Second Rally Win for Melexis Renault Team in A/6
Melexis Renault Team (Renault Clio S1600) got their second win in a rally in group A/6 in the second round of National Rally Championship – „Trayanovi Vrata”. The battle for top positions turned out to be very tough for Rumen and Hristo. In the first super stage they lost 1 minute and 20 seconds, due to a large puddle in the road, which got their car out of the road. The geometry of the car was damaged in the incident and this made an impact on Rumen’s tempo up to the first service zone.
However, afterwards Dunev started climbing in the ranking and in each segment he overtook at least one of the pilots who were in front of him in the ranking. During the third stage, Rumen and Hristo were already leaders in class A/6, over 12 seconds clear of Vilhelm Kanchev, and in the next stage they overtook the leader – Todor Slavov in group A. During the last two super stages, Dunev got closer to fourth place in the general classification, but the only thing he managed to do was shorten the lead of the pilot in front of him – Radoslav Kozlekov in half. In the last super stage, Rumen and Hristo took another assault and finished only one second behind the fastest pilot in the stage, competition winner - Dimitar Iliev.
Rumen Dunev, Melexis Renault Team, Renault Clio S1600:
“The competition did not start in the best possible way for us, because we slipped out of the road during the first stage. The asphalt was slippery and there was a large puddle exactly on the stop; we saw the water too late, which meant that we could not stop on time. Afterwards, we started pursuing the leaders – several top three times in the general ranking and we got to fifth position. It would have been more interesting if we did not lose too much time in the beginning. However, we are moving in the right direction, the car is becoming stronger and stronger and I am satisfied with the progress made. We had the opportunity to work with Mr. Lionel Hansen of Renault Sport in this competition, who provided us with incredibly precious advice and ideas on how we could work better and I think that the results from the last couple of stages prove it” Next competition for Melexis Renault Team is Rally Bulgaria (July 6-8).Dunev is leading in group A with a full score of 20 points from two wins in two races, and on fourth position in the general classification.In track competitions he leads with three wins from three races
