Rally / 08 May 2012

TOUR DE CORSE ? MENYHERT ? MENYA ? KROZSER GETS ACQUAINTED WITH RALLY OF THE 10.000 CORNERS

After the Azores, Gran Canaria and Ireland, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge visits another island this week:  Corsica. With its twisty and narrow tarmac mountain roads, the 55th ?Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse? will test drivers to the limit. For some competitors the Corse is also an unknown, having only been added to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge calendar last year.

Two such drivers are Menyhert ?Menya? Krozser and co Gyorgy Papp in the Honda Civic Type R of team Gyula Hering.

When we ask Menyhert Krozser what his impression is of the rally, known as the ?rally of 10.000 Corners?, a smile appears on his face. But ?Menya? also heaves a sigh: ?This is my first experience in Corsica and after just a few kilometres in testing I knew that it will be a very difficult rally. The stages are all narrow and bumpy and the tarmac on the mountain roads is very abrasive.  Each corner is different and you only have the bends and Armco barriers as points of reference, which makes it terribly hard to go fast without making mistakes. It will also prove difficult for my co driver Gyorgy too: bar a few exceptions, we will run each of the special stages only once. So it will be a rally where we?re starting over and over again, from scratch.?

Most of the competitors of the Hungarian Honda-duo have already experienced the Tour de Corse in the 2WD competition. Menya is therefore acutely aware of the challenge for points that lies in wait.

?The special stages are long and the rally takes three days, so there is a big possibility that something will happen. If we can find the right set-up during the shakedown and if we can make the right tyre choice, then I think that we will be in a good rhythm and be able to match the speed of our competitors. But the fact remains that we still have a lot to learn and, after the zero score in Acores and in Ireland, I want, first of all, to finish this rally. But of course I?m hoping to score enough points too.?

As previously announced, JAS Motorsport, the official partner of Honda Motor Europe, has been working on a series of homologation upgrades since 1 April 2012. Before the Civic Type R of team Hering was shipped to Corsica, the carriage of Krozser-Papp passed through the workshop of JAS Motorsport in the Italian Arluno, nearby Milan.

?That allowed us to install the new engine, a lightweight dashboard and a new homologated rear anti roll bar. We could also control the car completely and performed final testing. We hope that we were able to raise the chances of Menya Kroszer and co Gyorgy Papp, and especially Honda in the 2WD Manufacturer?s Championship,? clarifies Pierernesto Pagani, JAS Motorsport?s engineer, supervising the Honda Racing Customer Support.

The Tour de Corse is a 3-day event, with 14 special stages, 755 kilometres in liaison and 318 kilometres in total against the clock.