Zoom Strong recovery drive from Travaglia this week-end

At the controls of his Abarth Grande Punto S2000, Renato Travaglia reached fifth place at the conclusion of the Barum Rally's 38th edition on Sunday. The Intercontinental Rally Challenge's sixth round took place next to the town of Zlin, situated in the eastern region of the Czech Republic.

A bad tyre choice on Day One was turned around by the Trico Motor Sport Team driver when he delivered an energetic performance in making his way back up the standings: from ninth position after completing Saturday's morning loop of four stages, Travaglia's final result of fifth overall was a good display of determination.

"I'm rather satisfied with the result!" the Italian declared. "During the first day, we did not have a good setup and we opted for the wrong tyres – what a shame."

"Yesterday, I gave my best but nonetheless had a slight off on the rally's final stage," he added. "With that incident, we lost five seconds. It's not much, but because of that I missed fourth place!"

Travaglia is right in stating that, since fourth-place finisher Pavel Valousek completed the rally with only a 2.8-second lead on his pursuer.

"Despite our mistakes, we are satisfied with our race because we proved we can be competitive when the car handles well," he underlined. "Additionally, this result is remarkable because we faced formidable adversaries. The itinerary was also very difficult with very narrow and dangerous stages."

"We completed a very nice recovery in the general standings over the week-end and we are very happy for that. I'm also very pleased for the Trico Motor Sport Team, which can be proud of the work accomplished this week-end," Travaglia concluded.

Daniel BASTIEN
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