Silver for Osian on Rally Poland
05.07.15
News release
Silver for Osian on Rally Poland
There was no hiding the disappointment for 22-year-old Machynlleth driver Osian Pryce as he stepped from his Citroën DS 3 R3-Max at the finish of Rally Poland. Second in the Junior World Rally Championship was an exceptional result, but first had been within touching distance.
After waving farewell to huge crowds in Poland’s lake district, Pryce admitted the last three days had been among the best of his career.
“Yes, it’s disappointing not to have won,” he said, “but I’m hoping that people will have taken notice of what we’ve done. We’ve set more fastest times than anybody and, without our problems, we would have come into today’s final day with almost a minute’s lead.
“That didn’t happen. We’re second, which is still a very, very good result for me on only my fourth ever start in the world championship. And I’ve got to be honest, the roads here in Poland have been something else. They are just immense! The speed we’ve been able to carry in the car is almost beyond belief.
“The feeling of turning the car into a corner at over 100mph and being able to drift it through is the best in the world. I came here to win and to show what I believe Dale [Furniss, co-driver] and I are capable of and we’ve done half of that. But we go home smiling. Forget the misfire and the problems we’ve had, if you can’t smile after driving down roads like those for the last three days then you’re in the wrong job!
“It seems like a crazy situation to be disappointed with second place. If you’d told me before the start we were going to be second, I would definitely have taken that!”
Valuable championship points have been bagged in Mikołajki, but Osian now faces arguably the biggest fight of his season as he chases funding to get to the next Junior WRC round: Neste Oil Rally Finland (July 30-August 2).
“We had some irons in the fire when we came to Poland,” said Osian, “but we really needed that win. The problems have cost us victory here, but I’m absolutely more determined than ever that we will fight on and somehow make it to Finland.”
Today in numbers: Osian did what, when in his class?
SS18: 1st fastest (2nd in Junior WRC) back to fastest again
SS19: 1st fastest (2nd in Junior WRC) another JWRC day dominated
On the 18 Rally Poland stages run…
- Osian was fastest eight times
- led Junior WRC classification outright after 10 of them
The Citroën DS 3 R3-Max Osian’s ride this week in detail
Engine: EP6 CDT 1598cc turbo, direct injection developing 234bhp and 430Nm at 3000rpm.
Bodyshell: Reinforced body with welded, multi-point roll cage.
Transmission: Front-wheel drive with six-speed sequential gearbox, activated from steering wheel-mounted paddle. Differential is self-locking ZF.
Suspension: front MacPherson struts with BOS three-way adjustable dampers.
Numbers: Bore and stroke 77 x 85.8mm width 1715mm length 3948mm wheelbase 2465mm fuel tank capacity 67 litres weight 1230kg.
Brakes: Alcon forged 4-piston front calipers, 2-piston rears. Vented discs 330 x 34mm (front) 300 x 8mm (rear). Hydraulic handbrake.Wheels: 6 x 15-inch.
About Osian Pryce
Date of birth: 24.02.93
Lives: Machynlleth
Co-driver: Dale Furniss
First rally: Rally Kurzeme (Latvia) August 2009 – 37thoverall, eighth 2WD
British Rally Championship event wins: 4
British Rally Championship results: 2nd(2013/14), 3rd(2012)
World Rally Championship starts: 4
World Rally Championship class wins: 1
Website: osianpryce.com
Media contact:
Sandra Evans
+44 7887 693993
sandra@wordspr.com
About the Junior WRC
Won by such rallying greats as Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier, the Junior WRC title remains the most sought after drivers’ title outside of the World Rally Championship itself.
The series is open to drivers under the age of 28 and is fought out over some of the world’s most demanding rallies. The diversity of events Osian is hoping to contest this year is incredible: he’ll go from flying 50 metres at a time through the forests of Jyvaskyla on what’s known as the Finnish Grand Prix (Rally Finland) to the agonisingly slow Rally of 10,000 Corners (Tour de Corse).
Crews score on six of seven rounds of the Junior WRC. Osian and Dale missed the opening round of the season on Monte Carlo and will, therefore count all six from the calendar listed below.
All Junior WRC crews will drive the identical Citroën DS 3 R3-Max, the latest evolution of Citroën Racing’s super-successful 1600cc turbocharged, front-wheel drive rally car. And all the crews will run identical Michelin tyres on all six rallies.
Osian and Dale will also compete for the WRC 3 title, which is the FIA’s support series for category R3 cars.
Osian’s last rally…
Rally of Portugal (May 21-24)
The combination of punctures, trouble with the dampers, auxiliary belt and electrical issues, powersteering failure and brake problems meant Osian and Dale didn’t finish. In fact, they only managed eight clean stages over the three days. But, of those eight, they were fastest on three and in the top three times on another three. Not bad for their first time in Portugal.
And this rally…
Rally Poland (July 2-5)
A super-quick gravel round, Poland was one of the most popular rallies of last year. The event will run wholly within Poland this time, after experimenting with a cross-border route in Lithuania last year. Run out of the Polish Lake District town of Mikolajki, the event is always one of the best attended by fans.
Lotos Rally Poland detail:
Date: July 2-5
Base: Mikołajki
Stages: 19
Competitive distance: 194.82 miles (313.53 kilometres)
Total distance: 741.01 miles (1192.50 kilometres)
Website: www.rajdpolski.pl
Media contact:
Andrzej Borowczyk
+48 721 527453
a.borowczyk@rallypoland.pl
To access the full library of press releases since 2014, please go to: http://www.wordspr.com/our-work/osian
Sandra Evans
sandra@wordspr.com
44 (0) 7887 693993
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