Sergei Remennik and Marina Danilova won European Rally Trophy 2018!
The European Rally Trophy 2018 final round ended on Saturday in the Portuguese Algarve; its entry list consisted of 34 crews from 11 countries, including Russians. The duet of Sergei Remennik and Marina Danilova from Russian Performance Motorsport team won the rally in the ERT 2 division and won the European Trophy among crews in production cars.
The Friday route was tight and dynamic, representing a double passage of two asphalt special stages in the Monchique Sierra mountains. And after the midday service the action ended at thethe Super Special Stage from Lagos City Hall. An additional intrigue was made by the surface changing from passage to passage: at every turn, where it was possible to cut, a large amount of gravel and soil was brought to the asphalt. In these places the grip tended to zero, and there were lots of turns in the mountains.
Much like the roads through the Algarve’s Monchique Sierra, featured many twists and turns, the finishing crews order in the ERT-2 standings also changed from stage to stage. The Portuguese Ricardo Costa won the first two of them, and the next two were conquered by Sergei Remennik, however, the turn of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X at thespecial stage Alferce did not allow him to finish the first leg as a leader. William Mavitti and Mustafa Çakal finished third and fourth in succession. Moreover, the Turk also could not avoid problems at the Fóia 2 special stage, but he lost much more time.
Sergei Remennik, driver, “Amazing rally, in fact, very difficult. It was really cool! At the very first special stage we were turned around in the hairpin because of my annoying mistake, and the car hung. We thought that we wouldn’t go back to the track. And the whole race was like this – with cliffs at the edge of the road and some other similar things – it really braces up! Ricardo Costa was very fast. We gave him a head start in 20 seconds at the first special stage, and then quietly “bit off”, so there was only 2 seconds between us by the end of the first day!”
On the second leg the rally roads were laid in the same area as the day before. The route was divided into two sections of three special stages, and the finish podium was located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the beach town of Portimão. The positional game between Ricardo Costa and Sergei Remennik did not happen, because during the sixth special stage of the rally the Portuguese had troubles with the steering that forced him to abandon his further struggle and retire.
Sergei Remennik, driver, “On the second day there was also a quest – would it rain or not and what kind of rubber should we use for this asphalt? Everything was incomprehensible. In the end I decided that we would use a hard mix for asphalt and it worked. We were determined to fight, but, unfortunately, the Costa’s car power steering was broken down. And then it was an easy victory, because the other guys couldn’t pursue us.
The road surface is a separate issue, because it was not a rally, but a rallycross. Rubbish in the “cuts”? Oh, there are so many things brought to the road by the wheels! Just to understand the grip level: “nails” on ice are super cute, asphalt tyres on clean asphalt are very-very cool, on gravel – just cool, but asphalt tyres on dirty asphalt, and somewhere on gravel or mud – this is a complete …, in short, it doesn’t hold. But in the end everything went well (laughing). We reached the finish line, and I can say that Marina is really great! She reads the notes nicely and feels my driving style. She is an incredibly experienced co-driver and I believe that this rally was excellent thanks to her!”
Marina Danilova, co-driver, “The rally was good! There was such an easy schedule at the recce, and then during the race everything was very fast. The special stages are good: interesting, narrow, slippery in places, even scary a little, with a change of pace. I have to say a couple of words about the Monchique stage – it’s a road “for adults”, with tattered pace and spectacular cliffs, it offers a great view, but it’s a little bit worrying to drive there (laughing). It’s good we didn’t have to push hard at this stage”.
Sergei Remennik and Marina Danilova won Rallye Casinos do Algarve in the ERT 2 category, the Turkish crew of Mustafa Çakal and Mehmet Köleoglü took the second place, and William Mavitti and Brian Daniels ended their second visit to Portugal with well-deserved bronze award.
A short off-season comes in the European rally, Sergei Remennik and his regular co-driver Mark Rozin plan to have an ice test session at the Arctic Circle in late December.
But the awards ceremony goes first! The second cup in a career in the FIA European Rally Championship is waiting for its place on the shelf – for the second place in the ERC 2 category (Production). The winners honoring ceremony will be held on 3 December in Paris.
We also recall that Sergei and Mark became the European Rally Trophy prize-winners in 2016, when they took the third place in the production standings.
