2020 ERC News and Rumors

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http://www.motoradiario.com/rallyes/...rumores-(vol1)

This web of Gran Canaria talks widely about rumours of next FIA ERC 2.020

Perhaps some names will not finally participate in this championship, in my opinion is a interesting list...

This article was written last January, 20




When there are just over two months left before the FIA ​​ERC 2020 starts with the Azores Rallye (March 26-28), the teams are tying budgets and closing the projects for the current year, pre-season months where the boiling of the European Rally Championship is maximum.

With the current European Rally Champion, Chris Ingram, and the best ERC 1 Junior in 2019, Filip Mares, both heading for WRC 3, it might seem that the FIA ​​ERC has been orphaned by young drivers who could fight for the title absolute. But at the moment there is relief in the figure of the Irishman Callum Devine, who along with Brian Hoy, will play the entire championship on a Hyundai i20 R5 with the aim of winning the ERC 1 Junior.
Also disputing the complete calendar, but this time with the aim of fighting for the absolute title, the Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen will be at the helm of a Fabia R5 Evo of the Toksport team with Ilka Minor, providing that quality bonus they always give Scandinavian pilots.
A team that seems destined to repeat the project is that of the Hungarians Norbert Herzcig and Ramón Ferencz, who will again rely on the VW Polo R5 of BRR and the structure of MOL Racing. Next to them, another team that returns after several years in Polish exile, is Tomasz Kasperczyk, who along with Daniel Syty, who will undertake a season in which they will combine European and national Polish championship.


In the ERC 3 Junior category, the first to unveil his plans has been the Swedish Daniel Rädstrom, who parks his project in the JWRC with the aim of growing in the ERC. He will do it with an Orsak Motorsport R2T Fiesta, and will be one of the rivals of the Spanish pilot Pep Bassas. The winner of the 2019 BkR2 will be the pilot awarded by the RfEDA in the FIA ​​ERC 2020, although equipment and saddle are still unknown. The two of them will be joined by Estonian Gregor Jeets, who will try to be in all the ERC 3 Junior events with an R2T Fiesta.
Within the ERC 3 category and the Ladies Trophy section, Ekaterina Stratieva intends to promote a solid project with a 208 R2 of Saintéloc Racing, same pretensions as the Italian driver Rachele Somaschini, who seeks to expand his project in the European championship on board of a DS3 R3T.


UNCONFIRMED RUMORS

To the string of confirmations, it is necessary to add a good list of pilots who have shown their interest in undertaking the FIA ​​ERC 2020, but whose final projects are still maturing in that tortuous path called budget.


One of them is the Czech Erik Cais, who has almost closed his participation in the ERC 1 Junior with Fiesta R5 Mk2 from Orsak Motorsport. In this same category the Spaniard Efrén Llarena has secured two tests with an R5 after his title last year in the ERC 3 Junior, but seek to close a budget that allows him to be in the remaining four events of the category calendar. To them could be added names like Sindre Furuseth, the Austrian Simon Wagner, the Japanese Hiroki Arai or the national champion of Poland in 2019 Miko Marczyk. Another national champion, in this case from Germany, Fabian Kreim, could return to the FIA ​​ERC after his good adventure in 2018, with the support of Skoda Germany.
Even without news of two of the candidates for the title in 2019 and frequent in the last years of the FIA ​​ERC, Alexey Lukyanuk and Lukasz Habaj, it remains to be seen which piece plays the pluricampeón of the Middle East, Nasser Al-Attiyah, who after his victory on Last year in Cyprus, he dropped in an interview that attracted him to change the air in the panorama of the rallies and to bet on a championship tailored to him as is the ERC.
Niki-Mayr Melnhof seems destined to perform a full season in 2020 aboard a Ford Fiesta R5 Mk2 as reflected at the end of last year, a project similar to the one that the Russian driver Artur Muradian wants to outline with a Skoda Fabia R5 Evo of the team SRT Here we could include one of the Spanish hopes, Iván Ares, who at the end of 2019 defined as a dream for which they were going to fight to be in 2020 contesting the FIA ​​ERC. To date, nothing more has been known about the intentions of the Galician pilot and his team to face this great project.
Other names already known, could return to the European Rally Championship scene, as is the case of Slovak Rally runner-up Gregorz Grzyb, or his homologous champion of this country, Martin Koci, to which the Polish pilot Jaroslaw Koltun must be added and the Turkish Orhan Avciolgu, all of them seek to close a budget that places them this year in the FIA ​​ERC.


The Belgian driver Luc Caprasse (Abarth 124 Rally) or the Swiss Yoan Loeffler (Ford Fiesta Rally4) could realize their projects in the FIA ​​ERC in the coming weeks.