Rally Australia (Sep. 15 - 19)
Rally New Zealand '95 info by Chris Shaw (cshaw@nznet.gen.nz or cshaw@manukau.govt.nz)
Toyota Team Europe Confident at New Zealand (Media Release 27)
Starting Order & Comments (Media Release 28)
Yes - For the third year in a row Colin McRae has won the Rally of N.Z. "If I told you I'd have to kill you," was Colin's answer to questions on his secret to winning this event. Again his superiority on the 44km Motu stage south of Opotiki, where his Subaru Impreza was 35 secs quicker than Didier Auriol, seemed to sew up the event.
It was unfortunate that Tommi Makinen, who was bloody spectacular, ended his rally on the fourth stage of day 2. "There were three right-hand corners with the middle one much tighter. For some reason I mixed it up in my head. I went too fast and we went over a bank. The spectators tried to push us back, but it was too steep. It was a stupid mistake and I am very sorry." I saw the coverage on the Fridays highlights and it looked very similar to Possums demise in last years Rally of New Zealand.
As you would expect with a field as great as this, the driving was fantastic. With three Toyotas in hot pursuit, you could imagine the effort made to catch Colin. Again, Didier was not be happy with second if he could be first. The official finish was this year held at the Manukau Velodrome, the venue for the Commonwealth Games track cycling events. This is a banked, concrete track with corners of 40 degrees. And instead of the celebratory donuts, the drivers sped around the track. It was stunning. I hope it gets shown on world highlights of the rally.
At the end of the first day Finland's Tommi Makinen leads by 8 seconds over Kenneth Eriksson and Didier Auriol sharing second place. Third place is also tied with Colin McRae and Juha Kankkunen 13 seconds behind. I believe Francois Delecour is next ( no official reports yet - just hurridly scribbled down from the tv highlights ) 20 seconds behind. Next, Richard Burns, then Bruno Thiry, and N.Z.'s Possum Bourne.
Isolde Holderied ( Leading Lady Driver ) was one of the victims of the first stage, as was our own Greg Graham. Stage one also nearly claimed former N.Z. rally champ Neil Allport, driving one of the works Escorts, as he understeers into a fence post. Luckly he was able to fix the split oil pipe and continue, running about 12 or 13 after day one. A Japanese entrant that had hit something on the first stage was stopped by the local police as they deemed his car unfit for road use - hence retirement. Also out is Mohammed Bin Sulayem after coming out of the second stage down many places - I do not know what happened, but his luck here is not very good at all.
As previously mentioned Tommi Makinen started the day with an 8 second lead over Armin Schwarz, and continued to build on his lead until his 10th stage exit. McRae relished the stage, which is similar to the Motu in character, and surged from sixth to first with a time 15 secs quicker than anyone else. Unofficial time checks showed that he was much faster than Makinen's effort before he crashed.
For the rest of the day McRae maintained his lead, although Auriol chipped away at it over the shorter stages. Toyota held a very strong hand with Auriol, Schwarz (29s), and Juha (35s) poised to capitalise on any mistake by the Scot. Then came Erikkson at 37s, Delecour at 50s and Burns at 59s. Bruno Thiry had slipped more than two minutes of the pace after breaking a front strut and damaging a wheel. Leading Kiwi Possum Bourne was ninth, 3m 19s behind the leader after recording some better times with a new suspension setup on his Subaru.
The day of the big break. "These conditions really suit the Subaru and we are going at 100 percent" McRae said. This year the Motu stage was going to be run twice, up and back, but the bad weather over the last few weeks had made the stage the worst it had ever been and return run was cancelled. Auriol never gave up and was 30s ahead of Juha. Schwarz was fourth after duelling with Kenneth Erikkson. Bruno Thiry ended his rally on Friday night, failing to reach the final control in time as his car would not start at the final service break.
Delecour was also on the pace now, after recovering from a bout of the flu, but lost vital time after a puncture. "I hit some rocks 15km before the end of stage 21 and punctured the left rear. We had to drive over half the stage on the puncture, then we found we could not get the jack under the car to change the wheel at the end of the stage. We had to go 30km on the rim to get to service and broke the rear damper." Richard Burns, who was turning in a startling drive, did not come out of the Motu (again - he ditched the car in there last year). I believe car died after crossing the ford. He was well in front of Possum. Possum was now 7th two places behind Erikkson, his main rival in the Asia Pacific series. Jorge Recalde continued to lead the Group N category in 9th place.
The challenge for McRae today was to hold on to his lead, which was around a minute at the start of the day. Today also brought out the sun, and even a bit of dust. The Toyotas kept pressing to the end but behind them many competitors were concentrating on holding position.
Kenneth Erikkson brought the surviving works Mitsubishi back in fifth place ahead of Francois Delecour in the Ford. Possum was seventh, nine minutes behind Colin. He experienced electrical problems also on the Motu stage yesterday, having to stop during the stage to clean his window as his demister and wipers were not working. Kiwi Neil Allport survived his first day shunt and second day slide off the road to come home 8th in the works Escort. A solid effort gave Jorge Recalde a ninth placing and Rui Madeira finishes up the top ten.
1 Colin McRae 5hr 33m 06s 2 Didier Auriol 5:33.50 3 Juha Kankkunen 5:34.15 4 Armin Schwarz 5:34.51 5 Kenneth Eriksson 5:35.38 6 Francois Delecour 5:37.30 7 Possum Bourne 5:42.01 8 Neil Allport 5:54.47 9 Jorge Recalde 5:57.45 10 Rui Madeira 5:58.16 11 Ed Ordynski 5:58.49 12 Geof Argyle 6:00.46 13 Kiyoshi Inoue 6:00.49 14 Hikaru Teshigawara 6:01.55 15 Karamjit Singh 6:08.06 16 Katsuhiko Taguchi 6:08.52 17 Andrew Grant 6:09.01 18 Ross Meekings 6:11.14 19 Martyn Beckton 6:12.11 20 Hideaki Miyoshi 6:12.33
Rally Australia (Sep. 15 - 19)
