FIA Rally Star graduate Romet Jürgenson clinched the Junior WRC title on Acropolis Rally Greece after a season finale where several drivers with a shot at the championship ran into trouble.
Jürgenson narrowly led the standings over fellow Rally Star driver Taylor Gill heading to Greece, having won in Croatia but retired in both Italy and Finland. But he was one of a whopping 11 drivers with a mathematical chance of the title, given the season finale was a double points event.
In a test of survival of the fittest among the Rally3 runners, Jürgenson suffered fewer issues than most, moving into the lead on Saturday only to then suffer a puncture that he had to stop and change, dropping two minutes and falling back to second place behind last year’s Junior ERC champion Norbert Maior.
Both Maior and Jürgenson took it steady to the finish on Sunday, each starting the final day with two minute gaps to the car behind them. For Maior, Greece was a career-first Junior WRC victory; for Jürgenson, second was enough for the title.
“It was a tough challenge with every obstacle thrown in our way,” said Jürgenson. “At some point basically punctures and big bedrocks in the lines that you have to avoid every time and the heat, the dust, everything. But we conquered it.”
After stage two, four of the title contenders were split by only three points had it finished in that order, such was the closeness of the title race.
Türkkan possessed the ultimate pace require to usurp Jürgenson but ran into too many problems to best the eventual champion
Ali Türkkan, who’d put himself into title contention with two second places despite missing the season opener, was rapid and won more stages than any other driver in Greece. He’d led early on and could have pipped Jürgenson had the eventual winner finished outside the top four – but wheel issues on both Friday and Saturday, the latter of which led to retirement, put him out of the race to become champion.
Gill meanwhile remained in contention until Saturday afternoon; on Friday he broke a wheel, then dragged himself back into contention, only to suffer the same fate again the next day and eventually crawl to the end of Saturday’s action with a broken left-rear control arm, requiring several three-point turns to navigate the day-ending superspecial.
Diego Dominguez was arguably the title favorite pre-season, given his strong form in past Junior WRC seasons. He also had a good outside chance of scooping the title with double points on offer – but broken rear suspension on stage five sent him tumbling down the order, from which he couldn’t recover.
Amidst the attrition, Tom Rensonnet picked up the final podium place in Greece, six minutes behind Jürgenson. José Caparó, another of the Rally Star pupils, finished fourth ahead of Türkkan.
