|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Swedish Rally
Production Car World Rally Championship
7 to 9 February 2003 |
|
|
PCWRC Home | |
|
| Itinerary | |||
| Entry List | |||
| Course Map | |||
| Results | |||
| Preview | |||
| Leg1 Report | |||
| Leg2 Report | |||
 |
Leg3 Report | ||
| Gallery |
|
Leg3 Report Event News
25 February 2003 Stig Blomqvist of Impreza moved up to winning the round. Janusz Kulig disqualified from breach of technical regulation. 
The final day of Swedish RallyE the Opening Round of PCWRC started cloudy. More dark clouds filled the sky and light shower with some snow chilled the air. Around the Hagfors service park, the snow began to mire with rain damping the snow and gravels started to show on surface.SS13, the first stage of Leg3 was the same stage as SS1. Toshihiro Arai came to the final day being on the top of PCWRC, decided to not to take any risks in the fog, and sticks to the trail. His time was 0.2 seconds behind Stig Blomqvist who scored the fastest this stage, but he is still comfortable with 1 minute 20 seconds margin he gained until the previous day. 
"Theres nothing happened here, and no mistakes or troubles. SS15 is a new course, so it is equal condition for both Stig and me. It seems like theres lot of snow, but I would rather use the ice tyre I am used to, rather than unfamiliar snow tyres. Today, we have the long stage in the end, so I want to make sure I keep the lead stay focused until then." Said Arai. On the other hand; Possum Bourne decided to enjoy rallyEon Leg3 keeps his own pace and finished SS13 in his usual 6th place. Marley Brown, the team manager said, "Possum says he is happy. He wants to drive fast, and it is possible, but he wouldnt risk it. On SS 15 and 16, we will use ice spike tyres. On any tyres, it is a learning experience for us."On SS 14, Blomqvist scored fastest and Arai followed once again, with 0.2 seconds behind. Arai seemed to be confident in keeping the lead to drive the remaining 3 stages, but his turbo engine blew off suddenly at 5 km before the goal of SS15 (11.91 km). The car slowed down to finish the stage, but the engine stopped in the road section following. Arais weekend was over. He also lost the 10 points that was almost in his reach. The cause, at this point is undiscovered, but the team will investigate it with overhaul. 
The stage top of SS15 was Karamjit Singh (Proton). Even Blomqvist who was leading PCWRC after Arai allowed his lead. On the following SS16 Janusz Kulig on Lancer Evolution took the fastest, and
again Kulig led him on SS17. Blomqvist lost his lead and 17 seconds margin; Kulig overturned in the end and finished Swedish Rally in 2nd(Provisional) place.Possum Bourne promoted his position to 5th after Arai left the field. On SS16 he was 4th and on SS17 he was 3rd and he finished the rally in 5th(Provisional) place. He won his first point in the first round. Martin Rowe on Impreza was 4th(Provisional) and Patrick Richard from Canada finished the rally in 9th(Provisional) place. Although Impreza missed the top of the podium, it was quite satisfactory that 3 cars out of top 6 were Impreza. FIA announced on February 21 an alternation of the final result of Production Car World Rally Championship (PCWRC). According to FIA media release, during the post event scrutineering of the Swedish Rally, the fly-wheel on the Mitsubishi Lancer of the provisional winner Janusz Kulig (Poland) was found and decided illegal,concluding Kulig be excluded from the classification of the event. Therefore he lost his Championship points, consequently promoting Stig Blomqvist (Sweden) on Subaru Impreza, bringing this former WRC Champion to reign on the top of World Championship point ranking again. To accompany, Martin Rowe (England) was promoted to 3rd, Possum Bourne (New Zealand) be 4th and Patrick Richard (Canada) be 8th all on Subaru Impreza, all to win Championship points accordingly. 
Quote from Toshihiro Arai"I had no problem pushing, so I am very disappointed with the sudden blow. We were so close to winning. But still, we were able to show the speed and strength of Impreza under this unique snow rally. The season had just begun, and I want to do a good fight and make satisfying result with Possum in his home New Zealand in the next round." 
Quote from Takeshi Ito, General Manager of SPRT"I am so disappointed of Arais retire. We wanted to win to make a boost on this program. We have to investigate the cause thoroughly, and reflect it for the future events. Blomqvist, Martin Rowe and Possum Bourne had a good fight and finished in good position, which were the most fruitful results ever. This shows light to SPRT and Subaru aiming for Champion when we look at our directio" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
