FIA RALLY: Telstra Rally Australia: Round 12 of the FIA World Rally Championship
10 November 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
A solitary running of the exciting Langley Park Superstage tonight kicks off Telstra Rally Australia, the 13th and penultimate round of this year's FIA World Rally Championship. All of the factory teams except Skoda are present for what could be a title-deciding event for both Marcus Gronholm and Peugeot, although neither can consider themselves comfortable in their placings leading up to the start.
As usual it is the road surface that will play the biggest part in determining the fortunes of the crews as early runners battle against the lack of grip offered by Western Australia's notorious 'ball-bearing' gravel while later drivers will reap the benefit. Tactical manoeuvres will play a part although any 'cat and mouse' attempts to affect the running order will have to be done in the forests. The following day's start positions will be based on the leaderboard after the final forest stage and not, as would be normal, after the night-time stages at Langley Park.
Peugeot (90 points)
Marcus Gronholm's bid to clinch the FIA World Championship here in Australia got off to a nerve-wracking start in the pre-event build up. Plans to take the Finn surfing off Cottesloe Beach a few days before the rally,were shelved after the fatal shark attack a few hours earlier. Gronholm wisely decided that one 'fin' in the water was enough. Gronholm's boss believes that Australia and the upcoming Rally GB do not favour the Peugeot team as it does not contain the necessary specialist drivers for the events. However, Gronholm is up for the challenge but said at the pre-rally conference, Tactics will decide this event but they will only become clear for the final day. After dominating the past two asphalt rallies, Gronholm's team mates Gilles Panizzi and Francois Delecour will revert to supporting roles here as Peugeot bids to secure both titles.
Ford (88 points)
Colin McRae's doctors advised the Scot against any serious physical training before this event and so he starts the event knowing that he is not as fit as he had anticipated for his 100th World Rally appearance. I didn't realise I was so old! he joked as he was presented with a cake and gold plaque to mark the occasion during the shakedown. He is again sleeping in the hypoxic tent that proved so crucial to his rapid recovery from the Corsica crash. McRae's experience of this event will be crucial in Ford's bid to finally win an event that has so far eluded the team. McRae won in both 1994 and 1997 and is well aware of the need for tactics here. The final day is the worst for the effects of the road surface. Ideally you need to be as low down the order as possible without being too far behind on overall time. People still recall his incredible final day charge on the 1998 event, climbing from sixth to first in just three stages over the Sotico stages. Team mate Carlos Sainz has never enjoyed good fortune in Australia despite three times finishing in second place. He admits that a return to gravel after his Cyprus win is a psychological boost but he knows that, with just two events left, he needs wins rather than podium places if he's to take a third title. I am very disappointed that the event has abandoned its seeding system from last year, said Sainz. It is a step backwards and now we are again being penalised for driving fast on these roads. A third, unregistered, Ford Focus has been entered for talented Finn Tapio Laukkanen who is making his second works appearance.
Subaru (70 points)
The biggest works entry on the event comes from Subaru with four factory cars for Richard Burns, Juha Kankkunen and Australia debutees, Petter Solberg and Markko Martin. Burns was forthright about the challenge of this event. If Marcus wins here then we're stuffed! he admitted, even though a Gronholm win wouldn't on its own settle the title issue. Like Sainz he is upset not to have the chance to select his start slot for each day's stages and predicts that the event will be decided on the first three of Sunday's four stages in Sotico. We'll have to get ourselves
into the right position for those stages and they could be the most exciting we've ever done here. Burns recently experienced much higher speed action in an RAF Tornado fighter aircraft. Let's just say that all those people who I've frightened and made sick in my rally car got their own back on this occasion! he joked. Juha Kankkunen returns to the team after missing the two asphalt events and admits he's looking forward to an event he considers one of his favourites. By contrast the two new boys in the team, Martin and Solberg, have not competed here efore. I'm glad I'm taking part, said Martin. It's a long way to come just to do a recce. The Subaru is a very different car to the Toyota and so it's important to get as many miles behind me as possible. Solberg agrees: The stages here are slippery as hell and so we'll have to be careful and make sure we finish.
