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TEAM TALK
Retire, Repair, and Rejoin
Superally explained
Letter from SWRT
10 June 2005
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| Copyright © STI |
Before the start of the 2005 WRC season, if a driver was to retire his car on any of the three days of a WRC event then his rally was well and truly over. But since the start of this year, Superally regulations have given drivers the opportunity to accept some penalty time, repair their car and re-join the event at the start of the next Leg.
Superally has proved especially beneficial for new WRC drivers who are now almost guaranteed significant stage experience of each rally they start. Chris Atkinson, who joined Subaru at the start of the season, has been one of the first young drivers to benefit from the scheme. After his retirement on the first Leg in Turkey, Chris was back out on the stages on Leg two learning more about the car and the roads for the future.
"As soon as we realised the extent of the damage to Chris's car we knew that re-starting under Superally was going to be the only course of action," said SWRT sporting director Luis Moya.
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| Copyright © STI |
"For safety reasons, no other servicing work can be carried out while emptying or filling fuel tanks, and as replacing the tank takes at least one hour we had no other option. Once we'd pumped the remaining fuel from the car our priority was to replace the left-hand corner and get the car back onto four wheels and in a state where it could be pushed. Once that was done I called the Clerk of the Course, Simo Lampinen and advised him that we had officially retired Chris from the Leg."
"Next, the car was pushed by Chris, Glenn and their six technicians to the service out control. From there, Chris, Glenn and the event marshals moved it to the regrouping parc ferme where it was held until the afternoon when we were ready to carry out a thorough repair job. The regulations give us 2hrs 45min to get the car ready for the next day, and as long as the car is back in parc ferme four hours before the start of the next Leg, we can choose when we do the work."
"For someone like Chris, who hasn't driven many of the rallies in the WRC, Superally is a very good idea. There's no substitute for experience, and thanks to this system he can still get a lot out of an event, even if he makes a mistake along the way."
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2006
2005