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Cyprus Rally
Production Car World Rally Championship Rd.4
20 to 22 Jun. 2003 |
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Production Car World Rally Championship (PCWRC) Rd.4 Infomation
Toshi takes Command
Leg1 Event News
20 Jun. 2003 
Toshi Arai leads the production class at the end of the first leg of the Rally of Cyprus, despite driving over 15 kms on a puncture on the day's final stage.Arai and co-driver Tony Sircombe have a 59 second lead over 1984 World Champion Stig Blomqvist, who is also driving the latest SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STi. On paper the first day of the event, the fourth round of the PCWRC, with just four stages totaling 99.84 kilometres did not appear to be overly difficult. But the rough mountainous roads, with their large rocks and frequent wash outs demanded the up most respect from drivers. "We didn't push hard at all today," said Toshi. "I just found a pace that was comfortable and drove to the conditions." 
Even so the leader in the PCWRC was fastest on the first stage to take an immediate class lead, which he and Sircombe steadily increased.On the 38.32 kms second stage, the power steering became "heavier" forcing Toshi to work harder through the hundreds of twists and turns. Both he and Sircombe are wearing cooling vests to combat the searing mid summer heat on the Mediterranean island. With fastest times in the production class on the second and third stages, Toshi increased his lead over Spaniard Daniel Sola to 27 seconds, while Irishman Niall McShea was 32 seconds behind in third place. But then a bit over half way through the 38.32 kms final stage of the day Toshi's IMPREZA suffered a punctured right rear tyre. "We decided to carry on," said Toshi "It was a bit of a gamble, but it worked out okay. If it'd been a front puncture I think we'd probably have had to stop and change it." Toshi and Tony lost 34 seconds to stage winner Janusz Kulig, but were a little surprised to be still leading the class. 
Sola was over a minute slower than Toshi, having also punctured, while McShea had more serious mechanical trouble and dropped right out of contention, losing 18 minutes."I don't think we need to go any faster," said Toshi. "It's still a long way to go and there are a lot of rough stages ahead." Englishman Martin Rowe had a smooth run through the final stage to move up to third in the class and complete Subaru's domination of the major positions. |
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