WORLD : Birthday Present for Miguel Campos - 03 August 2003 - 19:13
Rally Vinho da Madeira - ERC coeff.20
Miguel Campos, the 30 year old Portuguese driver from Famalicao, who celebrated his birthday two days before the start of the Rali Vino da Madeira, had the belated birthday present he was hoping for, when he came from behind to win this 7th event in the European Championships. Bruno Thiry from Belgium, who led for much of the rally, had no answer to the late charge from Campos and had to accept second place with Francois Delecour finishing third.
"I was really very hard, but of course I am very happy. I dedicate this victory to all the madeirans, who gave me much strength on the way and to all my team. We have worked together and deserved already one victory. These 200 points are very important for us to the European Championship", said Campos. He collects 200 points for his win and thereby has drawn level with Thiry on 920 pts, but takes the lead as he has 4 victories against the Belgians 3. There are 3 more co-efficient 20 events remaining and they are in the Czech Republic, Greece and France.
At the finish line Thiry expound "The first place would be better, but I am happy. It is very important for the remaining Championship. There are still many points to give away. If I am not wrong, there will be three coef. 20, so the Championship is far from closed."
"I am happy to be third." said Francois Delecour. "Anyway it was impossible to do better. Thiry and Campos know well the roads and this is my first time in Madeira. I did the best I could, but could not go any faster."
Thiry won the opening Super Special along the promenade in Funchal and then on the second day things really began to hot up. Evgeny Vasin crashed on the first stage of the day and Campos briefly grabbed the lead before Thiry took it back again. Manfred Stohl decided to try to warm his tyres up before Stage 4 and promptly blew his turbo. The reigning European Champion Renato Travaglia, who was taking part as an interlude from his Italian Super 1600 campaign, came to the front on Stage 8 and remained ahead to the overnight break when his lead was 5.6secs. Thiry was second, with Campos 4.5 seconds behind in third place. Henrik Lundgaard moved up to fourth place when Patrick Snijers retired with engine problems shortly before the end of the second day.
There was a surprise in store on the first stage of the final day. Travaglia hit a small wall after 5 kms and had to retire and once again Thiry was in front. He remained there until Stage 15, when Campos came with his charge. Lundgaard retired when his crew were unable to change his cambelt in the allotted time at the service after Stage 17.
Even though Thiry later narrowed the gap to 4.3sec it was too much for him to make up on the short 7.15km long final stage and Campos held on to win an exciting rally by 4.8 seconds.
In other classes, Vitor Sa was the victor in A7 in a Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit Car, Vitor Lopes took first place in the Super 1600´s with a Fiat Punto Kit Car and Abel Spinola won Gr. N. in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7.
Rally Vinho da Madeira - Provisional Result
1. Miguel Campos, Peugeot 206 WRC 3h00.42.9
2. Bruno Thiry, Peugeot 206 WRC 3h00.47.7
3. Francois Delecour, Peugeot 206 WRC 3h04.40.9
European Championship after Rally Madeira
1. Miguel Campos, Portugal - 920
Bruno Thiry, Belgium - 920
3. Pieter Tsjoen, Belgium - 210
Serkan Yazici, Turkey - 210
5. Jasen Popov, Bulgaria - 200
6. Paolo Andreucci, Italy - 180
7. Giandomenico Basso, Italy - 170
8. Volkan Isik, Turkey - 165
9. Luca Pedersoli, Italy - 160
Miguel Fuster, Spain - 160
Krum Donchev, Bulgaria - 160
Piero Longhi, Italy - 160
13. Bernard Munster, Belgium - 130
14. Antonio Ponce, Spain - 120
Yevgeni Vasin, Rusia - 120
Francois Delecour, France - 120
16. Janne Tuohino, Finland - 100
Henning Solberg, Norway - 100
Sergio Vallejo, Spain - 100
Ercan Kazaz, Turkey - 100
Tomasz Czopik, Poland - 100
Andrea Navarra, Italy - 100
Ilia Tzarski, Bulgaria - 100
Fernando Peres, Portugal - 100
Renato Travaglia, Italy - 100
Costantinos Varnakiotis, Greece - 100
Vitor Sa, Portugal - 100