Daniel Elena wins 2009 World Rally Championship for co-drivers with Fastime Copilote watches
Monegasque navigator Daniel Elena has claimed the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship for co-drivers for the sixth consecutive time alongside Sebastien Loeb in their Citroen C4 WRC. As always, Daniel relied on his AST Fastime Copilote co-driver’s watch to negotiate his way through a 12-round World Rally Championship season that contained more than 4040 kilometres of flat-out driving across the planet.
Loeb and Elena ended another successful season with their second consecutive win on Rally Great Britain, the final round of this year’s World Rally Championship, racking up their seventh event victory of 2009.
The Copilote watch was designed by co-drivers for co-drivers, and has been a vital tool of the trade for Elena since its launch in 2006. Elena, who is the most successful rally co-driver of all time, commented: “My Copilote watch is something I rely on. It has all the functions I need, and it is on my wrist at every rally. Timing is everything in rallying, so a good watch is vital.”
Unlike any other product, the AST Fastime Copilote watch has been developed specifically for co-drivers, designed with all the functionality they need to carry out their split-second work. The wealth of features on the latest RW2 Copilote watch includes the ability to store 30 stage times as well as cumulative times, plus several other essential functions. These have never before been combined within one device before, and proof of the watch’s ground-breaking success is the fact that every 21st century World Rally Champion co-driver has worn a Copilote.
The latest version of the RW2 watch is now worn by all of the leading factory co-drivers as well as most of the top privateers, with the result that every round of the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship was won by a co-driver wearing a Copilote watch. Their success has been repeated at Intercontinental Rally Challenge and regional levels, where Copilote watches have proved to be the choice of champions.
Robert Thacker, the managing director of AST, commented: “On behalf of all of us at Copilote, I’d like to congratulate Daniel on his astonishing sixth title. He has marked himself out as a true legend of the co-driving world, and we are delighted to have shared a part of his success.”
Copilote has launched a range of limited edition commemorative watches, celebrating the achievements of all the WRC title-winning 21st century co-drivers. Before his home event, Welshman Phil Mills – who won the World Championship for co-drivers in 2003 alongside Petter Solberg – was presented with the new ‘Phil Mills’ edition RW2 co-driver’s watch in front of the world rally media at the service park in Cardiff.
Cardiff, 25 October 2009