The Romanian Rally Championship has reached its third round. The venue was the Maramures area and HRT Racing accompanied Norbert Maior and Francesca Maior, who finished 5th in this race last year. Prior to the race, Norbi and his team were leading the championship’s absolute standings, but could not be expected to hold this lead over the others, who represent a greater force with their cars. After last week’s European championship on gravel in Latvia, the young pair were back on tarmac to shine.
On Saturday, seven stages were waiting for the drivers, but the organisers had to cancel two of them. After the first lap, which was reduced to two speeds due to the cancellation, Norbi and his team took the prestigious absolute 4th place, while in the FWD category they had already built up a significant lead and were in 1st place. They slipped back a place in the second lap after the service cut and finished the day in 5th place.
They led the FWD category by a considerable margin. Norbi’s statement after the first day. The first lap was good. Then I hit something in the first part of the second lap and the car behaved strangely, so we had to put new tyres on the back, but we only had rain tyres, so we had to do the rest of the lap on them in the heat, which made it difficult to control the car. The forecast for today was for heavy rain, but it didn’t arrive.
It was very hot outside and in the car. Tomorrow is not as long a day as today, so we’ll wait and see if the rain comes down and we can move forward.” The second day was not without cancellations either, with the field having to skip the first rapid, which would have been the longest, leaving just two stages to complete. The Norbi’s finished both in fifth place, which also gave them 5th place overall.
In the FWD category, they finished nearly two minutes ahead and won the Maramures Rally. Norbert Maior: “We did it! Another successful rally for us, where we met our target. We were very happy to return to the Maramures trials, we would have liked to do more kilometres, we regret the missed stages, but for us it was a successful rally in every respect. We leave here with more experience with the car, which we hope will help us in the next stage of the ERC Junior.” The Norbi’s will continue their ERC Junior programme from 7-8 July.
They can look forward to the gravel weekend in Sweden from second place overall. And the Romanian Championship will continue with the Sibiu Rali, also on gravel, from 14-15 July. 3rd Raliul Maramureșului Final result:
1. Tempestini Simone – Itu Sergiu 52:05.3
2. Barbu Sebastian – Găină Teodor + 50.4
3. Marișca Bogdan – Itu Sebastian + 55.8
4. Gîrtofan Andrei – Vraja Doru Călin + 58.9
5. Maior Norbert – Maior Francesca + 1.46.9
