Pierre Campana further underlined his status as one of Europe's most promising young drivers by moving to the top of the Clio R3 European Trophy and IRC 2WD Cup standings with a hugely impressive showing on the Geko Ypres Rally, which finished in Belgium yesterday (Saturday June 26).

The 25-year-old from Corsica was making his debut on the challenging asphalt event but shrugged off his lack of experience by producing a faultless performance to finish as the second two-wheel drive car home in a stunning 12th overall following a close battle with Dutch driver Kevin Abbring, a regular in the Junior World Rally Championship for the last two seasons.

While the specialist nature of the narrow farmland roads caught out several leading runners, Campana kept his cool in ambient temperatures of 30 degrees centigrade and didn't put a wheel wrong in his Ellip6-backed Renault Clio R3, run by the Italian Munaretto squad.

"This is a very significant result for me and I'm very proud, particularly for my sponsor, Ellip6, who made this all possible," said Campana, who was competing alongside regular co-driver Sabrina de Castelli. "I really enjoyed this rally and never once backed off because I really wanted to get a good result. To be leading two championships is a great achievement at this stage in my career but I have to say it wasn't easy against Abbring. He knows these roads quite well but on the final 29-kilometre stage we were covered by just two-tenths of a second, which shows how hard we were fighting."

Campana felt he could have beaten Abbring but for two punctures and a brake problem, which occurred on the opening stage of the event.

Even though Ypres is an all-asphalt event, many sections of the 291.28-kilometre route became littered with gravel that had been pulled onto the road by competitors taking 'cuts' through corners.

"I have never done a gravel rally before but this felt like a gravel rally because there was so much gravel on the road in some places," said Campana. "It made the challenge even harder because you didn't always know where there was grip and where there wasn't. But that helped very much with building my experience."

Campana's next event is Barum Czech Rally Zlin from August 27-29, a combined round of the Clio R3 European Trophy and IRC 2WD Cup.

For more information:   
 
www.pierrecampana.com
www.quadrasports.com
media@quadrasports.com
www.ellip6.com

27 June, 2010