BRC conquers Tour European Rally 2017
Basso and Granai win both competition and continental championship
The 58th edition of Rallye du Valais was great for BRC Gas Equipment, that wins one race in advance on the six event's calendar, gaining another important title and enriching its already prestigious palmares.
Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai, on board of the Hyundai i20R5, triumph in the Swiss race, gaining the rally and the championship, one year after the grat victory of the Italian title.
At Valais, Basso and Granai make a strong start, but commit a little mistake during the second Special Stage on Friday, losing some important seconds for the standings. Despite this hitch, BRC's pilots proof their experience and class, and manage to carry the next stages out at their best, ending Stage 1 in fouth position in the Overall Standings.
In Sutarday's Spacials, Basso and Granai set up the race on high rythm, paying particular attention to their direct antagonist, maning the fast and insidious trials in the best possible way. Thanks to some technical problems, and the consequent withraws of the leading contenders for the title, Basso and Granai get on the second podium this season, which means first place in 2017 edition of the Tour European Rally.
This is the fresh comment of the pilot from Treviso: “We knew this would have been a particularly hard race, both for the technical qualities of the track, and for the uncertain weather. Thanks to a good strategy and the fast and reliable Hyundai i20 R5, we were able to succeed in the competition and in tis challenging European Championship. We are very pleased to have won another title with BRC Gas Equipment, which I thank for the wonderful work done throughout the season”.
Lorenzo Granai lingers on Saturday's Specials: “In the second stage, when we decided to push on the accelerator, we won Special Stage 10, that assigned the Power Stage's 5 additional points, demonstrating that we can be very fast. During the next Stages we meintaned a steady pace managing the points for the Final Standings”.
Tour European Rally 2017 Standings
1. Giandomenico Basso 139
2. Bernd Casier 94
3. Stefan Göttig 33
4. Alexandre Camacho 28
5. Jim Van Den Heuvel 25
6. Luca Rossetti 22
7. Chewon Lim 21
Overall Standings Rallye du Valais 2017
1. Basso / Granai 2h05:45.8, 2. Casier / Vyncke +1:51.5, 3. Burri / Levratti +2:00.5, 4. Toedli / Chioso +2:16.4, 5. Althaus / Ioset +2:21.6