Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Will Esapekka Lappi keep the ERC Asphalt Master leadership?

21. 8. 2014 - Petr Linhart, Barum Czech Rally Zlín

One of the innovations in the currently running FIA ERC has been establishing of mini-championships related to particular rally surfaces. So far there has been cleared up the Ice Master – it's Robert Kubica who won the Austrian Jänner Rallye. But competitions for titles of Gravel and Tarmac Master are still running000klj.

System of the competition is simple – five fastest drivers in each special stage gain points according to their position. The winner of each stage gets 10 points, the second driver 6 points, the third one 4 points, the fourth 2 points and the fifth 1 point. At the end of the season all collected points are count up and the driver with the highest sums becomes a Tarmac or Gravel Master.

In the tarmac competition there have been scheduled five and a half events (as the Greek Rally Acropolis split its stages between both gravel and tarmac) and at this moment three tarmac events still left. The opening leg of the Acropolis rally was ruled by Peugeot's Craig Breen and Kevin Abbring who took the tarmac lead. But later in Ireland the point table got completely another shape as the rally was a misfortune for Peugeot drivers and Škoda's Esapekka Lappi earned an astonishing portion of 144 points. The Finn is leading the Tarmac Master competition also now before the Czech round although he didn't finish the Geko Ypres Rally. In Belgium, the most of the points were collected by Kevin Abbring again, but many points were taken away from him by non-ERC regulars Freddy Loix and Luca Rossetti.

Barum Czech Rally Zlín will play an important role in the tarmac competition. Esapekka Lappi holds the lead, but there are many tarmac stages waiting ahead. So the game is still opened.