Although two punctures deprived Ford Racing Hungary of the chance for victory, with two stage wins Imre Fodor and Gergely Németh finished third at Adrienn-Gombi Cup, first sprint round of the Hungarian Championship this season.
There were only five specials on schedule at Adrienn-Gombi Cup, first sprint type round of the 2014 season in Domony. It’s a peculiarity of this type of races that the gaps are very small and if any problem occurs the time lost is almost impossible to recover. Imre Fodor had two punctures in the first round that threw him significantly behind in the overall classification but he finished first in the next two specials and second in the last one behind the winner of the event, Miroslav Zapletal.
“We love these sprint type races but it’s obvious that here even the slightest mistake takes its toll. We had not one but two punctures right in the first round, one we changed, with the other we finished the special. This means we lost three-four minutes. After that, although we won specials, we were able to climb up only to the third place. Haven’t we had the punctures… But in motorsport the word ‘if’ doesn’t exist. The car is excellent, I think it still has much more potential then we can get out of it at the moment but we’re going to do our best,” the driver said.
The Domony event was special also in terms of team line up: for this race co-driver’s seat was occupied by young rally navigator Gergely Németh. “As after missing the season opener we don’t have too much chance to be able to defend our title, I decided to give opportunity for young co-drivers to taste cross-country rally at the sprint events. It would be nice to have a bigger field and who knows, maybe we find the next iconic navigator,” explained Fodor.
“This was a huge responsibility, for me cross-country rally is a brand new area, moreover, I competed in a top car. To make our task even harder, the odometer didn’t work, but despite this we clocked first and second times so I am happy. I think in cross-country rallies the co-drivers’ task is more complex than in classic rallies but I had a great time at the race,” – said Gergely Németh.
The championship continues on 14-16 August with HunGarian Baja that is besides counting for the national standings with a coefficient of 3 also a round of FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.
