KOPECKY DOMINATES BUT INGRAM MISSES OUT ON ERC1 JUNIOR CROWN
British driver faces uncertain future after failing to land crucial cash prize.
Chris Ingram badly wants to win the European Rally Championship title, but he badly needed to win the ERC1 Junior crown on the Czech Republic decider.
With €100,000 up for grabs to the victor, the cash-strapped driver had planned to use the winnings to fund his outings on the closing ERC rounds in Cyprus and Hungary in his bid to become the first Briton since
Vic Elford in 1967 to take the European title.
After finishing third on the tricky sealed-surface event in
South Moravia, Ingram has moved a point in front of defending champion Alexey Lukyanuk with two events left.
But with Czech federation-backed Filip Mares taking the ERC1 Junior title and the cash, albeit by two points or rather 0.3 seconds following a dramatic winner-takes-all final stage in Zlin, Ingram now needs to dig even deeper into his depleted reserves to maintain his championship bid.
“I want the [overall] title so badly,” said a dejected Ingram at the finish in central Zlin on Sunday evening. The
ERC1 Junior title was all about the money. I’ve got to stay positive and start thinking because, right now, I don’t have the money to carry on.”
While Jan Kopecky cantered to a fifth consecutive Zlin win (the factory Skoda driver’s eighth in total), Ingram and Mares engaged in a furious scrap for the ERC1
Junior spoils and what would become second overall after punctures removed Nikolay Gryazin and Lukyanuk from the fight.
Having lost time on both runs through the Semetin stage – where he’d crashed badly in the past and never got to grips with since – Ingram appeared to have the upper hand when he beat Mares on Saturday’s leg-closing night stage to take an advantage of 3.8s into leg two.
But Mares forced his way ahead on Majak to lead by 1.7s with two stages left.
Ingram hit back on the legendary Pindula, which gave him a margin of 0.6s starting the final Kasava run, only for Mares to go faster by 0.9s and take the title spoils by a scant
0.3s after more than two hours of competitive driving, a wide moment for Ingram on the penultimate corner ultimately proving decisive.
Mares, who drives for Czech legend and three-time Zlin winner Roman Kresta’s eponymous team, now gets €100,000 to compete in Cyprus and Hungary, plus a coveted FIA European title, three years after the Czech ASN agreed to bankroll his step up from his national two-wheeldrive championship.
A truck driver from Skoda city Mlada Boleslav, Mares put his success down to “the drive of my life”, before acknowledging his main backer. “I would not be here without the Czech federation,” he said.
Tomas Kostka, the former circuit racer turned road cycling competitor and Kresta’s brother-in-law no less, took fourth with double ERC Junior champion Marijan Griebel fifth and Simon Wagner sixth and third in ERC1 Junior on his category debut.
Lukyanuk was 4.9s behind Kopecky when he punctured his Citroen’s front-left Michelin on Saturday’s penultimate stage. He soldiered to the finish, but the flailing carcass damaged the suspension and he was forced to retire from the leg.
After a puncture dropped
Gryazin out of contention on Saturday morning, a huge crash early on Sunday led to his exit.
Nabila Tejpar from Essex won the ERC Ladies’ Trophy.