Heading to Montalegre
for the concluding round of the 2024 FIA European Rallycross Championship
campaign, Benyó – last season’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ – was embroiled in a
fierce fight for third with Mika Liimatainen and Damian Litwinowicz, with the
trio separated by just three points.
A fourth-place finish
in his first heat race did not get the Hungarian’s challenge off to the most
promising of starts, and he then found himself having to give best to
Litwinowicz in heat two.
Heat three marked an
upturn in fortunes as Benyó came within a whisker of pipping champion-elect
Patrick O’Donovan to victory – the pair running side-by-side on more than one
occasion over the course of the last lap – and he subsequently took a
commanding win in heat four to secure sixth in the intermediate classification.
That race, however,
offered the first indication that all was perhaps not quite right with the
Korda Racing Peugeot 208, as the Budapest native had to battle back from a slow
start from pole position. What’s more, with Litwinowicz outscoring him by three
points in the Ranking, it meant there was a dead-heat between all three drivers
for third in the title table.
Both Litwinowicz and
Liimatainen advanced safely through the first semi-final, shifting the pressure
onto Benyó to do likewise in the second – but then, disaster struck, as another
sluggish launch dropped him to the back of the pack, and he was only able to
recover to fourth at the chequered flag, missing out by just one place.
“I’m very disappointed,”
he reflected immediately after the race, his dream seemingly dashed. “I gave it
my best, but at the start, everything went wrong due to some technical issues
with the car that we were battling all weekend. That cost me a lot of
positions, and I tried to fight back but the dust made it really difficult to
follow other drivers.
“I did everything I
could and I’m proud of my team and of myself too. This is only our second
season in the European Championship, and we have achieved two podium finishes.”
That podium count would
turn out to be premature. A track limits penalty for Euro RX3 newcomer Julien
Fébreau elevated Benyó into the final, and after climbing to fourth away from
the line, he benefitted from a penultimate lap joker merge clash between Litwinowicz
and Liimatainen to rise to second. Not only did the result represent his best
to-date in Euro RX1, it also clinched him the coveted third position in the
championship standings.
“It was one of the
biggest rollercoaster weekends ever for me – really unbelievable,” the visibly
emotional 23-year-old acknowledged. “After the semi-final, I thought I was out,
but then Fébreau’s penalty gave me the chance to be in the final. My childhood
dream has come true. To be in the overall top three with a small team and a big
dream, I honestly can’t believe it...”
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