Big money for Cyprus Golden Stage winners

FOLLOWING hot on the heels of the FxPro Cyprus Rally, final round of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which finished in Limassol on Saturday evening, motor sport fans in Cyprus flocked to the  Love Cyprus Golden Stage Rally on Sunday, run over 25km from Kellaki to Yermasoyia, north of Limassol.

The contestants in this showcase event, which was designed to promote Cyprus to a global audience through its live coverage on Eurosport, had to drive the mixed-surface stage twice, once in the morning and again in the afternoon – with the total time of the two passes added together to determine the winner.

Running in reverse order, with the top seeds last, it proved to be a thriller, with each successive driver generally posting a faster time.

Top seed Nasser Al Attiyah, fresh from his victory on the Cyprus Rally, was the last car to run, and found himself chasing a very fast time set by young Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, who had been sidelined on the Cyprus Rally by an engine problem on the second day.

With a new engine in his Ford Fiesta S2000, Mikkelsen went flat out to secure his share of the €150,000 prize fund put up by the event’s sponsor, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation.

Al Attiyah knew that 10 seconds was a big ask to make up on the second run, but the Qatari did his best, pulling two seconds back to go fastest on the afternoon pass, but finishing 8.2 seconds behind his young rival, who took the €40,000 top prize. France’s Bryan Bouffier came third.

Czech Roman Kresta ended the day as winner of the Group N category, with Karl Kruuda of Estonia taking the 2WD category in his Suzuki Swift S1600.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.