Rallies „Ţara Bârse" and „Avram Iancu": 2 drop-outs due to turbocharger breakdown!

The Ţara Bârsei Rally was split this year between Covasna and Braşov. The tracks around Covasna were all in excellent shape and so were the ones in Braşov between Săcele and Azuga resp. Predeal - they had been fixed and no longer had all the last year's bumps and potholes.

Our Preparations

Preparations began with a change in team: instead of  Heike, Bernd received his directions from Cristian Cibu, the experienced copilot of  Guenter Graef and winner of  last year's Group H Championship, as Heike could not make it for personal reasons.

The training ran smoothly as the new team felt confident and well prepared for the most beautiful gravel rally of  the season.

Our Evo had undergone a "general check" in France following the extreme stress in Sibiu on the drive train, wheel alignment, drive shafts - to mention but a few - and also to get rid of  the clutch problems once and for all. It has been an extensive overhaul with a hefty price tag: EUR 23.000,-. 

Prolog

The rally began just like last year with a showdrive in Braşov's old stadium, however this year it wouldn't count in the overall results. Thus, a number of  teams put up a real „Showdrive" and drifted spectacularly around the obstacles to the delight of  the public.

Tight maneuvering around the "cans" was never our cup of  tea; still, we secured the 3rd place at the end of  the show.

First rally day: Saturday, 30.08.2008

Conditions:

Weather: cloudy, partially drizzling; 

Roads:  dry, dusty, muddy

Saturday came with a total of  9 Special Stages (SS) scheduled around Covasna. The first SS is a hill-climb through the forest; we had a good start, yet after about 3 km we suddenly lost all power: no more turbo pressure and in turn a total lack of  acceleration!

Despite all of  our attempts to bring the Evo back on its feet, we could only manage to roll through the SS and leave the car standing.

This was sadly a premature end to a beautiful rally and the first drop-out due to technical failure in this season.

In the overall championship standing, we are still on second place due to our previous lead; chances for the title however are impacted through this failure to finish.

BRK-Rally Team