Stichting Club Alfa Romeo Bezitters

Bulls-eye for Loeb!







Reigning world champion, Sebastien Loeb took the bull by horns - literally on the Rally Argentina over the weekend and while his rivals again failed to match him, it was a four-legged foe that almost cost him his sixth win in succession.

Loeb was busying trying to pull out an advantage on SS7, when the incident occurred.

"In SS7 I came across a bull standing in the middle of the road," he reflected at the end of the opening leg. "I thought it was going to move and it was only at the last minute that I realised it wasn't going to budge!

"I took to the ditch and punctured my front left tyre, but I still hit the animal with the front right corner. The damage was only superficial - the bonnet, a wing, the front bumper - but it was a big scare."

Asked about the matter again in the post-event press conference the Frenchman confirmed that he had had a lucky escape.

"When you hit a bull you can easily break everything on the car," he added, "when I saw it not moving I tried to pass on the left, but I hit the head. I went off the road and over some big rocks - I was a bit lucky."

His co-driver, Daniel Elena was also asked to re-call the incident...

"The first I knew about it was when we went off the road and hit a stone," he continued. "It was the first time I heard Seb saying: 'Oh shit, it's moving, oooohh, it's a bull'. In my head I remember Tommi [Makinen] hitting a bull in Corsica and going 80 metres off the road. We hit it and the car went off the road and we were okay. I'm not going to be a vegetarian. I love the bull!"

For the record though, Loeb is not the first person to have had trouble with a four-legged animal this year - that 'honour' goes to Jani Paasonen, who hit a cow in Mexico, when it had been frightened by a helicopter.

Paasonen's Skoda team-mate, Armin Schwarz meanwhile also suffered on the following event in NZ, when he was forced to play dodgems with three 'big' turkeys! The German, who was negotiating SS9 at the time, was at going at speed when they ran across the path of his Fabia WRC. Although he managed to keep going he did collect all three!

Who says motorsport is dull!