Reigning Hungarian Rally Champion Csaba Spitzmuller won this weekend’s Veszprem Rally at the wheel of his MML Sports-run Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 World Rally Car. In doing so, he is now just a single point off the championship lead as he defends his title against no less than five other World Rally Cars and several Super2000 models in this hotly-contested series.
Spitzmuller and co-driver Miki Kazar were firm favourites for the win before the event, having taken victory on the rally for the last two years. This was also the first gravel event of the 2009 series, the first three rounds having run on asphalt. And while Spitzi and Kazar had acquitted themselves well on the sealed surface events, both were looking forward to a return to the loose.
And as it transpired, with good reason. Of the eight stages forming the event, spread over Friday 3 and Saturday 4 July, they took three stage wins and a raft of top three times. This ensured they reached the end of the event with no mistakes or problems and a 13 second lead over Turi Tamas in second place, in the S12B Subaru Impreza World Rally Car. The S11 Subaru of Herczig Norbert finished in third place while the Peugeot 307 World Rally Car was fourth.
This result puts Spitzmuller in a solid second place in the championship, just a single point behind Norbet, with three rounds of the championship still to run, two on asphalt and one on gravel.
Commenting after the weekend, MML Sports Managing Director John Easton said: “We knew Spitzi was the favourite this weekend and he didn’t disappoint. He and Miki had a clean run with no problems or mistakes and that, combined with three stage wins, meant he took the victory. That boosts him to second in the championship, which is an excellent position to be in at this stage of the season.
“I think that even though the next two events are back on tarmac, we’ll see Spitzi and Miki hold their own. We’ve carried out some major development work on the car that should give them an advantage for the next round. We’re very happy with the progress we’ve made, which should give their Lancer WRC a power increase of around 15bhp but more importantly, an additional 40Nm of torque.”
The next event is the PECS rally, over the weekend of the 1 and 2 August.