Cyril Despres is champion of the 2011Sertões among the motrobikes (foto: André Chaco)
There were 4.026 kilometers of disputes and overcoming between Goiânia (GO) and Praia do Cumbuco (CE), since the 9th of August. The 2011Sertões International Rally finishes this Friday without surprises and with only one newcomer in the highest step of the podium: Tom Rosa, on the quad. The other winners, of motorbikes, cars and trucks, already were champions of the test in other editions.
Motorbikes
In the motorbikes, Frenchman Cyril Despres managed his second title in three participations: in 2006 and 2008, arriving behind Brazilian Zé Hélio in 2008. In 2011, Despres won 6 of the 10 stages of the Rally, finishing the test with 4 minutes 10 seconds of advantage over Brazilian Felipe Zanol. Third in the overall standings, Dário Júlio appears, with more than 1 hour difference behind the leaders, though champion of his category, the open production.
Zanol repeats the vice championship of 2010, when He lost to Spaniard Marc Coma, but now the disadvantage was a lot smaller: in 2010, it was over 17 minutes. Five times Brazilian champion of enduro, the rider was praised by the French competitor. Zanol is very fast and he has done his best. He is in his second rally and I have done over 90. Even then it is a challenge for me, said Cyril Despres in Tuesday´s stage. In the sixth Special, with 330 kilometers, only tenth of seconds separated both.
Quads
The two most known names among the quads in the Sertões International Rally, Carlo Collet and Robert Nahas, did not race this year. With new faces among the leaders, the dispute was marked by penalizations, which left Tom Rosa isolated in the lead as from the fourth stage, with more than two hours advantage over the rest. He was the only one not penalized and in spite of only winning two stages, he finished champion with an advantage of 3h27min50 over newcomer Leonardo Franco, second placed.
But the test was not easy for Tom Rosa. In yesterdays stage (18/8), for example, he had a ripped tire and a hurt hand, which left him in third place. For Rosa, advice from the more experienced was important for the result. If you force a machine to much or push over the limit of your driving, it will break down. I did something that everyone said to do: be steady the first three days, celebrated the driver arriving at Sobral (CE) last night, confident of victory.
Cars
Among the cars, the victory belonged to the duo Guilherme Spinelli/Youssef Haddad, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer imported prototype. The vehicle was projected by the official team of the Japanese factory to compete in Dakar, the year before the Company abandoned the campaign of the largest rally in the world. At the moment, two of these vehicles are with the Brazilian Mitsubishi team.
The dispute of the overall standing was against another imported vehicle, Paulo Nobre (Palmeirinha) and Felipe Palmeiro´s BMW X3. The duo won six stages of its category, but did not manage the title in the overall standing. Spinelli finished the rally with 23min58 advantage over Palmeirinha.
Among the national vehicles, the highlight was the pro-ethanol category, with adapted production vehicles for the rally and powered only on ethanol. In nit, the experienced drivers Reinaldo Varela and Klever Kolberg maintained a dispute day by day. Varela was the leader until the ninth stage, yesterday, when he had problems with his L200 Triton SR champion car of the Sertoes 2010 and was passed by Klever Kolberg, with a L200 Proton. With this, the difference between them was one hour and a half for Kolberg.
Trucks
Punctured tires, broken windshields, screws getting lost: minor details in a Sertões rally. Rally which also obliged the organizers to suspend the eighth stage because of lack of space for the giants. We knocked the back wheel on a tree, damaging the suspension. The stage was not really meant for a giant vehicle, said driver André Azevedo.
Among the heavies. the only incident happened at the beginning of the second day of the test: the trio Amable Barrasa/Evandro Luiz Bautz/Raphael Moha were obliged to abandon the competition, due to a mechanical problem with their Ford.
From there on, the dispute continued between André Azevedo/Sidinei Broering/Ronaldo Pinto and Guido Salvini/Flávio Bisi/Fernando Chwai, which ended in solidarity in the last stages. We did not want a repeat of what happened last year, when we battled one against the other, we destroyed each other and gave the chance for another truck to win, explained Salvini. In the final sum, André won 5 of the 11 stages (counting the prologue). However, Guido won 6 conquering the heavy trucks category of the 2011 Sertões International Rally.
Among the lights, the battle was between the duo Rafael Martinez-Conde/José Papacena and the trio Edu Piano/Solon Mendes/Davi Oliveira. The victory went to the trio, who won eight stages and the fifth time Edu wins the Sertoes Rally (one with a car and four with a truck).
Este texto foi escrito por: Daniel Costa and Marilin Novak