Baja Aragon, Spain – July 19-21, 2013
FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, round 4
For immediate release
Sunday, July 21st 2013
OVERDRIVE RACING’S COFFARO FINISHES
FIFTH OVERALL IN SPAIN’S BAJA ARAGON
· Kaczmarksi fails post-event scrutineering in Teruel and loses fifth position
· Ogorodnikov rolls third Overdrive Toyota in test on Thursday and non-starts
TERUEL (Spain): Overdrive Racing’s Nunzio Coffaro finished fifth overall in Spain’s Baja Aragon, but Polish team mate Martin Kaczmarski lost out on his initial fifth position after his car failed post-event scrutineering on this fourth round of the 2013 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, which finished in Teruel on Sunday afternoon.
Kaczmarski and navigator Bartlomiej Boba set the seventh quickest time on the fourth and final selective section in the Lotto Toyota Hilux to confirm fifth position, but their car failed the post-event scutineering checks on a minor wheel and suspension travel technicality.
The Venezuelan duo of Coffaro and co-driver Daniel Meneses reached the finish in sixth place in the Team Azimut Toyota Hilux and moved up to fifth after the Polish duo’s misfortune.
Russian driver Leonid Ogorodnikov rolled the third Overdrive Toyota in a test on Thursday and he and co-driver Anton Nikolaev were unable to start.
“After the bad start, when we lost Leonid and Anton on Thursday, we came back strongly into the game and achieved this excellent result,” said Overdrive team manager Jean-Marc Fortin. “We had five cars in the top 10 in the Silk Way Rally last week and I am delighted that we can come here just a few days later and achieve this result in what has been a particularly busy July. It was just disappointing to see what happened after the final stage.”
Joan Roma set the fastest time on the opening 6.5km super special stage on Friday evening and Kaczmarksi and Coffaro settled into fifth and 11th overall in the two Overdrive Toyotas. Unfortunately, Ogorodnikov rolled the third car in a test and was unable to start.
The meat of the action began on Saturday morning with the first of two runs through a 157.21km selective section across remote Aragon countryside. Stéphane Peterhansel moved into an outright lead of 2min 19sec after the opening longer stage, with Kaczmarski and Coffaro in seventh and 10th after the Venezuelan and the Pole set good times in the stage.
The pair was seventh and ninth through the second 203.57km stage and reached the start of Sunday’s two selective sections in seventh and eighth overall. Roma led from Orlando Terranova in the overall standings.
The third section on Sunday was a repeat of the first stage on Saturday and Kaczmarksi set the fifth quickest time and climbed to fifth overall behind Roma, Terranova, Holowczyc and Peterhansel. Coffaro was eighth.
Peterhansel won the final selective section and climbed to third overall behind eventual winner Roma and Terranova and the Overdrive Toyota duo recorded the sixth and seventh quickest times and this enabled Kaczmarski and Coffaro to finish fifth and sixth overall, only for the Pole to lose out after post-race technical checks.
Ends
For further information: contact Jean-Marc Fortin (E-mail: jmf@overdriveracing.be), Overdrive S.A., rue de la métallurgie 37, 4530 Villers-le-Bouillet, Belgium, Tel: + 32 475 762 391. www.overdriveracing.be