Bjorn Syx dominated the 53rd Bernard Degroote Monteberg Rally, taking 10 stage wins from the 11 available. In his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, the local specialist, who hails from Poperinge, proved unbeatable from the start. It was only a mistake on SS9, the Mesen-Wijtschate stage, that kept him from a perfect event.
Niels Reynvoet came home in second place with his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 and Davy Vanneste finished with a strong podium.
However, it was Syx who underlined his ambitions for the Ardeca Ypres Rally with a convincing, 21-second victory.
“I am very happy with the progress we made today and with the feeling in the Toyota. Only in Mesen-Wijtschate – I lost 10 seconds when we clocked in too late for the start, and another 10 seconds due to a slide, as I braked a fraction too late. We learned a lot and the car feels very good. We are ready for Ypres, although the level there will be a bit higher,” said Bjorn Syx.
Niels Reynvoet was satisfied with the second half of the rally. “The beginning of the rally was disastrous. We lost a lot of time because we started with the wrong set-up. When the car was softer, we came close to Bjorn’s times,” said Reynvoet, who passed Davy Vanneste in the second for second during the latter half of the event.
Vanneste, now in a Citroën, finished third. “Third place is a bit of a disappointment, but I have to admit that today we could not match Bjorn’s times and Niels was too strong in the final phase. For our team it was important to run this Citroën C3 Rally2 together again. The car felt good straight away. We will have to improve some details for Ypres,” laughed Vanneste.
Jim Van den Heuvel drove his Citroën C3 Rally2, a former car from Syx, to a great fourth place, despite a lack of stage knowledge. Kurt Boone was the surprise in the top 5 with his Mitsubishi Lancer, after a fast and flawless event. He stayed ahead of Junior champion Jonas Dewilde with his Citroën C3 Rally2.
Dewilde made his debut in the top class with the C3 Rally2 and got plenty of stage kilometres, with a flawless rally, together with his new navigator Niels Pierpont. It was a good result with a view to the Sezoensrally in two weeks.
Another pleasant surprise was the 7th place overall of Christophe Merlevede, who put his Renault Clio Rally3 between the Rally2s, despite turbo problems. Richard Pex came 8th, followed by local, Steve Becaert, second in the battle between the Mitsubishis.
Cedriek Merlevede and Gilles Pyck had a great duel with similar BMWs M3 E36 made by MATS Van den Brand. In the final phase, Gilles Pyck challenged, but it was Cedriek Merlevede who took home the BMW glory with a tiny margin of just 0.8 of a second.
In Historic there was again no match for a sublime Paul Lietaer, driving his 280 hp Ford Escort RS 1800 was able to compete with several hugely-powerful BMWs. Lieater also beat the Mitsubishi Gr.A of Hein Jonkers in Historic.
Manuel Merlevede, the third of the Merlevede boys, took 13th overall, was the fastest among the Rally4 runners.
