VICTORY AT LAST IN 2019 FOR LUKYANUK ON RALLY POLAND
First win of season for reigning champion as Brit Ingram suffers. By Graham Lister
Alexey Lukyanuk finally took his first win of 2019 to reignite his European Rally Championship title defence but, while the Russian left Rally Poland with maximum points, Brit Chris Ingram endured a weekend to forget in more ways than one.
Arriving in Poland one point behind championship leader and home hero Lukasz Habaj, Ingram was on bullish form before the start of a rally he’d described as a “rollercoaster on steroids”.
But the high-speed gravel event, a world championship counter until it reverted back to ERC status for 2018, offered pain and certainly no reward for the Briton, who suffered a badly burned hand while working in desperation to fix a water temperature issue two stages from home.
Even if Ingram’s Skoda Fabia R5 had survived the final two runs following the hasty repair, the pain from his right hand was overwhelming to the extent he was driven away for medical treatment.
Co-driver Ross Whittock was left to mind the stricken Toksport entry until help arrived, while reflecting on a
weekend that could have resulted in the ERC1 Junior title but, instead, ended in despair as Czech federation-backed Filip Mares took the category spoils and earned an unlikely shot at the championship with two rounds remaining.
Ingram’s woes began on Saturday’s opening run when he had to reverse onto the road following an off. A dog in the road on the next stage forced him to slow before a brake issue hit on the following run.
But it would get considerably worse in the afternoon when the power steering failed, leaving Ingram 15th overnight and a distant fifth in class.
Sunday began in far better circumstances for the 24-year-old and his third top-three stage time out of four at the end of SS13 pointed to what might have been. But a radiator clogged with sand from a rut caused the Fabia’s water temperature to rocket to 160 degrees centigrade.
“The first time we opened the [radiator] cap it was like a can of Coke going off,” Ingram said. “But the last time we tried to fix it and I unscrewed the cap, it just exploded everywhere. I had my glove on and the hot water just soaked my glove and I couldn’t get it off.”
Despite a double puncture, a broken damper, a replacement brake pipe and a troublesome clutch, Lukyanuk’s rally was tame in comparison and his victory courtesy of 11 stage wins out of 15 elevates him ahead of Ingram in the title fight, 11 points behind Habaj with half the season remaining.
Jari Huttunen followed Lukyanuk home in second, the same result he scored on Rally Poland in 2018, the Finn again armed with the factory-supported Hyundai i20 R5. Habaj completed the podium with Mares fourth.
The Czech was unimpressed having to
follow Polish title contender Miko Marczyk after the former karter rejoined stage 12 in front of him having stopped to change a puncture. To make matters worse, Mares picked up a puncture of his own later in the same stage, but he kept a class lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Hiroki Arai should have featured in the final top five only to roll into retirement on the final day. Double ERC Junior champion Marijan Griebel did likewise on the closing test as Essex-based Nabila Tejpar scored ERC3 Junior points.