A thrilling 173 km gravel battle brought 74 drivers to Round 5 of the SIMGEAR Rally Cup

Round 5 of Season 3 of the SIMGEAR Rally Cup took the competitors to the USA for some of the toughest gravel stages in the calendar.

A total of 74 drivers tackled 173 kilometers across legendary stages like Pikes Peak, Red Bull Hill Climb, Hualapai Nation and Prospect Ridge — and only 56 of them made it to the finish.

Top 3 overall

With phenomenal pace and despite a difficult mixed-surface setup, Finnish driver Tommi Makinen in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 won the rally and climbed to fifth place in the overall standings with 161 points.

Second came Polish driver Jurek Bogdanowicz in a Ford Fiesta Rally2, who remains the championship leader with 207 points.

Third was another Finn – Tomi Valio in a Skoda Fabia Rally2, who moved up to tenth overall with 130 points after this result.

Fierce battles in the other classes

In Rally3, Jack Rackham (Renault Clio) triumphed for the fifth time in a row, increasing his tally to 190 points.

In Rally4, Bulgarian driver Julian Genovski (Renault Clio) finished second and took the championship lead with 141 points, while the American round was won by Francesco Gatto (Ford Fiesta).

In R4, Nils Sentkowski (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) was the fastest and retained his lead with 171 points.

In the legendary LADA Cup, Alexandr Zhdanov (Russia) took the win and reclaimed the top spot with 179 points.

 

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Top 10 overall standings after Rally USA

1. Jurek Bogdanowicz – 207 pts

2. Mikael Sorjonen – 173 pts

3. Damian Skupień – 170 pts

4. Jack Rackham – 169 pts (Rally3)

5. Tommi Makinen – 161 pts

6. Manuel Alonso – 143 pts

7. Nils Sentkowski – 141 pts (R4)

8. Eetu Kortelainen – 140 pts

9. Joona Viitanen – 133 pts

10. Tomi Valio – 130 pts

(Note: some of these drivers compete in different classes but appear in the overall standings thanks to their accumulated points.)

Next stop: Japan

After five incredibly intense rounds, the fight in the SIMGEAR Rally Cup is heating up.
The next round will take the drivers to Japan, where they’ll face fast and technical gravel and asphalt stages.