Hancı: "Risk Brought the Roll"

İlayda Hancı, the only female competitor contesting the Turkish Off-road Championship, managed to see the chequered flag at last weekend's second round of the season despite all the difficulties. Competing with Batuhan Korkut as co-driver, Hancı finished second in Class 1 despite rolling on the second day, and kept her championship challenge alive.
Summing up the event in Düzce Kaynaşlı, Hancı said: "The second round of the 2016 Turkish Championship took place at the Kaynaşlı motorsport centre, organised by the DOSOD club. We started the first day, made up of three forest stages, in second place in our class. A fuel pump failure at the start of SS2 cost us points, but we closed the gap on SS3 and ended the day second, two points behind. On the second day, on the spectator course made up of four stages, we won the first stage and moved into the class lead by one point. On the second stage, while trying to defend the lead, we took a bit too much risk and rolled after a steep descent. With our car put back on its wheels with the help of the marshals, we lost around 1.5-2 minutes but made it to the finish and on to service." Hancı explained that, because of pain in the neck and right shoulder after the roll, co-driver Batuhan took the wheel for the remaining two stages. "We finished the rally second in our class despite all the setbacks. The fight with our championship rivals is very close and enjoyable. We will continue the battle for the lead at the third round in Ankara at the end of this month."
We wish the young competitor a speedy recovery and every success in the remaining rounds of the season.