The European Rally Trophy consists of seven multi-stage competitions that generally comply with the same technical and sporting rules as the European Championship, but with a few nuances. Vehicles with not international, but only national sports certification are allowed to participate in those countries where this certificate was obtained. Although the crews of such cars are not allowed to score points in the series.
The best drivers from every region in each of the four categories – ERT, ERT 2, ERT 3 and ERT Junior – claim to participate in the final round that is held in Portugal for the second time. This is a kind of confrontation – the battle for fame and recognition among the strongest European racers, and one of the most exciting events in the rally calendar. In addition to the ERT finals status, Rallye Casinos do Algarve is also the last round of the Portuguese Rally Championship and Peugeot Rally Cup Iberica.
To consider the opportunity to perform at the Rallye Casinos do Algarve for Sergei Remennik and Mark Rozin in the beginning of the season was only possible having the gift of foresight. Therefore, by the time of departure for the pre-start events, permanent crew co-driver Mark Rozin was fully engaged with his main job and could not take part in the rally. But Remennik decided to experience something new – participation in the rally with asphalt surface in addition to the female co-driver… so he invited Marina Danilova, the four-time rally champion of Russia in overall standings, whose rally experience exceeds the experience of Sergey three times!
Sergei Remennik, driver, “It was very interesting at the tests, I liked how we interacted with Marina. She feels my driving style and leads me well along the special stage. On the test road we saw a feature of this rally – when the local crews brought the dirt to the asphalt and rolled it out in the corners, the track turned into something awful! It was neither asphalt nor gravel – it was incredibly slippery in some places. And I think that the biggest danger that will be waiting for us at the rally is dirty asphalt. Moreover, in places crews simply bring gravel and stones, they also slip there. And some of the turns are filled up with fat black soil, it’s just something incredible! And as the locals said, if it rains (and according to the forecast it is expected on Saturday), it will be extremely fun! Let’s see, it’s experience.
We planned to do the recce a little bit later to see how the crews, familiar with these roads, would map the cuts. Because when we recorded several sections, we didn’t even think that in some places it was possible to cut SO! These places look pretty scary (laughing). In such attempts to cut turns at the tests we punctured five wheels – we just cut them. Of course, you need to know where and how to cut here. I can’t say it’s just a simple asphalt rally (laughing). On the first day of the recce there was fog in the mountains; the rally roads are mainly laid in the mountains, and we expect rain in the days of the rally. In some places the surface is very dirty, destroyed, the road is narrow and the asphalt on it is present very conditionally, it’s even worse than it was in the Czech Republic. And in some places the track is very good! It turns out to be a mixed and very difficult distance”.
Rallye Casinos do Algarve is scheduled in a two-day format. On Friday, after the Ceremonial start, the crews will find five special stages with a total distance of 54.6 km. On Saturday there will be six more stages (103 km) and the finish podium. The total distance of the rally is 458.78 km, 157.68 km of them are competitive.
Smooth speedy gravel tracks of Latvia suit the production class vehicles perfectly – they do not face extreme loads and difficult technical problems, like on the asphalt roads in other European races or mountain spiral roads of island rallies in the beginning of the season. But in a technical sport it is impossible to eliminate problems completely… the power steering fluid leakage added a degree of drama to the competition. At Sunday fourth section finish the crew recorded smoke coming from the engine compartment. It turned out that the power steering hydraulic system was empty – all the liquid had drained out and, getting to the hot parts of the engine, created this smoky effect. The driver had to build up muscles on his arms a little, driving the clumsier car on the liaison to day service, but the problem was easily fixed by the mechanics and the dodged-up car was released to the final section of the rally.
Sergei Remennik, driver, «As fate has willed, Paulo Nobre and we opened the field movement at this rally – we were among the first and cleared the trajectories for the other participants. Starting positions were distributed like this by the qualification results. It was slippery and even unpleasant in narrow wooded places; I think we lost enough to the rest of the guys there. The Latvian roads are excellent; they were almost unbroken by wheels to the second section, but the grip increased in relation to the first passages of special stages. There was a huge difference in the results between us and similar cars that started after the thirtieth position along clean paths and participated only in the Latvian championship. If you look at the results on the second day, we remembered how to drive fast. We drove very cool, we didn’t have any tournament tasks here – we came just to have fun and we succeeded! We did a great job with Lucas at the tests before the race, and then there were 200 kilometers of buzz, when you slide on these roads in a heavy car, passing turns and a smile doesn’t leave your face. The pure pleasure of the process components are excellent roads, you, the co-driver and the car!»
