Dennis Kuipers has revealed that his capture of ninth place on the Jordan Rally last week exceeded his expectations.
The FERM Power Tools World Rally Team driver was tackling the challenging gravel event for the first time and with a new co-driver, Bjorn Degandt. Like his rivals, he also had to recce the stages in a makeshift vehicle - in his case a pick-up truck - following the much-publicised delays transporting the recce cars to the event base at the Dead Sea.
By finishing ninth, Kuipers has now scored drivers’ championship points on the last two events in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, while his Dutch team has claimed manufacturers’ championship points on three out of the four rounds run so far this season.
“Ninth in my debut in Jordan, is something I never had expected,” said the 25-year-old from Netherlands, who equals his previous best WRC finish of ninth in Turkey in 2010. “It feels great to once again to have world [championship] points.”
Kuipers put his result down to his all-out attack on Saturday morning’s stages. Kuipers and Degandt started the day 5.9s behind Bernardo Sousa but their charge enabled them to reach the finish 38 seconds clear of the Portuguese ace and his navigator Antonio Costa.
“This ninth position is very special, for me it is a new rally, with a new temporary navigator and then achieving such a result is really, really magnificent,” said Kuipers.
Kuipers’ regular co-driver, Frederic Miclotte, was competing on a clashing rally, which forced him to recruit Degandt on a one-off basis.
“On day one I learned already so much and I really enjoyed it,” said the Belgian. “I could not wait to go racing again on day two. If you then finish with points in the WRC, it just makes this experience complete.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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