INGRAM SEALS TITLE AT THE LAST AS HOME HERO TURAN WINS
Brit and title rival Lukyanuk suffered late punctures to throw championship on its head.
Chris Ingram’s bid to become European Rally champion was going to plan for 12 of 14 stages, having survived the best mud, wind and rain that north-eastern Hungary could throw at him.
He headed into the final run knowing that if he held third then the title would be his having lost out on top ERC1 Junior honours by 0.3s in the summer.
The main prize was his for the taking but a front-right puncture on his Skoda Fabia R5 dropped him to fourth and behind defending champion Alexey Lukyanuk in the title chase – and seemingly prompt yet more misery.
But there would be one final twist when Lukyanuk picked up a puncture on his Citroen C3 R5 that dropped him from first to second overall and sixth in the leg order, which meant 27 rather than the 39 points he was on course to score. He lost the title by nine points.
There was an agonising wait while a timing issue was rectified, but tears of despair soon turned to tears of joy as it registered with Ingram that he’d taken the title – only the second Brit to do so since Vic Elford triumphed in 1967.
And Elford, who’d been following Ingram’s progress from back home in Flordia, was quick to offer his congratulations, informing his younger compatriot that he’d be opening a small bottle of champagne before lunch in celebration.
While Lukyanuk needed to win the rally to stand any chance of the title, Ingram was happy to play safe. And although Saturday’s leg was largely dry, mud and gravel sections were a constant hazard.
A seemingly comfortable second place soon became anything but when Ingram lost “about five or 10 seconds” with a half-spin and stall on Sunday’s opener.
And things would get worse for the Manchester driver on the morning’s second stage as a front-right puncture forced him to stop for a replacement before continuing.
He lost more than two minutes, which allowed stage winner Frigyes Turan to move into second behind Lukyanuk.
Lukyanuk made it through the treacherous stage 10 – which was so severe that organisers promptly canned the planned repeat later in the afternoon – with the fastest time. He also topped the city stage in Nyiregyhaza to take a lead of more than two minutes into the final loop of two stages with Ingram third behind Turan, but a comfortable
1m38s ahead of fourth-placed Norbert Herczig, the four-time Hungarian champion.
With Herczig picking up a fourth puncture of the rally on the final stage, Ingram was looking even more assured of the title when his world momentarily imploded.
Callum Devine, making his debut in a Hyundai i20 R5 and his first start in the European Rally Championship’s top tier, profited most from Herczig and Ingram’s punctures to climb from fifth to third behind the riled Lukyanuk and shock winner Turan.
The veteran ex-world Rally Championship regular marked Hungary’s return to the European championship for the first time since 2003 with a maiden ERC victory, having stated before the start that his lack of familiarity with his Fabia would make it a tall order to break into the top 10.
Devine, meanwhile, was one of a host of drivers to suffer a puncture delay, but he made the most of the opportunity handed to him through Motorsport Ireland support to complete the podium ahead of Ingram, whose cash-strapped ERC campaign hit the jackpot.