FIA Rally: McRae makes solid start for Ford in Finland
19 August 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist consolidated the FIA World Championship
challenge of both themselves and their Ford Martini team by completing
today's opening leg of the Rally Finland in fourth place in their Ford
Focus
World Rally Car. The British pair never put a foot wrong, quickly
climbing
the leaderboard after a steady start to establish themselves hot on the
heels of principal championship rivals Marcus Grnholm and Richard Burns.
The Jyvskyl-based rally is known as the Jyvskyln Grand Prix and the pace of the leaders over today's 10 speed tests, covering 128km of mainly wide and flowing gravel roads, demonstrated why. Twice the average speed of stage winners exceeded 130kph. It is the most specialised event in the 14-round championship and previous experience of the demanding combination of fast bends and stomach-churning jumps counts for much.
McRae has only finished this rally once before but made light of his relative lack of experience. "We didn't really settle into the groove early on but after the first three stages my times improved as I became more used to the roads and the pace notes," said 32-year-old McRae. "I'm conscious of my lack of experience compared with Marcus and many of the other top drivers but I concentrated on pushing hard to try to keep in contention and we're well-placed tonight. Last year I performed well on the second day's stages and hopefully we can do the same again," he added.
Petter Solberg and Phil Mills started in Finland as they had left off in New Zealand - with a string of fast times. The young Norwegian driver surprised many with his pace, setting four top five times, including second fastest on the short 8.40km Valkola test. After lying fourth, ahead of McRae, he slipped behind his Ford colleague before an accident on stage eight ended his rally.
"We were about 1km from the end of the stage and flat out in fourth or fifth gear when we approached a crest," said Solberg. "I could see a gap in the trees over the crest but when we came over the brow the road tightened more than I expected and we slid into a ditch. The car bounced into the air and landed on its roof. The back of the car and the roof were badly damaged but I think it would have been driveable if we could have regained the road."
Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya suffered an early setback which realistically ended their hopes of a points-scoring finish in the other Ford Martini Focus. "We had a big misfire right at the start of the second stage and the car wouldn't go faster than 30kph," said Madrid-based Sainz. "We tried flicking all the electrical switches in the cockpit but nothing worked until the team suggested on the radio that we change the ECU (electronic control unit) in the engine management system. It worked and the car was perfect again but we dropped more than five minutes and on a rally like this where every tenth of a second is crucial, it put us out of contention.
The fault was later traced to a mechanical failure within the ECU itself. Ford Martini team director Malcolm Wilson decided the Spanish duo would use the rest of the rally for testing purposes and Sainz climbed from 110th to end the day inside the top 30.
Wilson admitted it wasn't one of the team's best days. "It was a big disappointment for Carlos to lose so much time so early. But it's given us the opportunity to undertake engine development work with Cosworth and we've also tried a few things with suspension set-up and we'll continue that tomorrow. It took Colin a while to get into the rhythm of such a high-speed and specialised event but he's made good progress as the day has gone on. It wasn't unexpected what happened to Petter. It's all part of his big learning curve. It was great that he was matching times with the world's finest drivers but the accident proves that there's no short cut to the top."
The leading two protagonists in the driver's championship, Richard Burns (Subaru) and Marcus Grnholm (Peugeot), dominated the day. Gronhlm led from the start, fastest on the first five stages before Burns fought back with three stage wins and they pulled out a comfortable cushion over the privately-entered Finn, Harri Rovanper. Behind McRae, Juha Kankkunen (Subaru) recovered from a poor tyre choice on the opening three stages to hold fifth ahead of reigning world champion Tommi Mkinen (Mitsubishi), who endured a difficult day on the debut of the newest version of the Lancer. A poor tyre selection for the second group of stages and oversteering problems on the final group cost him time. Seat were another team to debut a new car, Didier Auriol and Toni Gardemeister driving the latest version of the Cordoba. Auriol lost time after a combination of transmission and understeering difficulties caused him to go off the road and drop 45 seconds and he lay 15th.
Tomorrow's Route
The second leg is the longest and toughest of all. Drivers face 165km of stages in a total route of almost 700km during their journey south-east of Jyvskyl for seven tests based around the town of Jms. The eighth and final test is a repeat of tonight's short stage at the Killeri trotting track on the edge of Jyvskyl. Highlight of the day is the 34km Ouninpohja stage, the longest of the rally. It is a real Rally Finland classic, the big 'roller-coaster' jumps placing huge demands on skill and bravery. The day begins at 06.00 and drivers return to the rally base at 20.28.
Text provided by Mark Wilford
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