Ingram battles food poisoning to take first ERC Junior victory

June 6th, 2015 | 2015, Açores |

Chris Ingram battled food poisoning on the final day of SATA Rallye Açores to score a sensational first ERC Junior victory of his career.

The Peugeot UK 208 R2 driver had finished leg one in a slender 22.4s lead, but a spaghetti bolognese dinner was to keep him awake all that night. He didn’t want his rivals to know he was down on energy on the final day, and digging deep for inner strengthen, his stage times didn’t give away his sickness either – and he eventually won by 30.4s.

Despite putting his 208 on its side on SS7 and losing almost 40s, Diogo Gago drove brilliantly to fight back. The Portuguese Peugeot Rally Academy 208 driver secured second after setting three fastest times on the last four stages, and after Steve Røkland picked up a slow puncture on the last stage. Third was still an excellent result for the Norwegian, who had no pre-event testing and hadn’t even sat in his 208 for six weeks.

Emil Bergkvist looked on course to finish second, until his Adam R2 was left with only first and second gears for the last three stages, dropping him to fourth. It was even more bad luck for his ADAC Opel Rallye Junior Team team-mate Marijan Griebel, who had driven exceptionally well on only his second ever gravel rally, only to retire his Adam after the final stage with a broken driveshaft.

Mattias Adielsson’s “crazy rally” continued until the very end, when he had to do all the final day with broken front right suspension and, finally, a gearbox problem in his 208. He was understandably delighted to finish fifth. Emīls Blūms lost the front right wheel of his Fiesta R2 on the Grupo Marques superspecial, and arrived at the final mid-day service on three wheels. His LMT Autosport Academy team did an amazing job to get him back out again, as the young Latvian driver reached the finish on his ERC debut.

Florin Tincescu beached his Napoca Rally Academy 208 on SS12, and, despite being only slightly off the road, there were no spectators to help him get back on. Jon Armstrong was enjoying a good run before he stopped on SS11 when his 208’s engine started to overheat. The second run through Sete Cidades also ended Łukasz Pieniążek first gravel rally, when he damaged his 208’s suspension and then hit a wall, breaking the radiator. Aleks Zawada retired his Adam with on SS15 with broken steering.

Both of Sports Racing Technologies 208s got stuck just off the road and without spectators around, were in big trouble. Vasily Gryazin regretted handing his time card in on Thursday after getting stuck off the road on SS3 for 17 minutes. As leg one continued the following day, the Russian driver had to wait until Saturday’s leg two before returning under Rally 2 rules. Team-mate Ralfs Sirmacis was third, and battling for ERC Junior victory, when he hit a rock on SS11. It squashed he exhaust and he had to complete the test with the engine refusing to rev over 3,000rpm, losing seven minutes. Then, on the first stage of the final day (SS12), he slipped off the road and got stuck.