Luis Perez Companc will call it a day after Rally Finland 2008
According to wrc.com Luis Perz Companc will retire from the WRC after Finland. Companc has also apparently bought an 07 Ford Focus for his car collection which he keeps in a museum. Included in his collection is an ex-Michael Schumacher F1 Ferrari which he takes out for the occassional blast round a circuit.
Companc to retire
WRC.com article
The forthcoming Rally of Finland will be the last for Argentine Luis Perez Companc, the co-founder of the Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team, who has decided to retire from World Championship rallying.
Companc’s Argentine co-driver, Jose Maria Volta, has also decided to make Rally Finland his last and will instead play more of an organisational role within the Munchi’s squad in future.
After customer drives with the BP Ford team in 2005, and the Stobart Ford team in 2006, Perez Companc, 36, helped establish the Munchi’s Ford WRT (named after the chain of his ice-cream restaurants his family owns) in 2007. Registered for the manufacturers’ championship that year, the Munchi’s team entered two Ford Focus RS WRCs on 10 events, with Perez Companc in one car and Juan Pablo Raies or Federico Villagra in the second.
In 2008, Munchi’s committed to a 10 round programme again, but this time with Federico Villagra as lead driver, while Luis was increasingly side-tracked by business matters in Argentina. After Finland, Henning Solberg will drive the second Munchi’s car on the team’s three remaining rallies: New Zealand, Spain and Japan.
Ahead of his final rally - his 30th at World Championship level - Luis said he was proud of the progress his team had made. “I think that the Munchi’s will have a place in the history books having been the first Argentine Team to compete in the WRC,” he said. “We have achieved more than we thought we could and this was also because of all the support we received from Malcolm Wilson and Ford during these years.”
Perez Companc also paid tribute to his co-driver: “I will always be very thankful to Jose; he has been with me in the good and bad times. He also helped me in all my progress as a driver and I think that I could not have any other co-driver than him,” he said.
Looking ahead to the rally, Perez Companc said that while a lack of car time this year was causing him some anxiety, he still felt better prepared than he had in 2007. “This is a rally that I like because it is fast and has all those jumps that make it very interesting,” he said. “This year for me is going to be of great help with the regulation that does not change the order on the road from one leg to another, that way I can follow the lines and breaking points of the cars in front of me. All I want is to have fun and enjoy the event and to retire from Rallying in the most important event with the best drivers of the world.”
Fresh from a second place on the fifth round of the Argentine National Rally Championship, which put him back in the top position in the championship standings, Federico Villagra said he was hoping for a top eight result in Finland - one of the rallies he tackled with the Munchi’s team in 2007.
“I know Finland is going to be a hard rally but we will try and continue to get more points for the Munchi’s Ford team and for myself in the Drivers’ Championship,” he said. “I think racing for the second time will help a lot on the notes here and hopefully this will help us to a good performance.”
Villagra also thanked Luis Perez Companc for signing him to the Munchi’s team. “Luis and Jorge [Luis’s brother, and Federico’s co-driver] gave me a chance to drive a World Rally car which was something I never thought possible to achieve,” he said. “Luis helped me a lot when I first started driving the car and teaching me the correct style and approach compared to the GpN. We are leading the national championship in Argentina and we have missed two rounds - so things are still going well for us there.”
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