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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, Information
Toshi takes Hat-trick
Leg3Event News
22 Jun. 2003 Toshi Arai has extended his lead in the Production Car World Rally Championship with a convincing victory at the Rally of Cyprus. By the finish Arai was three minutes and 43 seconds in front of the Production class runner-up Martin Rowe with Stig Blomqvist a further two minutes 26 seconds back in third place.All three were driving the latest SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STi in an impressive display of the car's reliability and speed on what is the roughest round of the PCWRC. Toshi and his Kiwi co-driver Tony Sircombe were never headed during the three days of competition and steadily drew away from the other crews, eventually finishing ninth overall.Their class win is the third in a row for the SUBARU Production Rally Team pair, after success in New Zealand in April and in Argentina last month. "This is the best possible result for our PCWRC title chase," said Toshi. "We wanted to keep the lead in the championship and get as many points as possible." Irrespective of the results of the next event in Germany, Toshi will still lead the class when he lines up for the start of Rally Australia in September, thanks to his points lead in the championship. Every driver in the PCWRC is only allowed to contest 6 or the 7 rounds and at the start of the season Toshi nominated the German tarmac event as the one he would miss. He now has 30 points in the title race, while Rowe has 19 and defending champion Karamjit Singh is on 17. "The car worked very well here," said Toshi. "Many of our rivals had problems trying to keep up the pace. For the last day we lowered the ride height a little to help the handling and that was an improvement." 
"We didn't really need to push hard at all as I think everybody was just concentrating on finishing because the time gaps between us had become so big."The performance of the three SUBARU Imprezas at the front of the PCWRC field is even more remarkable given that only six cars finished in the PCWRC class, the field being decimated by the rock strewn stages and high temperatures. Toshi's team was assisted by personnel from Possum Bourne Motorsport in Cyprus. "The team did a very good job in keeping the car in top condition," said Toshi. "I'm looking forward to Rally Australia. We know we have a good package for the gravel stages and Tony and I have had plenty of experience there." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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