FOR CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

26th rally Saturnus will also count as penultimate event for Croatian championship which is open this year. There is 7 events in Croatian rally calendar and form 27th to 28th of September they will also compete in Mecsek rally in Croatia.

After 4 of 7 events Nenad Lončarić with mitsubishi lancer evo VI is leader. He won 3 events and in Kvarnerski rally he had to retire because of technical problems. His toughest rival is Mike Pattison, who is still very fast, even if he is more than 60 years old! But on the last two events Mike didn't compete so he is 35 points behind Lončarić, and Mike is not entered to Saturnus rally, so Lončarić is almost already the Croatian champion for 2003. On the third place overall we can find young Marko Lovak with citroen xsara group N. He is followed by Škalić brothers (Honda civic 1.6, group A), very fast and attractive crew, but they already retired on two events. The difference between Lovak and Škalić is only 2 points so we can expect great battle to the end of the season. Marin Galić is a disappointment of the season. He drive Renault clio S1600, but till now he only scored 6 points and in the famous Ina Croatia rally which took place two weeks ago he didn't started. After 4 rallies 25 drivers scored points for overall classification and in 25^th place is Alex Humar from MPI racing Idrija team.

Overall classification after 4 of 7 rallies:

1. Nenad Lončarić (AMK Siget) 60

2. Mike Pattison (AK Prigorje) 35

3. Marko Lovak (AMK Siget) 25

4. Tomislav Škalić (AMK Siget) 23

5. Silvestr Mikulaštik (AMK Vsetin Rally Club) 16

6. Goran Francetić (AMK Siget) 15

7. Georg Reitsperger (Georg Reitsperger) 15

8. Željko Drenjavčević (AMD Matulji Racing) 15

9. Željko Sopić (AK Delta) 14

10. Dean Saftić (AMD Zrinski) 13

(scoring points 20, 15, 12, 10, …)

Similar situation is in group A. Lončarić won 3 rallies, but on the second place is Željko Sopić with suzuki swift 1.3. He scored points in all events. One point behind is Pattison and 5 more Škalić. So we can say that Ločarić already won the championship.

Current classification for Group A

1. Nenad Lončarić 60

2. Željko Sopić 36

3. Mike Pattison 35

4. Tomislav Škalić 30

5. Siniša Crnojević 26

6. Goran Francetić 15

7. Marin Galić 14

8. Zlatko Filipović 12

9. Alex Humar 12

10. Hrvoje Perharić 12

Also Marko Lovak has nice advantage in group N, even if he didn't win in this class. But he scored points in all events and now he is the leader. 15 points behind is Silvestr Mikulaštik and 20 points behind Željko Drenjačević. Drenjačevič will also compete in Saturnus and Mikulaštik won't.

Current classification for Group N

1. Marko Lovak 50

2. Silvestr Mikulaštik 35

3. Željko Drenjavčević 30

4. Dean Saftić 25

5. Tihomir Simon 23

6. Hrvoje Srpak 22

7. Georg Reitsperger 20

8. Ivica Petrović 20

9. Gabor Takacs 18

10. Reno Turk 13

In combined classification for A6 and A7 class at the moment Škalič is in leading position with two wins. He lead only 5 points ahead of Vlado Božičević and the battle could be nice, but Božičević is not entered to Saturnus rally. Also Marin Galić has chances to score title, he is now only 6 points behind Škalić.

Current classification for A6 + A7

1. Tomislav Škalić 20

2. Vlado Božičević 15

3. Marin Galić 14

(scoring points 10, 8, 6 …)

Once again to Marko Lovak. Marko also lead N2+N3 class, with 15 points ahead of Željko Drenjačević. Without any technical problems the difference should be high enough to finish championship in first position. And also Drenjačecić has nice advantage of 10 points before others drivers.

Current classification for N2 + N3

1. Marko Lovak 32

2. Željko Drenjavčević 17

3. Boštjan Logar 10

4. Gabor Takacs 10

5. Miljenko Mirić 10

Željko Sopić is leader of class A5, ahead of Siniša Crnojević and Marko Čavor, and on the fourth place is Alex Humar, who only compete in Kvarnerski rally, and won with big distance. We can expect that Alex will be unbeatable also in his home-ground event.

Current classification for A5

1. Željko Sopić 34

2. Siniša Crnojević 19

3. Marko Cavor 11

4. Alex Humar 10

5. Dejan Kirinčić 8

In N1 class Tihomir Simon is leading 13 points ahead of Reno Turk in 26 ahead of Mišel Beti. Also in that class everything is more or less already decided.

Trenutna razvrstitev N1

1. Tihomir Simon 36

2. Reno Turk 23

3. Mišel Beti 10

4. Branko Jemrić 9

Croatia also has a driver in junior wrc this year. Juraj Šebalj competes in 2 events. Especially in Monte Carlo rally he achieved a good result., he was 7th with renault clio S1600. But this was also his only result because on next event on Cyprus rally he retire because of technical problems and on next two events he didn't compete because of healthy problems. And now he is punished from FIA with 2 years suspension.

What to say for the end? It is not expected that Croatian drivers will be at the top at the end of Saturnus rally. But it will be interesting to see them in our event especially Lončarić might be in top 5, brother Škalić will be attractive again and Renault clio S1600 of Marin Galič could be magnet for spectators.