An open battle was expected in the Pirelli Junior BRC at the ConXioN Omloop van Vlaanderen, but that was beyond Gilles Pyck. The Peugeot driver from Poperinge dominated the race among the youngsters and he went full-on into the duel with Timo van der Marel, a benchmark in R2. As a result, he kept the title race open for a while, as the leader in the standings, Gr\u00e9goire Munster, did not come to the start with his Opel Adam R2.<\/p>\n
Already after the opening test, it was clear to everyone that Gilles Pyck was the fastest of the field in the Juniors. Pyck rode Thibauld Mazuin (+12\u2033) and Tobias Br\u00fcls (13\u2033) by a good distance. In the end, he would win the race with 3'36\u2033 ahead of his closest pursuer. But, Pyck the bonus point system challenged Gilles to keep pushing, as a bonus point has to be earned by being fastest overall in R2. To do so, he therefore had to drive faster times than Timo van der Marel, a serious reference as an official driver for Opel Netherlands. The bonus points system ensures that the Junior champion cannot rest on his laurels. It ensures that not the most regular, but the fastest driver can become Junior champion.<\/p>\n
Pyck started chasing van der Marel on Saturday and he also approached to within 14\u2033 in the standings, but a puncture in Passendale ended the duel. In the end, Pyck still clocked nine fastest times.<\/p>\n
\"We drove very hard and I would have liked to have beaten Timo, but that puncture in Passendale killed us,\" said Gilles, who is not yet sure he will be able to drive the East Belgian Rally. \"It certainly wasn't an easy race, as the weather conditions were very changeable, which meant constant vigilance. We still have to see if it is financially feasible. In any case, we will be back at the start in the Condroz.\"<\/p>\n
Thibauld Mazuin was unlucky twice. After the first special stage, the gearbox jammed in first gear, forcing him to give up. On Saturday, a brake line ruptured. Glenn Snaet immediately lost 2'53\" on Friday evening due to a puncture in Beveren, but the young driver from Staden was mainly looking for confidence: \"It feels like this is my first rally. I have no confidence. These are my first metres after that tough sortie in the Rally of Wallonia. And immediately we had to drive in the rain again. No, I'm not enjoying myself,\" Glenn told Friday night after the first stage. On Saturday, his confidence did return and he drove two fastest times, but in the closing stages he went off the track again.<\/p>\n
Tobias Br\u00fcls did not miss the opportunity to score his fifth podium finish of the season. In the standings, he does see Gilles Pyck move up to second place: \"I was satisfied with my times, especially in difficult conditions due to the rainy weather, but Gilles was just faster this weekend,\" said Br\u00fcls, who can enjoy home advantage in the next race, the East Belgian Rally.<\/p>\n
Third place went to Munster, but to Charles Munster, Gr\u00e9goire's younger brother. With his Opel Adam in Cup version, he almost stunted on the very last test. Charles drove the second fastest time among the youngsters there, 1\u20338 off Pyck's R2, within the same second as Lietaer and ahead of Boulat's BMW and Maeyaert's Escort. Promising.<\/p>\n
Photos<\/p>\n
1. Gilles Pyck delivered a strong performance in Roeselare. (BRC Media - Tom Buyse)<\/p>\n
2. Tobias Br\u00fcls took a nice 2nd place in his first participation in the Omloop van Vlaanderen. (BRC Media - Karel Leeuwerck)<\/p>\n
3. Glenn Snaet was looking for confidence after his sortie in the Wallonia but he experienced two breakdowns (BRC Media - Karel Leeuwerck).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In het Pirelli Junior BRC werd een open strijd verwacht in de ConXioN Omloop van Vlaanderen, maar dat was buiten Gilles Pyck gerekend. De Peugeot-rijder uit Poperinge domineerde de wedstrijd bij de jongeren en hij ging voluit het duel aan met Timo van der Marel, een referentie van formaat in R2. Daardoor houdt hij de […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geen-categorie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omloopvanvlaanderen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}