16 September 2003 - 10:30 Campos consolidates his leadership European Rally Championship - Barum Rally

Miguel Campos-Carlos Magalhnes were classified in second place in the Barum Rally which was held this weekend in Zlin, in the Czech Republic and increased their lead in the European Championship with 160 points advantage over their closest rival, Bruno Thiry.

The Belgian was forced to retire with mechanical problems and the Peugeot Total Silver Team SG driver opted to stay in second place, given that the fight for first place was practically unattainable, as the Czech Pech, who knew the specials perfectly, was ahead with over a minute's advantage.

Miguel Campos achieved this brilliant result after coming up against various top drivers like Roman Kresta, who has raced in the World Championship, Vaclav Pech who became Czech champion with this victory, besides other local drivers and Bruno Thiry, of course. There were 21 WRC in this race. Out of a total of 156 teams registered, only about one third reached the end.

In spite of the difficulties of yesterday's stage, Miguel Campos was determined: "It is obvious that we became more relaxed when Thiry retired. In the first special I chose to maintain a fast pace to get ahead of the third classification and I gained 20 seconds on him. From then on there was no reason to run risks and we handled our advantage to guarantee second place which placed us in the lead of the Championship with 160 points advantage," explained the driver of the 206 WRC which will have to race in the Elpa Rally, in Greece at the end of September, the penultimate maximum coefficient race in the European Championship.
 
"This result is very positive for the whole team, which has always given its best and has struggled like myself to obtain the best classification possible. Once again the 206 WRC was impeccable, demonstrating the excellent work carried out by our technicians. We have an advantage of 160 points over Thiry, but this means nothing as the last two races will be decisive. We have drawn up our objectives and we will be going all out to reach the finish line as Champions," concluded Miguel Campos.

Carlos Barros, while satisfied was cautious: "I am happy that we have got over the set up difficulties that ruined yesterday. Miguel managed to keep his concentration and recover time in the first special. And with Thiry retired, we sought to control our race, imposing a pace where we would not run too many risks," the team director began to explain. "Now we have to concentrate on the next two rallies, we will keep calm and give our best. Our main objective is to win this championship for Portugal, but it is not over yet," he concluded.

The 27-year-old Roman Kresta and the Peugeot Czech Republic Team a has been committed to score nothing else but the overall victory at this year's Barum Rally 2003.

Following an impressive start into Barum Rally's opening day by winning the first stage of the day, Peugeot Czech Republic Team's Roman Kresta experienced bad luck for the rest of Friday's five remaining timed tests.

Driving Peugeot 206 WRC tuned by Bozian Racing, Kresta first crashed into one of stage-two artificial road blocks and damaged the front of his car while causing the engine to lose some of its legendary performance for the rest of the day.

While in the service, Kresta had to accept a 20-second penalty for two extra minutes required to ensure his car is fit to continue in the rally without any major trouble, still not knowing he would be slowed down by a major thunderstorm and rain on the day's final stage making the time difference between him and the leader even wider.

Despite the bad luck, Kresta managed to have climbed from 8th overall from the mid-afternoon to a respectable 4th right behind the trio of Campos, Thiry and Pech.

"I really did not feel comfortable today. First I was a bit too fast on stage two, and then I felt the lack of power due to the consequences of my little accident. On the other hand, I have already forgotten how the day has gone and will start off fresh into Saturday's action. Thanks to the team's mechanics and engineers, the car is in perfect shape now. There will be many more technical sections to contest tomorrow and when coupled with mixed weather conditions, we might witness some interesting changes by the end of the day," Kresta commented on the day.

Kresta opened the day two with two stage victories displaying his force and commitment to dominate the present competition. He then damaged the car on stage nine while finishing the stage 3rd fastest only to come back victorious on stage 10 even without the front bumper and rear wing, aiming to consolidate his position on the next stage before reaching the next service.

In the end, broken radiator meant a premature stop when tackling stage 11, preventing Kresta to chase the overall victory on what is said to be one of his favourite domestic events.

"I began the day carefully, yet proving I can win the rally. The car was working perfectly well and I felt all should go the way I had set in my mind. I then made a mistake though causing the subtle damage on the car's front and rear; nevertheless, I still managed to be the fastest driver on the following test. Everything seemed to be fine, but then we lost all radiator fluid, without which we would destroy the engine. This was the end for us on this rally. I feel very disappointed at this very moment, especially since I consider this to be my home event, but such moments are not uncommon in our sport," Kresta commented immediately after his premature retirement.

Kresta will now begin his preparation for his next FIA World Rally Championship appearance with Bozian Racing's Peugeot 206 WRC - Rally Sanremo - to be held in Italy in during the first part of October.

Press release