Tank S Rally - 14-15 Mar 08

Wevers Sport satisfied with result Tank S Rally

Posted: March 20, 2008 1:14 PM

The opening round of the 2008 season has been a good one for the Wevers Sport team.
Three of the four entered cars placed themselves in top ten spots after finishing the Tank S Rally at Emmeloord. Erik Wevers and Jalmar van Weeren became the best placed Wevers Sport team. They came in lying in fourth place, but had to fight all second day to reach this result. René Kuipers and co-driver Erwin Mombaerts reached fifth place with their Subaru Impreza WRC. The Peugeot 207 S2000, driven by Dennis Kuipers and Kees Hagman placed themselves at position eight. John Temmink and Henk-Jan Elbert had to settle for a place far outside the pursued top ten.

Wevers, who knew the special stages in the Dutch provinces Flevoland and Overijssel were completely different from the Belgian stages in Hannut, was a little reserved before the Tank S Rally went underway on Friday evening. “What it’s going to be, I really don’t know. We will see tomorrow what the outcome has been”, he sounded carefully. Despite his reserved attitude Wevers started very well on the first stage near Kuinre. In the pitch-dark he only lost two seconds to Mark van Eldik in his Subaru Impreza, but he also noticed that the setup of the Ford Focus needed improvement. During the entire rally he and the Wevers Sport engineers changed the setup gradually working close together. At the end of leg one, having driven both the Kuinre stage and the industrial zone De Munt, a spectacular spectator stage, twice, Wevers and Van Weeren were only 8 seconds behind leader and raining Dutch champion Mark van Eldik. A breathtaking duel for every second on day two looked most likely.

Unfortunately the fight for the top spot stayed out of reach for Wevers and Van Weeren. On SS7 they hit a stone with the right side of the car. This catapulted them into a ditch causing a time loss of about two minutes. Instead of fighting for the victory they had to fight to get back in contention as they plummeted to place 13 in the leader board. After 16 of 21 stages they had fought their way back into the rally and were in sixth place. “We need to close a gap of 16 seconds to Jasper van den Heuvel. I think that is possible. I don’t know if we can catch René”, co-driver Jalmar van Weeren said in the servicepark before leaving for the final four stages. Wevers did what he had to do and made up enough time to pass Van den Heuvel and teammate Kuipers. Although he had to settle for fourth place, his result without losing two minutes in a ditch seemed more important to him: “Of course we lost some confidence after we went off. But we still managed to get back to fourth place coming from sixth. If I rule out the time loss of this morning we would only be 30 seconds behind.”

René Kuipers and Erwin Mombaerts had a difficult start in the rally. “I don’t know what happened yesterday evening”, Kuipers said halfway through the second leg. “We struggled. I just couldn’t find the speed and the rhythm. But today is better. We haven’t had any strange things. The speed is there and the rhythm is getting better and better. Kuipers and Mombaerts remained in fourth spot most of the second day. A fourth place inherited by the off of Wevers. “The speeds upfront are very high. We need to be concentrated all the time”, was the short analysis of Erwin Mombaerts. Kuipers and Mombaerts couldn’t hold on to the fourth place because Erik Wevers delivered a very fast pace on the final stages. They had to settle for fifth place.

The performance of Dennis Kuipers and Kees Hagman with their Peugeot 207 S2000 was surprisingly strong. They had to fight Jan de Winkel, Dutch J-WRC driver Kevin Abbring (both Renault Clio R3) and Marcel Piepers with his Honda Civic Type-R R3. De Winkel struggled with his Belgian rented Clio and was not able to mingle himself in the fight between Kuipers and Abbring. Kuipers made no mistakes and used his four-wheel drive better and better as the rally developed. He climbed from just outside the top ten, to eight place. “It’s going very well. We haven’t had any problems with the car. No scares at all. That shows that we’re not on the limit of the car”, he told surprisingly cool before leaving for the last stages. “We are not pushing anymore. No stupid things. We need to retain this place and bring the car home”, experienced co-driver Kees Hagman added.
Two stages later, at the end of the rally, Kuipers had a 14 second lead over Abbring and was firmly in place eight.

John Temmink and Henk-Jan Elbert had an all but smooth Tank S Rally. Even before he had driven one meter of special stage, Temmink was two minutes behind. He had been give a time penalty by the stewards for illegal recce, together with former Jan van der Marel co-driver Jan Berkhof. “We have to accept the penalty. Luckily for John it takes away the pressure a little”, co-driver Henk-Jan Elbert said. Just over 24 hours later Temmink was relieved to be on the podium again with his Skoda Fabia WRC in one piece: “I’ve been learning an incredible lot about this car. Only at the end of the rally I came to grips with the car. And that is good for my confidence in the car.” Temmink and his co- driver Elbert finished the rally in 22nd place over ten minutes behind Mark van Eldik.
Without his penalty Temmink would have been in 15th place.

Mark van Eldik First winner in Euro Rally Challenge

Posted: March 19, 2008 4:59 PM

The first round of the new Euro Rally Challenge has been won by Mark van Eldik and his co-pilot Michel Groenewoud. The Tank S Rally was held at the winding dikes of the Noordoostpolder on 14 and 15 March.

The twelve participants in the Euro Challenge Rally began on Friday evening with two special stages, each driven twice. The first stage in Kuinre was driven in the dark. This stage wasn’t new but in previous editions it was driven in daylight. Then the circus turned back to Emmeloord for a Super Special on the industrial park “de Munt”. Participants were started there each 10 seconds, according to the principle of a group start.