A nice bonus to the Rally Liepaja 2018 awards for Sergei and Mark was the prize for victory in the Baltic Rally Trophy racing series round. Following the last three BRT rounds, the crew of Sergei Remennik and Mark Rozin divided the first place in the ERT-2 standings with the other two crews and got the opportunity to participate in the big European final – Portuguese Rallye Casinos do Algarve that will be held on 16-17 November 2018.
Additional information: The European Rally Trophy (ERT), is made up of a total of seven regional competitions which follow broadly the same technical and sporting regulations as the European Rally Championship. Three categories are contested in each event – the main ERT class comprising of eligible R5 and S2000 machinery, ERT 2 for eligible Group N cars and ERT 3 for eligible 2WD Group R, Group A and Group N cars, plus Super 1600 and Group A kit cars. There is also an ERT Junior class for competitors born on or after 1 January 1991 and driving R1 or R2 cars.
Sergei Remennik, driver, “We had tests and now we feel a big break – we had a lot of time from the previous race; last time I was driving a rally car in Rome, and, unfortunately, there was no practice from that moment. We were tied up with the main work, and the situation in the series after the Italian rally was quite obvious. We are not caught up by Juan Carlos Alonso, going third, as we can’t get Tibor Erdi. There are no tactical tasks for Rally Liepaja; it is not necessary to participate in the race, but I miss driving so much, especially since this race is “home” for our team, because we are served by a team from Latvia! At the end of the season we will plan what we to do next – where we will participate and how. I don’t expect any good results after a long break, but I’d like to drive the race steadily and enjoy it!”
There are 12 special stages, six of them are scheduled for Saturday and six more for Sunday, including the longest special stage of the race, the 24.99-kilometer “Liepaja (Tebra)”. The total rally distance is more than 824 kilometers; 205.83 kilometers of them are competitive.
Yesterday the schedule was shifted for an hour and a half. The final day of Rally di Roma Capitale was extremely challenging in terms of the organization and began with the first special stage (SS-9) cancellation for security reasons. It was the longest stage – 28.6 km, repeated at the first and second sections of the day; the participants were right to apprehend that the number of high-speed kilometers would be drastically reduced. The struggle on the track resumed only at SS-10 that started with a half-hour delay, and that delay “dragged” the rest of the day timing behind it.
At the beginning of the second section that surprisingly started with a delay of just under 10 minutes, it seemed that the organizers had coped with all the sudden upheavals. The fight at the 12th special stage resumed to the full: Nikolay Gryazin and Simon Campedelli returned to the race with the help of Rally2 system with renewed vigour and enthusiasm, while the overall favorites of the race did not stop their opposition: Giandomenico Basso approached Alexei Lukyanuk for 0.8 seconds.
Alexey Lukyanuk, “To be honest, we are tired given the number of liaisons, the terrible heat, a small amount of sleep due to changes in the race schedule, the field delay. The goal was not to risk, we were psychologically ready to give the first place for the sake of points. We chose a good reliable pace; the last two special stages were passed well; although because of the Andreucci accident at the 13th special stage the field was delayed, we had to start with cold tyres, so we drove the first few kilometers carefully, so as not to make mistakes”.
The Uralians crew of Sergei Remennik and Mark Rozin continued the battle with the road in an unusual car. After not the most successful results of the first day it became clear that the goal is to keep the lead in the category cannot be justified due to minor technical problems, and it was not possible to overtake Tibor Erdi; the maximum was to shorten the gap to the second place claimed by Juhasz Csaba. During the night the mechanics coped with the problems of engine overheating and intercom system. And the first section of the day even began to please the driver, despite the delays with the competition schedule. But at the second section new problems emerged – the car began to stall.
Despite the decadent mood of the driver, guys steadily set the second time on the rally track and even won the spectator special stage; so as a result of Rally di Roma Capitale they secured the third position in the Production category.
Simone Campedelli lost about 11 seconds due to technical problems with the cardan shaft on the eve of the city special stage; so he actively put his foot down, thereby showing that victory is very important to him, and that his focus on success is undeniable. He won the first special stage of the day; at the 3rd stage of the first section he finished with the same time as Alexey Lukyanuk. Simultaneously two-time ERC champion Giandomenico Basso offered Campedelli a fight and by the end of the first section the Italians were divided by only 3 seconds. At the second section Basso was rapidly rising in the summary tables and tried to compete with Lukyanuk, while Campedelli punctured the tyres one by one. As a result, in the middle of the second section, after the SS6, Campedelli had to stop the fight due to the absence of spare tyres.
