championship as well as being the 6th round of the European Rally Championship. Its been an absolutely crazy week with activites starting on Monday and the race adrenalin extending until Sunday afternoon. What makes this rally special is a number of high profile visiting competitors with IRC and SWRC champion Juho Hanninen amongst them. Also Bosphorus Rally has 1.4 coefficient in Turkish Rally Championship so it was a must finish rally for us.

We had a very positive build up to the rally. After Istanbul Rally our cars have all been in the good hands of our mechanics. We had a good recce session and the competition day finally arrived. Run over 3 days in Istanbul for over 250 kilometers of competitive action, Bosphorus Rally always turns out as one of the epic rallies in European Rally Championship calendar.

We had the start ceremony in Haydarpasa port on Friday and had two stages. Our goal for this race was to start at a relatively good pace and increase it as the race progresses. As in any race this season, right from the start of the first stage we got into a very close battle with our teammate Emre for the 2WD category and Class 6 win. After the two stages on Friday, we ended the day 1 seconds behind our teammate and in 14th place overall.

We tackled 90 kilometers of competitive stages on Saturday with the fans favorite Halli stage being run twice. We spent all day swapping the lead between Emre and us and managed to complete the 90 kilometer day 4 seconds ahead of our teammate and in the lead of 2WD category. In the overnight service technical team did a fantastic job of checking the car and replacing the bent steering arm. Looking back on Saturday, its been quite stressful day, however I believe the fans should have enjoyed the competition in the 2WD category.

Sunday and the final day of competition saw us complete 120 stage kilometers and was the longest of the rally. We started the morning well and managed to increase our 4 second lead to 29 seconds before the third stage and midday service. However we got the news of our teammate retiring due to mechanical failure and it meant that competition was over for us. During the midday service, we checked our overall position and decided that we would take no risks, so we just drove very carefully to the finish.

At the end of the race, we won the two wheel drive category, won class 6 and got 10th overall. Its an absolutely fantastic result for us and our team. Our teammates driving the Fiesta S2000’s have finished 2nd overall and 4th overall which means we got close to maximum points for the Teams Cup championship.

I would like to thank all the technical team, the support team, and the timing support team for their efforts. Its been an exceptional rally for us.

Now its time to concentrate on the next rally which is in 3 weeks time. We will be near Istanbul again in Kocaeli, and its our home rally – FORD Otosan Kocaeli Rally. So until then, goodbye.

Orhan Avcioglu & Burcin Korkmaz