The Aarova Rally in Oudenaarde took place under extremely difficult conditions. Andy Lefevere eb Marc Noppe won the GT class in their Porsche 997 in this race of the Jobfixers BRC, but the manager of Yprauto looks back on this race with mixed feelings.
“Before the race we were told that we had to start in our Porsches with a type of tires totally unsuitable for such weather. We had started with more suitable tires on Sunday morning just like Tim Van Parijs. But at the finish of the first test, a clearly frustrated Patrick Snijers came to accuse us of unfair competition… We then quickly went into the service to buy those new tires, and left for tests 2 and 3. Unlike Snijers, we had not cut our tires, because according to the original regulations this was not allowed… Due to a lack of communication, we had not been informed that this was suddenly allowed. But again we were faster, so the difference was definitely not just in the tires, because we had even less grip with uncut tires. Patrick went off the track a little later, so he will stand by me when I say that these tires are not suitable for a Porsche.” concludes Andy.
“I didn’t buy a Porsche for this,” the garage owner continued. “I still hope to compete with a group of Porsches. I have a lot of respect for Patrick’s record, but I don’t go to the rally to be treated like this… I hope we see each other again soon for a nice battle on the tests, because I realize very well that we always have to take him into account…”
“On a sporting level we may have won, but it was tremendously difficult. We were only able to really attack 2 tests. We won the GT class, but I had to leave the place as first rear puller to Bjorn Syx. I also have no problem at all in congratulating him, a very good result in his M3! I’m not going to look for excuses, but I’m coming 50 and already looking more at a tree or a pole along the road.”
Andy’s team worked 7 hours Monday morning to get the car clean again… The next and last race on the calendar is the Hemicuda Rally in Koekelare in 2 weeks. Last year, the Hemicuda was still won by Andy.
