Haskasap wins 45th North Cyprus Rally
ENVER Haskasap won the 45th North Cyprus rally last Sunday to bolster his chances of claiming this season’s rally championship title.
Haskasap, together with co-driver Güner Şevketoğlu, won the eightstage, three-day sixth round of the season in a total time of 49 minutes and 16.5 seconds. They were competing in a Skoda Fabia R5 for the Near East University Drift Racing Team.
Goodyear Racing Team’s Çağkan Bozalanlar and co-driver Hasan Odun completed the rally in second place in their Ford Fiesta S2000 with a time of 50m 59.6s.
Barış Kalfaoğlu and co-driver Ahmet Özerdem from the Kıbrıs Online Rally Team managed to take the third spot on the podium in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, completing the rally stages in 53m 1.8s.
Halil Mulla, the current Basel Holding North Cyprus Rally Championship leader, was only able to finish fourth.
With six of the eight rounds of the season completed, Mulla has 92.6 points, with Kalfaoğlu in hot pursuit in second place on 91.7 points.
Haskasap’s win, which gave him 41.5 points, moved him up to third in the drivers’ standings on 88 points, while Bozalanlar dropped to fourth on 85 points.
Last weekend’s rally, organised by the North Cyprus Touring and Automobile Association (KKTOK) and sponsored by Gülgün Dairy Products, began last Friday evening with an opening ceremony and “Special Spectator Stage” inside Lefkoşa’s walled city.
That was followed by four more stages in Serdarlı last Saturday. Another four stages were planned to take place in Balıkesir on Sunday, but the first stage was cancelled
after the Ford Fiesta R5 of Cevdet Alptürk and co-driver Mustafa Yücener overturned.
While Alptürk escaped from the vehicle unharmed, Yücener was taken to hospital by ambulance as a precaution. He was later said to be in a stable condition.
After the stages were completed,
the teams returned to Zahra Sokak in Lefkoşa’s walled city where an awards ceremony was held for various categories and the overall top three.
The penultimate round of the 2022 season is due to take place on November 26-27, with the date of the final rally to be confirmed.