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[01-11-2011]
VICTORIOUS CAMPANA CONTINUES WINNING WAYS WITH CEVENNES SUCCESS
 26-year-old Corsican driver Pierre Campana took a stunning win at the Cévennes rally last weekend to take his total number of rally wins with Drive Pro and the MINI John Cooper Works WRC car to three out of five participations.
The win comes on the back of victories at the Richard Burns Memorial Rally back in August, the Mont Blanc Morzine event in September, as well as two entries in the World Rally Championships events in Germany and France-Alsace.
These results have made Pierre one of the most talked about rally drivers of the season and with another French Rally Championship event lined up at the end of this month with Rally du Var, Pierre is on the cusp of even greater things for 2012. Pierre reflects on his most recent success at Cévennes.
Quick Q+A with Pierre Campana
Pierre, another tremendous event for you, you must be pleased…?
“Yes, I am really happy with everything we achieved at the Cévennes rally. We set out with a more ambitious approach than usual, as a result of the experience I have built up with the MINI John Cooper Works WRC and Drive-Pro in the WRC events. I also had positive experience of Rallye Cevennes from winning twice in junior categories in 2008 and 2009. We had set victory as a realistic target so it is fantastic to have accomplished that, even in the face of difficulties on the second day.”
What problems did you have to cope with during the rally?
“The first day consisted of just one stage which I won quite comfortably, but the wet conditions added a new dimension to the event. Thanks to my experience with the car, I was able to acclimatise quite quickly but in the fourth special stage on Friday, after we had already built up a comfortable lead, I experienced a problem with the driveshaft which slowed us down. I carried out some repairs to the car in between SS4 and SS5 but we were forced to run SS5 with the damage and so we lost one and a half minutes in total. Over the service break the Drive-Pro guys fixed the car and we could continue with some impressive stages on the second loop. It was particularly pleasing to set such competitive times in the evening stages and to cut our time deficit to the leader from over 1 minute to 46 seconds heading into the final day.”
Entering the final day, did you still expect to be in a position to challenge for the win?
“I was confident in our pace and we know that anything can happen on rally events, so victory was still on our minds. We had a great final day and we were able to dominate the first stages on Saturday. We won the opening stage by nine seconds, so we were closing the gap quite significantly. We took over the lead after SS11 and took a deliberately cautious approach to the final stages to secure the win. Without the dramas from Friday, I am sure we would have been in the fight to win all 13 stages, but it was still a great achievement for Sabrina and I to claim eight stage wins and to win our third rally with the MINI out of five events.”
What’s next for you?
“We are taking part in Rally du Var at the end of the month, again with Drive-Pro and with the MINI, which I am really looking forward to. This has been an incredible year for me, with some top results and some wonderful WRC experiences. I have done absolutely everything I can to prove my worth as a WRC driver and I hope people have seen first-hand what I am capable of. Another win in Rally du Var would really end this great season in the best possible way; that is our objective.”
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