Mark van Eldik and co-pilot Michel Groenewoud were leading the rally in their Subaru Impreza WRC at the end of the first leg, before the Ford Focus of the other ERC promoter Erik Wevers. During the second leg Erik Wevers went off road and lost over two minutes in a ditch. That cleared the way for Harry Kleinjan (Skoda Fabia WRC) and René Kuipers (Subaru Impreza WRC) to climb in the rankings. Joost Kusters came at the start with his Subaru Legacy for the first time, but had to give up because of a broken turbo.

Under the watchful eye of the Hungarian Mihaly Hodula, whose car was still not ready, the challenge moved to Kampen in the afternoon. Classic stages from the Tank S Rally were waiting there for the teams. The special stage “Zwartendijk” turned out to be a gain for the rally with Belgian-like curves. Mark van Eldik almost went off during the second passage. He span and lost more than twenty seconds. Erik Wevers had engaged a great comeback which brought him to the third place at the end of the rally.

Jan de Winkel and John Temmink had a hard time in the Tank S Rally. Because his new Renault Clio R3 is not ready yet, Winkel had to start with a rented car. Temmink was given a time penalty of 2 minutes before the rally even had started. The only S2000 car in the field, the Peugeot 207 of Dennis Kuipers, performed excellent. The young pilot finished fifth in the Challenge and won in Group N.

Janina Depping was second in Group N behind the S2000 from Kuipers. The fast German lady drove a solid rally without errors. Her nearest rival Michael Pedersen had to stop the fight after eight stages. Edwin Schilt also had problems with his new Subaru Impreza N14. The computer of the car turned to the emergency mode repeatedly. Gerhard Sharkey drove a solid rally. Without any problems the Irish drove to the third place in Group N, before Schilt.

The next event of the Euro Rally Challenge is the ADAC Rallye Vogelsberg in Germany. This rally will take place from 17 to 19 April.

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Full Results and Times:

Tank S Rally

Posted: March 10, 2008 5:50 PM

• Premiere of the new international challenge
  "The party can begin !"
• Shark Attack In Holland
  Gerard Sharkey/John F. O’Mahony to compete in Dutch Rally Championship

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10/03/08
Premiere of the new international challenge
The Euro Rally Challenge opens its first season with the Tank S Rally in the Dutch Emmeloord. The first rally of the Rally clinic Dutch Open, the Dutch Rally Championship, will present a starting list that can only be dreamed of.

The Euro Rally Challenge is a new international competition performing in three countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Promoters Erik Wevers and Mark van Eldik, the two top drivers from the Netherlands, want the best pilots from different countries competing in some nice Rallies. This guarantees an exciting, but also friendly competition with entertainment, fun and spectacle. During the rally, competitors are fighting for every second but afterwards they can exchange their stories and have a party together with the teams, that is the motto of the Euro Rally Challenge.

There is no shortage of interested teams. At this moment, already 15 teams have registered from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark and Hungary. Even eight World Rally Cars have entered, Subaru Impreza WRC S12 for Mark van Eldik, Ford Focus WRC 06 for Erik Wevers and René Kuipers, Ford Focus WRC 05 for the Irishman Paddy White, Skoda Fabia WRC 05 for John Temmink and Harry Kleinjan, Skoda Octavia WRC for Ger Haverkate and a Toyota Corolla WRC for the Belgian Peter Desmet. It’s still not certain he will participate in all rallies because Melissa Debackere has entered for the Belgian Rally Championship with the same Corolla WRC. Dennis Kuipers has chosen for a Peugeot 207 Super 2000. The Dane Michael Pedersen and the German Janina Depping start with a Mitsubishi Lancer Gr.N, while the Hungarian Mihaly Hodula will bring a Lancer Evo6 Gr.A to the start. That the Euro Rally Challenge is not only interesting for top cars is demonstrated by the entries of Irishman Gerard Sharkey with his Honda Civic Gr.N and Dane Hans Ole Funch with his Opel Kadett GT/E. Jan de Winkel, another topper on the start list, has not yet decided in which car he will participate, but you can count for that he will bring another jewel to the start.

The entry list is not yet completed. “We expect a number of entries just before the Tank S Rally” said Bart Hissink, coordinator of the Challenge. “We still get requests for information from different countries such as Poland, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, England and Belgium. Therefore we have decided to extend the closing date for entry till the start of the Vogelsberg Rallye”. At least five out of six rallies of the Euro Rally Challenge must be driven according to the regulations.

The Tank S Rally opens the festival on 14 and 15 March in Emmeloord. Fast and technical stages are on the menu at the bottom of the former Zuiderzee, a part of the Netherlands which was extracted from the North Sea. The rally starts at Friday with a super special at an industrial park. The winner will be honored on Saturday evening, after which the party of the Euro Challenge Rally can begin…

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07/03/08
Shark Attack In Holland
Round 1 of the Dutch Rally Championship, the Tank S Rally gets underway on 14th/15th March in Emmeloord. Liffords Gerard Sharkey will contest the championship this year and is looking forward to the challenge. Having success in both Irish and British rally championships in recent years Gerard decided to do something different.
Along with his Killarney navigator John F. O’Mahony the plan for 2008 is the entire Dutch Rally Championship along with the inaugural Euro Rally Challenge.
This will also bring the Wurth backed N3 Honda Civic to Belgium and Germany.

First car leaves the start ramp at 8:31 hrs on Friday 14th and 21 stages totalling 288 kms lie ahead for competitors before arriving back at the finish ramp at 23:08 hrs on Saturday night.

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Tank S Rally