The end of the Ardeca Ypres Historic Rally was just as eventful as the start on Saturday morning. The leading trio coming into Saturday of Latvala-Maeyaert and Lubiak, all retired in the morning’s stages. That left Tomas Davies (BMW M3 E30) took the lead. He had a half-minute lead over Wouter Lievens, in a similar car.
Davies felt victory was within reach, until he had to throw in the towel on the very last special stage with a broken engine. Thus, the victory seemed to fall into Wouter Lievens’ lap, although he got very hot, literally and figuratively, when the cylinder head gasket threatened to give out. Just before driving onto the podium, a considerable amount of water was added. Lievens thought he would crown his first rally with the BMW M3 E30 with a victory, but a cold shower followed. Due to a timekeeping error, he received a five minute penalty. Lievens ultimately finished fourth, 4 minutes 20 seconds behind.
Thus, the victory surprisingly went to Stefaan Stouf with his Porsche 911 Carrera. However, the Porsche driver, who had not driven the Porsche for three years, experienced problems with the brakes throughout the entire rally.
Guillermo Bruneel completed the Belgian success by also securing second place with his BMW. The Italian Renato Travaglia, who had problems with a malfunctioning intercom, steered his BMW to third place. Behind Wouter Lievens, the Britons Seb Perez and John Morgan finished in the remaining podium places, good for important points in the FIA standings. Enrico Brazzoli, who had to retire on Friday with a broken driveshaft, celebrated his 61st birthday with a seventh place.
In the BRC Historic event, the standings stayed relatively stable throughout the day. On Saturday morning, we had already said goodbye to Tom Boonen with transmission problems in the BMW, while Louis Tytgat his Opel Ascona A ended up in a ditch. Philip Barbier took no more risks in the final loop and settled for second place behind an elusive Claudie Tanghe (Ford Escort). Due to the retirement of Bram Fonteyne (cylinder head gasket), third place fell, completely unexpectedly, into the hands of Kenny Verstraete (BMW E21), who made his Ypres debut.
