Leg2 Report
Event News
8 February 2003
Toshihiro Arai kept his top position with best time.
Possum Bourne follows in 7th place
The second day of the opening round of PCWRC, “Swedish Rally” was again held in the surrounding of the service park in Hagfors. The temperature had rose to 0?, but the wind makes it feel much colder. Heavy clouds were in the sky, and perhaps some rain could be expected.
The first SS of Leg2 was the longest of all in 43.68 km. It is the same SS3 of the previous day. The road surface ice with snow, and the second half was slippery frozen. Here, Toshihiro Arai scores his fourth best of the stage. Stig Blomqvist was 11 seconds behind in 2nd place, Martin Rowe was 6th, and Possum Bourne followed in 7th. Arai quoted, “I was 21 seconds faster on this stage from yesterday. But because of the fog, I had to pull back the throttle sometimes and speed wise, it was faster yesterday. The car has no problems, but I began to lose studs after 20 km on the long, fast course which brought some understeer.” Bourne, on the other hand, had the same Pirelli ice tyre like Arai, he mistook the change caused by losing studs to some mechanical problems, For a moment, the service tent was confused. He let the mechanics preparing gearbox and drive shaft feel better when the found out it was only the tyres. This episode perhaps well represents his first challenge on the snow and ice.
Impreza from Canadian team were always bit slow since the first day, had to change the registration of the co-driver quickly since they had an accident during the reconnaissance, and could not make good use of the pace note. With such troubles, even the Canadian National Champion, Patrick Richard can do not much. On SS7, he lost most of the studs off the tyre; the handling troubled him even more. His service crew however remains positive. "We do have many problems but even this could be a good learning experience to fight in the Championship"
On SS8, an accident occurred involving two WR Car in the WRC class which interrupted the rally. As a result, every car in PWRC class were given equal time. SS9 with 25 km in length had Arai on top again and Bourne in 7th with 22 seconds behind.
"We weren’t 100% on this stage because the condition had changed since we made the pace note. When we changed the set up of the suspension, the conduct of the car was even better. The rally is still long enough for us to recover positions" quoted Possum.
Arai kept his best time on SS10 as well. It was the best of stage with the lamp pod installed, but on the following SS11, it was Janusz KULIG(Lancer Evolution) to take over the top. However, as a total, Arai still keeps more than 1’15” margin to Stig Blomqvist (Impreza) in 2nd place. Blomqvist, the experienced former Champion asked, “Arai, how old are you? 35? Well, I have been on this rally 35 times.” The former Champion aged 57 never gives up and is never too old to be seeking for his chance in the Championship.
To finish Leg2, once again was the gallery stage like the day before. Arai scored his 7th top time; Bourne came in as close 2nd and Blomqvist followed as 1.2 second behind. Subaru dominated the top to conclude the competitions on Leg2 today.
Quote from Toshihiro Arai
"Today was very important day, so I was extra careful not to hit the wall of snow. I have nothing to complain about the car, and the team is doing very well. I want to keep this pace for tomorrow, and end it with one victory to start with."
Quote from Possum Bourne
"I’ve become much used to driving on snow and ice. Snow rally is very exciting. We are enjoying our rally now, and we hope we could keep this feeling until the goal tomorrow. There are no damage or trouble on the car."
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| 1 |
Toshihiro ARAI |
SUBARU |
2:14:45.5 |
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| 2 |
Stig BLOMQVIST |
SUBARU |
+1:17.2 |
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| 3 |
Janusz KULIG |
MITSUBISHI |
+1:26.2 |
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| 4 |
Karamjit SINGH |
PROTON |
+1:41.4 |
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| 5 |
Martin ROWE |
SUBARU |
+2:16.9 |
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| 6 |
Possum BOURNE |
SUBARU |
+2:45.9 |
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| 7 |
Lukasz SZTUKA |
MITSUBISHI |
+4:41.9 |
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| 8 |
Krzysztof HOLOWCZYC |
MITSUBISHI |
+6:17.4 |
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| 9 |
Joakim ROMAN |
MITSUBISHI |
+7:51.2 |
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| 10 |
Bob COLSOUL |
MITUBISHI |
+10:28.5 |
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