Curtain Falls on the Rally Season in Kocaeli
The Ford Otosan 36th Kocaeli Rally, the final round of the 2018 Turkish Rally Championship, the Turkish Historic Rally Championship and the Ali Sipahi Rally Cup, will be held on 17-18 November.
The finale of a seven-round rally season that began in May in Eskişehir with Rally Phrygia, the event is being organised by the Kocaeli Automobile Sports Club, known as KOSDER, with Ford Otosan as title sponsor and with the support of the Kocaeli Governorship, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, İzmit Municipality, 41 Burda AVM, Tryp By Wyndham İzmit, Shell, Avis, Auto Club, Power FM and Fora Vehicle Tracking Systems.
The rally will begin on Friday 16 November with the recce between 08:00 and 15:30, while scrutineering will take place between 15:00 and 18:00 at the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality International Fair Centre, which will also serve as the service park.
On Saturday 17 November, following the start ceremony at the 41 Burda Shopping Centre at 11:00, the crews will tackle the Otosan (18.25 km), Transit (16.35 km), Courier (8.28 km) and Kuga (9.13 km) stages, before completing the first day at 15:30 with the spectator super special stage in the Intertex International Fair Centre car park.
The second leg of the rally will begin on Sunday 18 November at 08:00 from the parc fermé at the Tryp by Wyndham İzmit, which is also the rally headquarters. After the Otosan, Transit and Courier stages, the crews will play their final cards on the bonus stage, Kuga-2 Power Stage, where they will fight for extra points in the overall classification and their classes.
The rally is of great importance, as it will decide the season winners in all championships and classes, and is expected to be hard fought. Over the two days the crews will cover a total of 289.99 km, 106.22 km of which are special stages. The demanding Ford Otosan 36th Kocaeli Rally will conclude on Sunday at 13:00 with the prize-giving ceremony on the finish podium at the 41 Burda Shopping Centre.
