Rally Championship: Carron's return in the Polo R5
COMEBACK ON COUNSEL After a successful run in Italy, Sébastien Carron returns to the Swiss rally tracks in a VW Polo R5. First at the Chablais, then perhaps also in the Valais. A few days after the accident at the Rally Pays du Gier in March last year, Sébastien Carron announced his immediate retirement. After months of inactivity [...]
A few days after the accident at the Rally Pays du Gier in March last year, Sébastien Carron announced his immediate retirement. After months of inactivity in this sector, the now 41-year-old from the Valais took part in a small rally in Italy and then kept a low profile about his future in rallying.
First Cuneesi, then Chablais
Now the three-time Swiss rally champion in 2014, 2016 and 2017 took out his helmet again and is returning to the national terrain. At the end of May, he will compete in the Rallye du Chablais with his friend and loyal co-driver Lucien Revaz. This will involve a premiere: Carron will be the first Swiss to bring a Volkswagen Polo R5 to the start, which will be entered by the relatively new team HKRacing.
Carron made his comeback in installments dependent on a trial run at the Valli Cuneesi in northern Italy. In 2017, he won the Swiss Rally Championship classification there. As overall runners-up behind the Italians Gino/Ravera in a Ford Fiesta WRC and winners of the strongly contested Group R5, Carron/Revaz came off brilliantly. They even managed to set a best SS time for the WRC team.
The desire is still there
As Carron explained to AutoSprintCH, this was the necessary prerequisite for his Swiss comeback.
Sébastien Carron: "The team and the car were new to me, but everything went well. The Polo is very nice to drive, but in terms of handling it is much more tighter than the Fiesta or Skoda. After that, I definitely decided to start at the Rallye du Chablais.
And why did the about-face happen in the first place?
Sébastien Carron: "It was hard for me to give up everything right away. The virus, the desire to drive a rally, is still there, I already felt that last year. There's just a difference between competing for a championship and just driving for fun."
Carron keeps the ball low
He will now do this in Switzerland in around four weeks in the Vaud Alps. If things go well there, a start at the anniversary race in Valais, the 60th Rallye International du Valais, is also conceivable in October.
Sébastien Carron: "At the moment, only Chablais is planned. But people are trying to motivate me to start in Valais as well. I'll wait and see. Of course I want to race for victory. But the automatisms like two years ago are not there yet. I would be surprised if I would drive right back at the top after such a short rally like the Cuneesi."
We would not be.
