May 1 2011 12:00AM - Castrol Ford Team Türkiye has made a good season start in İzmir

The team participated the rally with 2 Fiesta S2000 and 2 Fiesta R2 vehicles.
Last season’s Driver’s Champion Yağız Avcı and co-pilot Bahadir Gucenmez completed the race in the 2nd place after
Skoda S2000 driver Burak Çukurova. The other S2000’s driver is Emre Yurdakul couldn’t complete the race due to an
accident in the 5th Stage of the rally. Two R2 Fiesta drivers Murat Bostancı – Onur Vatansever and Orhan Avcıoğlu –
Burçin Korkmaz completed the race in the 8th and 9th positions respectively. Young driver Emre Zümrüt – Alp Sehan
completed their first race in the 14th position with Ford Fiesta ST.

1st Day in Rally
It was a sunny day in İzmir and the drivers were ready for the 1st day after Friday test stages.
The start has been made in Forum Bornova AVM at 15:00 with a crowded audience.

The rally started in 1st day with 2 stages and the Burak Çukurova– Skoda Fabia S2000 was in the 1st position.
Emre Yurdakul with Ford Fiesta S2000 was in the 4th positon and Yağız Avcı in the 5th position after the two stages.
Murat Bostancı and Orhan Avcıoğlu with Ford Fiesta R2
was in the 11th and 16th position.
1st day became a challenge of choosing the right tyre strategy and most of the drivers had a hard time in the corners.

2nd Day in Rally
The weather was not helping the team directors and the drivers to choose the right combination for the stages. The weather forecasts was changing between dry surface to rainy surface. Eventually most of the races have been passed in dry – light rainy conditions.
Castrol Ford Team Türkiye’s drivers was improving their timings stage by stage. In the 5th stage, Emre Yurdakul had an accident and couldn’t complete the rally. Yağız Avcı was in the 3rd place till the 6th stage and with the accident of Serkan Yazıcı who was in the 2nd place, Yağız Avcı has taken the 2nd position. After the 8th stage, Yağız Avcı improved stage timings and closed the gap of 1:17.9 minutes with Burak Çukurova. In the 8th and 9th stages, the gap closed with 17.6 seconds and 18.5 seconds and in the last stage the gap has dropped to 41,8 seconds. In the final stage the total duration is around 15 minutes and potential 41.8 seconds gap should be closed by Yağız Avcı in order to take the 1st Rally leader position. Yağız Avcı closed the gap by 5.8 seconds and finished the rally in the 2nd position after Burak Çukurova with 37.9 second gap.

In driver’s championship, Yağız Avcı is in the 2nd place with 17 points.
In team’s championship, Castrol Ford Team Türkiye is in the 2nd place with 34 points.

Download pdf document of Rally