in Junior Rally Championship 2007
Suzuki one and two at the top of the standings
Suzuki driver Urmo Aava has moved into the lead of the Junior Championship after a carefully-controlled drive to second place on the ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
P-G Andersson, who was forced to miss the fifth round of the series in Germany, is currently second in the Championship, making it a Suzuki one-two at the top of the standings.
Englishman James Wozencroft deputised for Andersson in Germany, and ran in the points before having to stop on the second day as a result of a broken wheel stud. He re-started the final day under the super rally system, and set some promising times while building up more experience at the wheel of the Suzuki Swift Super 1600.
“This rally was all about taking things carefully for me, particularly on the final day when it would have been so easy to throw all our hard work away. Now we can be very pleased with a job well done, which has given us the lead of the championship: our objective from the very first stage. It’s been a very difficult rally and I’m very pleased to get to the end,” said Urma Aava.
After claiming the British Super 1600 title last year in an Ignis, James Wozencroft already has plenty of experience of Suzuki. On his Junior Championship debut in the Suzuki Swift Super 1600, he used the tricky opening leg to acclimatise himself to the car and the notoriously variable road conditions and ended day one less than 30 seconds outside the points.
On day two the Englishman was forced to retire with brakes and suspension damage on SS10, the notorious Panzerplatte. Nevertheless “mission accomplished” was his conclusion on Sunday: “I’m very grateful to Suzuki for giving me this fantastic chance to gain experience of a world class event. I’ve enjoyed every minute.”
“Well done all,” said team principal Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima after the completion of the most complicated asphalt event of the year: “I would like to commend our drivers for getting through it safely and doing exactly what we asked, despite the difficult circumstances,” he stated.
“Urmo has moved into a well-deserved lead of the championship, and with P-G second we have a Suzuki one-two! I am also very pleased that we were able to give James this chance to gain some valuable experience, and he has clearly used the opportunity to the full.”
Junior Rally Championship classification, ADAC Rallye Deutschland:1 Martin Prokop (Citroen C2 S1600) 3h52m26.9s2 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Swift S1600) +49.5s3 Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen C2 S1600) +2m15.9s4 Aaron Burkart (Citroen C2 S1600) +4m24.1s5 Jozef Beres (Renault Clio S1600) +8m49.6s6 Jaan Molder (Suzuki Swift S1600) +9m22.4s7 Yoann Bonato (Citroen C2 R2) +13m05.6s8 Aigar Pars (Suzuki Swift S1600) +13m21.4s12 James Wozencroft (Suzuki Swift S1600) +32m56.1s
Junior Rally Championship after ADAC Rallye Deutschland (round 5 of 7):1 Urmo Aava (Suzuki) 322 P-G Andersson (Suzuki) 283 Patrick Sandell (Renault) 194 Jaan Molder (Suzuki) 175 Martin Prokop (Citroen) 166 Aaron Burkart (Citroen) 147 Josef Beres (Renault) 138 Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen) 11
