Rally New Zealand 2000
LEG THREE
The seven special stages on the final day of Rally New Zealand saw more action than anyone expected. The weather was again dry maing the conditions similar to those on the first leg, which made life difficult for the first cars on the road.
On the first stage of the leg, SS 18, Hyundai took its first ever stage win as Alister McRae was fastest. The joy didn't last long, though; on the following road section the Scot's front diffs locked up and later the engine blew as a result of this. Kenneth Eriksson also did well finishing the stage third fastest, behind Petter Solberg. Rally leader Marcus Gronholm was taking it easy, with Colin McRae and Richard Burns closing in a little bit, even though the latter spun on the stage. Tommi Makinen also spun and sustained so much damage on his Mitsubishi that he retired after the stage.
Marcus Gronholm increased his lead over McRae on SS 19 from 15 to 24 secs. Both were trying hard; McRae spun losing some time, and Gronholm had a hairy moment almost tipping the Peugeot over. He was still second fastest on the stage won by Burns who was now only 6 secs behind McRae.
Stage 20 was won by McRae but he gained only two or three seconds on his rivals. Juha Kankkunen, running steadily 5th, developed a worrying engine problem, which was to become a disaster for the Subaru team on the following stage. On SS 21 both Subarus had similar problems with steering fluid boiling over and spilling onto the starter motor. The result was that both Kankkunen and Burns could not restart at the finish of the stage. Nothing could be done and they were out of the event. The reasons for Subaru's sudden problems were unknown after the rally but the team is investigating them.
SS 21 was again won by McRae, but Gronholm was only 8 tenths slower. With all the retirements, Carlos Sainz was now 3rd, more than a minute behind the leader, Petter Solberg 4th, Kenneth Eriksson 5th and leading Kiwi driver Possum Bourne 6th.
The fight over the victory went on for the remaining three stages. On SS 22 McRae was three secs faster than Gronholm; the margin was now 17 secs. After SS 23 the difference was 16 seconds. Time was running out for McRae. There was also a nice battle hotting up over the 4th place with Eriksson closing on Solberg. They were separated by ten seconds as they started the final stage.
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| Marcus Gronholm / Timo Rautiainen (Photo by Peugeot Sport) |
Solberg secured his 4th spot by winning the final stage of the rally. McRae was again faster than the rally leader, but only by nine tenths of a second, so Marcus Gronholm took the win by 14.5 seconds. McRae had a small gear selection problem on the final stages, which cut the sharpest edge on his final assault on the Finn. Nevertheless, Gronholm's performance on the roads he had quite little experience on was simply brilliant.
Carlos Sainz had quite an uneventful rally and he was rewarded with the third place, making it a great 2-3-4 result for Ford. Kenneth Eriksson's 5th place was a good implication of things to come from Hyundai once they develop the Accent a little further. Possum Bourne finished 6th taking the final championship point, and 7th was the group N winner Manfred Stohl.
With Burns out of the event, Gronholm cut the Subaru driver's championship lead to only four points, with McRae third, another four points adrift.
Results of Rally New Zealand:
Complete
results
1. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot - 3.45.13,4
2. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford +14,5
3. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.18,4
4. Petter Solberg (NOR) Ford +3.00,7
5. Kenneth Eriksson (SWE) Hyundai +3.12,7
6. Possum Bourne (NZL) Subaru +6.54,6
7. Manfred Stohl (GER) Mitsubishi (N) +11.52,0
