---

FIA RALLY: Round 4 of the FIA World Rally Championship Preview

17 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Fourth round of the 2000 season. At the previous round in Kenya Subaru took over the lead in the manufacturers' title from Mitsubishi but, despite not finishing in Africa, four times world champion Tommi Makinen retains the drivers' lead. On the Rally of Portugal there are four Teams' Cup entries, including new driver Serkan Yazici for the Turkish Team Atakan. This is the first time this season that all seven registered world championship teams have competed on the same event. Four times champion Gustavo Trelles, having reverted to his former codriver Jorge del Buono, re-enters the Group N title race, currently led by Manfred Stohl. After the first three rounds held in extreme conditions, the Portugal Rally is considered the first orthodox rally of the season.

NEWS FROM THE TEAMS

SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM (Burns and Kankkunen) 25 points. Subaru plan to run the 2000 version Impreza World Rally Car for the first time. The new car features many detailed changes, principally revised under-bonnet cooling layout. Final testing was carried out at Arganil this week in the hands of Burns, Kankkunen and test driver Robbie Head. FIA homologation is due to be confirmed today (Friday). Burns said earlier "The car looks externally similar to the '99 model but there are small but important changes under the surface!"

MARLBORO MITSUBISHI RALLIART (Makinen and Loix) 18 points. It has been confirmed that Makinen's retirement in Kenya was due to fractured plates inside the battery, a problem which had also manifested on two other occasions in Kenya. For this event there will be further revisions to the rear suspension, aimed at making the car handle as predictably as possible on fast-changing surfaces, in addition to the new longer-travel suspension, first used in Kenya. The front differentials have been strengthened. Rally engineer David Hudson: "This is the worst rally in the championship for the differentials."

FORD MOTOR COMPANY (Sainz and Colin McRae) 13 points. For this rally the cars are fitted with a new design of steering rack and one car (probably their third entry, for Petter Solberg) is due to be fitted with the latest specification engine. One of the official cars will be new. The first privately- run Focus in WRC is to be driven by Polish driver Janusz Kulig

PEUGEOT ESSO (Delecour and Gronholm) 11 points. Portugal is to be the final rally for the first version 206 WRC before the second model (with triple active differentials) appears in Catalunya with both drivers using ex-Network Q cars. Sport director Corrado Provera: "Over the last few events we have been getting more and more confident. After all the troubles earlier, we had no problem with the gearbox in Kenya."

SEAT SPORT (Auriol and Gardemeister) 7 points. Gardemeister's co-driver Paavo Lukander has been passed fit to start the rally after intensive physiotherapy treatment in Finland following his testing accident in Kenya. Pre-rally test work has concentrated on improving traction through electronic set-up changes.

SKODA MOTORSPORT (Schwarz and Climent) 4 points. Lack of time since Safari has prevented the chance to analyse the transmission problems suffered by Climent's car. Last week was spent testing in Spain firstly on gravel for Portugal then on asphalt for Catalunya. Sport director Pavel Janeba: "Our cars are basically reliable, now our priority is to make them systematically more competitive."

HYUNDAI CASTROL WORLD RALLY TEAM (Eriksson and Alister McRae) 0 points. Graeme Garvin, rally engineer: "We are building on experiences gained in Sweden. There will be no major changes in the specification for Portugal: we are even using the same cars. It will be interesting to see how our times compare on gravel with other teams."

OTHER RUNNERS IN PORTUGAL:

Team swap for Finnish driver Harri Rovanpera. The former regular SEAT driver is to drive a Toyota Corolla WRC from the HF Grifone team - the same car used by Bruno Thiry at Monte Carlo. Two World Rally Cars normally used in national events are also to appear: the SEAT Cordoba of Rui Madeira and the Peugeot 206 of Adruzilo Lopes. Jesus Puras, current Spanish rally champion and regular Citroen driver, contests this event in a Group N Mitsubishi.

SPECIAL FACTS :

The Rally of Portugal coincides with the first round of the French national championship, the Lyon-Charbonnieres Rally which will see the debut of the Citroen Xsara T4 car. This turbocharged, four-wheel drive car has been built for the new French Rally Car formula which features the same technical rules as the World Rally Car. This enables Citroen to gain on-event experience ready for the company's World Rally Car championship programme in 2001.

Toyotas are back. No fewer than eight Corolla World Rally Cars are expected to take the start, mostly in similar specification to the cars run last year by the factory. Thomas Radstrom unfortunately withdrew the week before the rally due to budget problems. At the Safari only one Toyota started - a Celica GT-Four.

Welcome to Serkan Yazici, the 28 year old Turkish driver who replaces Volkan Isik in the national Teams' Cup entry. Serkan comes from Bursa and has recently been given personal rally tuition in Italy by Piero Longhi.

Farewell to John Buffum, the 46 year old veteran American rally driver, contests the Rally of Portugal as a finale to his international rally career. Since he started in 1969 he has won outright a total of 119 national level or international rallies, making him the sport's most successful driver. "I don't mind how I get on, I just want to see how I measure up against these new young drivers!"

Spectator zones are being set up on all the stages except the final one. This is not only to attract visitors to places where they can watch at ease, but also to dissuade them from going to other areas. Roads leading to the stages on the final day will be closed to traffic 24 hours before the rally arrives.

The Portugal Rally organisers held a simulated event two weeks before the world championship rally. This was for just two competition cars! It was a project to acclimatise all the authorities (marshals, officials, police and security officials) to the real event.

Statistics: changing times. Over a quarter of the entry are World Rally Cars, yet among the top half of the field there are only two Kit Cars! The only competitive front-wheel drive cars on the entry list are for Michael Guest (semi-official Hyundai Coupe KC) and Kris Princen (Belgian dealers Renault Maxi Megane). There will be other competitive front-drive cars, which must now run with 40kg ballast, on the Catalunya Rally, however.

Text provided by FIA

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.