Rally team members, and brothers, Luis and Jorge Perez Companc, the latter who calls the notes for Juan Pablo Raies, were forced to make the decision on Saturday evening after learning of their younger brother’s dreadful accident on a racing circuit in Florida.
Pablo Perez Companc was racing on the Homestead Miami Speedway when his car left the track at high speed, badly injuring and hospitalising the Argentine driver.
Luis and Jorge received the news just hours before they were due to travel to Spain for a pre-event test in their Ford Focus WRC rally cars, and with doctors requesting the family’s attendance at Pablo’s bed-side, were left with no option but to call off the test and also their participation in the rally itself.
Speaking
prior to the accident, Luis had been looking forward to the event and was eager to try and score the teams first ever points, after neither he nor Raies managed it in Sweden or Mexico.
“Driving on gravel is where I feel most comfortable and where I also have most experience,” he noted. “I have been told that Portugal is quite similar to Mexico and Argentina and that it is also fast, this is a combination that I really like. Not completing the first leg in Mexico shouldn’t really make much difference, as I have experience in this car from last year also.
“In terms of points I hope that we can make it happen in Portugal, we were looking for that point in Mexico but we had problems. Because it is a new event, everyone should be making new pace notes and this will benefit us I think. My goal for this rally is to achieve as many points as possible, for this to happen I must be in the top eight.”
The Munchi’s Ford World Rallly Team will now continue its ten-event programme in the WRC on the Rally Argentina, its home event.
Junior RC:
The Rally de Portugal is the second round in the
FIA Junior Rally Championship and of the 21 entries in the 2007 series, all but one of them have opted to take in this event, namely Aaron Burkart.