Alexey Lukyanuk, “After the first quarter of the day distance we created a gap of 15 seconds, drove reasonably – somewhere we accelerated, somewhere – slowed down; so there was no extra risk. I’m generally ready to be the second in this race, I don’t want to risk and desperately fight with the Italians, because the main rivals have already given up ground. I understand that our crew needs points. Even if we pass both days and finish the second, we’ll receive 30 points that is quite good. Although 39, of course, is better, but the risk of making a mistake is high. Therefore I drove at my own pace, not risking. Let the locals rush, and I need points – that is how I tried to persuade myself – and I really need it! In general, the day was too long: I’m so exhausted that I can’t stand or speak, the main thing is that we are ahead, and we have a small reserve, 15 seconds, but the pace is comfortable. So everything is fine”. 
The day started well, but in the middle of SS2, where there was a particularly narrow segment of the track, the brake fluid boiled up and Sergei Remennik had to slow down to a speed that would have certainly allowed to reach the finish. And then a series of punctures began: at SS3 – the front left, at SS4 – the front right. The crew decided not to change them during the special stages, so guys came to the finish line with rubber rags. This course of action, of course, did not give a cheerful spirit; but then a “knockout game” started among the small number of ERC2 participants. Juan Carlos Alonso became one of the “luckiest” drivers – the notorious punched tyres forced him to retire. But Remennik and Rozin, even with technical problems, managed to complete the day and consistently show the second result in their category in the second section of the day.
Sergei Remennik, “Sometimes it happens – no luck, no luck, no luck… and then suddenly, finally, no luck! And then again, no luck… (laughing). We lost on the first day and there was no sense to “insist” anymore; tomorrow there will be an opportunity to try to get bonus points for the day and see if something can happen, but to be honest, it is a dubious adventure – to overtake Erdi Tibor. The mood was just below zero after the first section, but after we finished all the special stages of today, I can introduce myself like this, “Hello, I am Sergei Remennik and I really like to change wheels!” I am the happiest person on earth: today I had the opportunity to change the wheels at each stage – it is a delightful, incredible feeling! Yes, we still have an overheated motor, so Mark and I drive preventively with the stove on – don’t worry, we’re not cold, we are very warm! And also there is an incessant wonderful sound in the ears, because the GPS is positioning and trying to send messages to the headquarters; this sound can be heard constantly in the headphones and in the helmet – it is constantly with me, thanks to which I am maximally concentrated! In general, we are all right, really. Thanks to everyone!”
The final day of the Italian rally will be no less exhausting, but requiring even greater concentration: the competition distance will increase slightly – 106.15 km, but the number of liaisons from one special stage to another will be reduced by almost 150 km – for the second racing day participants will overcome 363.37 km. The structure of the route will not change: the same three sections, two of which are divided into three stages and the final one with one single final spectacular super special stage.
Alexey Lukyanuk (driver), “Before the qualification race we had certain expectations that we would not be in the TOP: local drivers gave such unambiguous signals that they would “bring” Nikolay Gryazin a second from a kilometer at their home races. But in the end he won this race, and we were in just one tenth of a second behind him: the same situation as in the Canaries! And it’s very good, I’m in a festive mood – now I don’t have to worry about the first starting position and can quietly sleep at night. We worked a little with the car settings – as usual during the tests we didn’t manage to adjust everything well, but as it turned out, these new settings were not the most optimal ones. After the first part of the recce we went to the service and changed the settings, so I drove more confidently and even enjoyed it, because I worried for the first time. The mood is excellent, the weather is good”.
Sergei Remennik (driver), “During the recce Mark and I screwed everything in the car so that it was convenient, because at first everything was very strange and uncomfortable; the second time it was not so uncomfortable, and the third time we almost got used! In general everything is fine: we have the car, mechanics pay attention to our remarks about the settings, so the vehicle goes well. We will observe the opposition of local and our racers (two Alekseys and Nikolay and Yaroslav) from the front row; it will be very interesting. And in our category everything is steady. And, taking this opportunity, we would like to express our great gratitude to the team of mechanics and all those people who have made this start possible!”
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