Croatia: Five Skoda customer teams in the top ten / WRC

With five customer team cars in the top ten, Skoda proved to be the dominant brand in the RC2 results list at Rally Croatia last weekend. In the fourth round of the FIA ​​World Rally Championship WRC season, Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson drove the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 from the Toksport WRT team to fourth place in class. With their identical car used by Mapo Motorsport, Pepé Lopez/David Vázquez secured third place in the WRC2 category. Armin Kremer/Ella Kremer (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) won the WRC Masters Cup classification in the Baumschlager Rallye & Racing team.

After 283 kilometers on the special stage (WP), Toksport WRT driver Gus Greensmith and co-driver Jonas Andersson finished as the best-placed Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 crew. The British-Swedish duo lost valuable time on Saturday due to punctures and slipped from third to fourth in class. “We are still in the fight for the podium,” insisted Greensmith after the day’s action. Sunday’s events proved him right. Gradually, Greensmith/Andersson closed in on third-placed Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen. At last count, the Toksport WRT pairing fell short of a podium position by just 0.3 seconds. “Without the tire defects, the weekend would have been great,” Greensmith summed up.

The Briton did not register any WRC2 points in the drivers’ championship in Croatia. In this category, Pepe López and David Vázquez proved to be the best placed Skoda crews. The Spanish duo in the service of Mapo Motorsport celebrated their Croatian debut. Despite their lack of experience and poor tarmac tracks – and a time-consuming circuit – López/Vázquez maintained third place in WRC2 throughout the rally. “We are happy, this is a good result in terms of the championship,” López said happily to finish.

Norwegians Eyvind Brynildsen and co-driver Jørn Listerud also reached the top 10 in RC2. Brynildsen, who last competed at WRC level almost two years ago, drove his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 from Toksport WRT to seventh place in class. Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi from the TGS Worldwide team landed in eighth place with their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 team, immediately followed by Italian duo Roberto Daprà/Luca Gulielmetti in the Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo from the ACI Italia team.

In the WRC Masters Cup classification for drivers aged 50 and over, only the Skoda crew took the podium. The father-daughter team Armin and Ella Kremer (Baumschlager Rallye & Racing) finished their first race of the season in this championship with victory. In addition to the two Germans, Ricardo Triviño/Diego Fuentes (Electrolit Racing Team) from Mexico and Italians Mauro Miele/Luca Beltrame (DreamOne Racing) completed the winner’s podium.

Number of demonstrations: 3

Former FIA Champions League champion Armin Kremer won the WRC Masters Cup classification of Rally Croatia for the third time in a row. In the 2022 season, Dakar Rally winner Timo Gottschalk assisted him as a co-driver in the Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo from the Baumschlager Rallye & Racing team. Last year, his daughter Ella read to him from the ‘Prayer Book’. Last weekend the duo repeated last year’s victory in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.