Motorsports | Subaru Global

"Rally Hokkaido 2002" was held in eastern region of Hokkaido for 3days from September 9th as Round 4 of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, and Possum Bourne (New Zealand) of Subaru Rally Team Australia led the rally from Day 1 and managed to get away with the memorable inaugural victory of the APRC in Japan. Impreza WRX Gr. AF driven by Bourne had a problem-free rally for all three days. Once again, it had proven its advantage on the bad roads.

Leg 3 on the final day moved back to the outskirt of Obihiro city, collecting spectators from other cities like Sapporo all around Hokkaido. The course was composed of seven SS; start from Kita Aikoku Square as the service park, three repetitions in the path in the woods near Toyokoro (east of Obihiro airport) and to finish in the stage on the flood plain along the river by the service park.

Although losing the lead gained at Leg 1 at the latter half of Leg 2, Bourne managed to start the Day 3 with 8.5 second lead to Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mitsubishi). He finished the first 3 stages with 2nd, 2nd and 3rd. However, Taguchi in pursuit did not improve his time, and the gap had expanded to 33 seconds at this time. When returning for Service, Possum said, "SS 14 and 15 were fine. But SS 16 was very slippery and troubled me a lot. The second time, I will try with different tires. The water temperature tend to rise, perhaps due to clogging, the radiator were exchanged from assembly, and off he went out to his second set in to the SS in the woods.

As this effort had worked out, at SS 17, he scored the fastest time. And when Taguchi had retired at the end of SS 18, the first victory in APRC this year was just in the reach. When he finished the SS in the woods, he had then only the spectator stage left. In front of enthusiastic overflowing spectators, the final SS was on the flood plain. This stage was the reverse start, Bourne started from very last. There was 3 jumping spots about 300 meters before the goal, and when he was very close to losing control at one of them, everyone shuddered for a moment. He eventually managed to take control and ran through the finis line. This determined Bournefs victory.

Possum Bourne's fastest in SS were eight in total. A sweeping victory with 6minutes 24 seconds to M.Ligato (Mitsubishi) in 2nd place.

"With road condition changing so rapidly, the rally was very tough. Driver was required extensive concentrations. But I am very happy to be winning in Japan. I would like to thank Subaru who has supported me for over 20 years. I like Hokkaido with the landscape that resemble my home New Zealand very much." He said, and shown a broad smile at the Podium.

For other Impreza, Hiroshi Yanagisawa suffered a transmission problem that had him held at 2nd gear, finished the race at 4th place. Yuya Sumiyama improved his position to 9th from 12th of the previous day.