Guerlain Chicherit returned to the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship in Italy at the Franciacorta International Circuit, where he drove for JRM Racing in one of their MiniRX Supercars for the second time this year after making his debut in France earlier this season.
The weekend began well for the Frenchman after he finished second in his Heat One race and third in his Heat Two race, leaving him in 12th place in the Overnight standings and inside the crucial top 12 cut-off that leads to the Semi-Finals. However Day Two saw the popular Mini Supercar suffer a mechanical issue and he retired from his Heat Three race. The team set to work during the break to try and rectify the issue and the French Driver returned to action in Heat Four where he finished second in his Heat race.
The French driver was very happy with his Day One efforts: “I’m super happy with today’s results, I feel completely different to what I did at Loheac and these results show that I’m really enjoying my driving and feeling comfortable in the JRM MINI.
“I think I could have won the first heat race but I arrived too fast into the corner at the start of my joker lap and that meant Larsson just crept past me, and then in my heat two race I had to take the joker twice because they said I was edging forward a little bit at the start. But even after doing the joker lap twice, I still managed to finish third so that was great.”
However despite his valiant effort, Chicherit finished in 16th place, just outside the crucial top 12 cut-off for the Semi-Finals. In view of this though, he was happy with his second WorldRX performance in the Daventry based team’s Supercar that is being developed during the 2015 season for a full assault on the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship
Guerlain Chicherit reflected on his weekend’s performance: “I was really disappointed that heat three ended the way it did this morning, but if you are in the middle of the pack at the start of a World RX race, this is sometimes what can happen, but looking at the whole of the weekend, I think I can be very happy.
“The idea was to come here after Loheac, learn some more and make another step in my performance. My fastest time was only one second slower than the quickest guys yesterday so I think I’ve achieved my goal. Now I have done two World RX events, I feel good and ready for next season.”
Team Principal James Rumsey was happy with the work carried out by the Team and Chicherit during the event itself: “We’ve been hugely unlucky with what happened to Guerlain in heat three. Once you fail to finish a heat, it’s almost impossible to claw the points deficit back and that’s the position we found ourselves in. But those are the fine margins in World RX and we will learn from that and take the experience with us,” explained Rumsey,
“It’s disappointing that we couldn’t build on the good work that we did yesterday but there are lots of positives we will take away from Franciacorta. Guerlain showed that he belongs in a ultra-competitive World RX field, our MINI RX has once again showed that it is a supremely capable package and the team has learned a massive amount by adapting to the challenges of a track that was completely new to us.”
“As a development team entering the championship for the first time this season, I think this is yet another weekend where we can be proud of our overall performance as a team and it all bodes well for our future in the sport.”
