2003: SUPRISING VICTORY FOR ŠPUREK

Radim Špurek, Czech driver with mitsubishi lancer is winner of 26th rally Saturnus. Špurek himself was a little surprised by winning the event, but ha deserved this victory. Each competitors has equal chances at the start and for good result is not enough to be fast on some special stages, you must also come to the finish.

Rally begun with fight between Claudio DeCecco (p 206 wrc) and Andrej Jereb (seat Ibiza kit car). After Leg 1 De Cecco leads by 13.1s. Also at the beginning of Leg 2 they continued with battle for seconds, but after second stage of Leg 2 Jereb had to retire due to mechanical problem with his kit car Ibiza. "I'm sorry that we have to retire. I hope that spectators are satisfied with our run, and I'd also like to congratulate to organiser. There hasn't been rally like this for a long time" said Andrej after retirement. On the next stage weather conditions were unbelievable. It was hard rain falling, there was very strong wind and because of all this there were some changes at the top, but De Cecco was still leading, even if he had to stop in ss 7 because of tree on the road. Even with that his lead was still comfortable, more than 2 minutes and a half. But on the last stage of the rally he had to retire too, because of broken front wheel. It seems that this happened because he was driving on flat tyre on penultimate stage for few kilometres. "We normally started the last stage, but at the end of gravel part the front wheel just fell of" said Claudio. Also he was very impressed by number of spectators. Maybe we should remember 1997 Saturnus, when Italian driver Gianluigi Galli was leading over 2 minutes, but on the last stage went off the road. It seems that Italians had bad luck on Saturnus. So victory goes to Radim Špurek. "It was a hard rally, especially because a weather. We didn't expect to win the race but now we are very satisfied" said Špurek after receiving cup for victory. 19,2s behind finished Slovenian driver Boštjan Turk (for escort cosw) , who drives with Croatian licence. "That is real rally. Long, with changeable conditions. A lot of young drivers don't have a chance to participate on hard event like this, but I hope this would chance in the future" were Boštjans' words after the finish. Boštjan also won race Croatian championship. On third place Nenad Lončarić (mitsubishi lancer) , Croatian champion for 2003 finished. The best driver in Slovenian championship was Mitja Klemenčič (mitsubishi lancer). With this victory Mitja would also be Slovenian champion for 2003, but Slovenian federation decided, that foreign drivers can compete in Slovenian championship, so Špurek is winner of Saturnus, but he must also participate on last event, rally maribore, otherwise, he'll lost points. Second place in Slovenian championship goes to Tomi Cilenšek, and fantastic third place to brothers Jeram. Marko and Damjan drive zastava yugo A5 class, and they won A5 for European championship, they won Divison I for Slovenian championship and also yugo cup. "I'm very glad with the result. We didn't have any problems and I hope that also in next events we will repeat them" said Marko. Also Alex Humar was very fast with his vw polo, but he had to retire and Darko Lampe with zastava yugo. Lampe had problems with brakes on last two stages so he lost more than 4 minutes. And other crews had problems too. Boštjan Logar had to change tyre in the stage losing 2 minutes. Milan Bubnič had 5 flat tyres and he only had theoretical chances to win the championship. So he must be satisfied with spectators' applause for attractive drive, especially in SS 2 and 4. Spectators were satisfied with all drivers' shows, especially of those who use hand brake.

26th rally Saturnus is over. Next should be between 20th and 24th of May 2004, and we hope for higher coefficient. Very satisfied was also FIA observer and we can expect this will happen. We also expect new name of the event but more will be known on next weeks. At he end we'd like to thanked to spectators to obtain rules.

See you next year.