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Tohill makes History and becomes the First Irish Person to Win a Round of the FIA European Rallycros |
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Monday, 22 September 2008 |
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The tenth round of the 2008 FIA European Rallycross Championship was attended by over 20,000 spectators. The crowd was boosted by the appearance of former world rally champion Marcus Gronholm. After rolling his car in the first qualification heat on Saturday afternoon he still ended up qualifying for the Division 1 'C' final where he shared the front row with Norwegian Guttorm Lindefjell (Škoda Fabia). Afterwards he lost the lead to the Norwegian as he went too wide in the first corner. However, it wasn’t long before he worked his way up to second position but, he was never able to take the lead. Finally he finished second in the 'C' final behind Pavel Koutný (Ford Fiesta ST) resulting is a classification of twelvth overall.
Derek Tohill (Dublin) had to contend with his usual championship contenders as well as some very quick local drivers. In early morning qualifying it was clear that the weekend was not going to be easy. Tohill commented “The track was as slippy as an ice rink, the harder you pushed the slower you went!” But, Tohill got off to a steady start by qualifying third fastest behind current European champion Tomas Kotek (Czech) and Łukasz Tyszkiewicz (Poland). In the first qualifying heat on Saturday, Tohill’s Honda Civic Type R ran into mechanical problems when he lost part of the exhaust system. This left the Irishman a frustrating 5th overall. The Honda driver would need strong results on Sunday to guarantee him an A final start. On Sunday morning things were looking much brighter for the Irishman as he led his first heat until the last lap when Roman Castoral (Czech) took him on the joker lap. Tohill commented “I was really struggling with one corner on the track. We spoke to Marcus Gronholm in the hotel on Saturday night and he advised us on how best to take this corner, it really seemed to work! It was a very slow hairpin bend that is regarded as the most difficult corner in the European Rallycross Championship, it required a particular technique” In the third heat Tohill finished second behind Tomas Kotek but, the extra 4 laps meant Tohill now had a much better understanding off this tricky circuit entering the finals. Tohill started the A final from the second row of the grid in his Rathgar Motor Factors backed Honda. When the lights went out Tohill made one of his now customary blistering starts. Incredibly, he drove around the outside of everyone in the first corner and then remained in a fierce fight with Roman Castoral the whole way as far as the second corner. But Tohill took the hits and emerged in first place as the field entered turn three. The Irishman never looked back after this, he took his joker lap on the final lap and emerged in first place ahead of Castoral and local hero Łukasz Tyszkiewicz (Poland) in an Opel Astra OPC. Tohill received huge support for his victory as he was the first man to break the Czech dominance all season. He also goes down in the record books as being the first Irishman to win a round of the European Rallycross Championship. Tohill commented “To get a win in our first European season at a new track against such highly rated opposition is superb. It’s difficult to put into words how much this means as it’s been such a challenge to just complete the season this year. The fact that we have also been competitive as well as taking an outright victory is more than what we expected to achieve. I have had so many people who have helped me along the way, it’s great that we now have something to give back to everyone, it’s the least they all deserve. This will also be a big help towards finding a budget for the future. We will continue to fight in Germany for a good result, maximum attack is the motto, an offensive strategy paid strong dividends in Poland, we will take the same strategy in Germany. It’s a fast track so it should suit me and the Honda”. Christopher Evans from Delgany (Opel Astra) was the only other Irish driver represented in Czech Republic. He managed to qualify in sixteenth position for C final but his run of good form came to an end early in the race with an on-track collision. For further information and more pictures please contact:
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