Yağız Avcı Continues Family Tradition with FIA European Rally Trophy Win

Red Bull-backed Neo Motorspor crew Yağız Avcı-Bahadır Gücenmez have achieved a major success, winning the FIA European Rally Trophy in a Skoda Fabia R5. The most recent of this season's international successes in rallying, which began in 2017 with Castrol Ford Team Türkiye's European Rally Team Championship title and continued with Toksport WRT crew Orhan Avcıoğlu-Burçin Korkmaz winning the Balkan Rally Trophy, came at Rallye Algarve 2017 in Portugal on 17-18 November, giving Turkish motorsport another reason for pride...
Yağız Avcı stayed close behind Portuguese rival Pedro Meireles until the ninth stage, then capitalised on a mistake by Meireles on the tenth stage to take the lead with three stages remaining. Finishing 33.60 seconds clear of their closest rival and leaving several notable names behind, Avcı-Gücenmez secured the 2017 FIA European Rally Trophy with a total time of 1:39:43.70. Czech driver Ondrej Bisaha took second place, while another Czech, Vojtech Staif, completed the podium.
The Avcı-Gücenmez crew received this meaningful trophy on the podium from Ediz Atabey, the Turkish member of the FIA Rally Commission, and the Turkish national anthem was played during the ceremony.
The rally is open to drivers who finished in the top five in the trophies held across seven different regions of Europe: Alpine, Balkan, Baltic, Benelux, Celtic, Central and Iberian. By winning it, Yağız Avcı brought the trophy back to Turkey, first won by his father Nejat Avcı in 1997, and so continued the family tradition.
Forty crews from across Europe started Rallye Algarve 2017, which served as the final of the FIA European Rally Trophy. Another Neo Motorspor crew, Adil Küçüksarı-Kerim Tar in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, took second place in the European Rally Trophy ERT2 category. Meanwhile, Orhan Avcıoğlu-Burçin Korkmaz, driving a Skoda Fabia R5 for Toksport WRT, went off the road on the ninth stage while fighting for the lead and retired.