Abbring wins Rallye du Var, Harrach conquered Santa Domenica again

World Rally Championship and European Rally Championship season are over, but there are still plenty of rally events across Europe to fulfill a gap until a new season begins.

One of the oldest European rallies, the Rallye du Var, was held for the 62nd time in Sainte-Maxime, France, from Friday to Saturday (November 25-27). Few WRC drivers took part in the event, with Hyundai Motorsport’s Kevin Abbring taking a victory with Hyundai i20 R5. He won ahead of Yoann Bonato (Citroen DS3 R5) and Sylvain Michel (Škoda Fabia R5). A French rally legend Gilles Panizzi finished fourth in the Peugeot 208 T16. Citroen’s factory driver Stephan Lefebvre crashed out on Saturday but returned for the last day, finishing 122nd overall. Some other world’s famous entrants in the event, which was the last round of the Frenc championship, were Romain Dumas and Francois Delecour.

194 crews took part in the French event. One more event featured over-100-crews entry list. It was the 7th Rally Show Santa Domenica in Croatia, at gravel track near Croatian-Slovenian border. The winner of the greatest rally event in that region, with crews mostly from Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria, is a former Austrian champion and WRC competitor Beppo Harrach (Ford Fiesta R5), for the fourth consecutive time. He won ahead of Peter Ranga (Škoda Fabia R5) and Rok Turk (Ford Fiesta R5). Some of notable competitors were current Lamborghini factory driver Fabio Babini and former PWRC champion Andreas Aigner.

Photos: ffsa.org, rallysantadomenica.com