Mitsubishi (39 points)
Last night Mitsubishi Ralliart confirmed its 2001 rally programme with Tommi Makinen and Freddy Loix being retained for the new season. The team will contest most of the year with an updated version of the current Lancer Evolution but will introduce Mitsubishi's first World Rally Car at the San Remo Rally. Mitsubishi confirmed its intention of continuing crucial Group A and Group N development work on behalf of its massive customer base. Makinen is currently the fifth possible winner of the 2000 FIA World Rally Championship although the four-time champion will need to win here if he is to have any realistic hope of extending his reign to five consecutive seasons. I've a good feeling with the car, he said after yesterday's shakedown and knows that his start position for the opening leg will give him an advantage over his rivals.
SEAT (8 points)
Didier Auriol has contested Rally Australia on eight of the 12 events held to date and, retirements aside, has never yet finished outside the top three. Given his fortunes so far this season he will be hoping that a low start position will help him to maintain that record on what will be his and Toni Gardemeister's penultimate event for SEAT, before the factory team withdraws from the FIA World Rally Championship. Auriol promises to start the event flat out and clearly hopes not to repeat last year's performance when he stuffed his Toyota into a tree and out of the rally lead. Gardemeister is recovering from a bout of flu but believes that he can score points here. He will start the event using the same settings he found on a recent Rally GB test as, for very different reasons, both of this season's final events are among the most slippery of the series. Speculation over the future for both drivers currently suggests that Auriol could go to Peugeot in 2001 and that Gardemeister could join Ford. Both camps commented that announcements are expected within the next three weeks.
Hyundai (5 points)
The Hyundai mechanics had a busy day yesterday after both Michael Guest and Alister McRae crashed their Accent WRCs during the shakedown. McRae's needed little more than a touch up of its silver paint job but Guest's Winfield car had to be prised out of a tree after just one run on the stage at Langford Park. Guest needs to perform well here as the Australian driver's three-year development programme at Hyundai has been cut short by one year and he is currently without work for 2001. McRae is currently enjoying his first few weeks as an engaged man having recently announced plans to marry Perth girl Tara Pinner whom he met a year ago. The couple will marry in Scotland next year and will repeat the ceremony in Perth when the rally returns to WA in 2001. Team mate Kenneth Eriksson is a Rally Australia veteran and won the event in 1995. It's a challenging rally, he explained. Apart from the road surface, the trees are also very close to the edge of the tracks and so we must have a very high commitment.
Other teams
Just two teams will start for the FIA Teams Cup contest in Australia. Team Atakan's Sercan Yazici (Toyota) and Spike Subaru's Toshihiro Arai will take the stage after the withdrawal of the Arab World entry for Hamed Al Wahaibi. Yazici was involved in a road accident prior to the event and, following a head on collision with Katsuhiko Taguchi, the Japanese driver has had to change his co-driver. Derek Ringer was briefly hospitalised with a broken sternum and so Bobby Willis has stepped in. After the dramas of San Remo and the allegations of recce infringements, the stewards have imposed a three minute penalty on Nicola Caldani for breaking the rules on SS2. While the overall FIA World Championships could both be won here in Australia, so could the Production Cup for Group N cars. Manfred Stohl and Gustavo Trelles are the only possible champions for 2000 but both face strong opposition, including top ustralian driver Ed Ordynski. The Adelaide driver has contested every Rally Australia, won Group N seven times and finished in the top 10 on all but two occasions. Subaru driver John Papadimitriou (who will contest next season's FIA Teams Cup) was nearly a non-starter here after thieves broke into his workshop on Monday and loaded their truck with expensive equipment. However the bungling burglars managed to knock the Subaru off its axle stands when reversing out. The rally car blocked their escape route and so the not-so-jolly swagmen had to make a hasty exit on foot, leaving their ill-gotten gains behind.
Tyre facts
The unique 'ball-bearing' surface found here in Western Australia offers one of the greatest technical challenges to the tyre makers. There are two techniques to deal with the problem; find a tyre that can bite through the loose surface to find grip underneath or to use the stones to bind against each other and briefly reduce the slippery nature of the surface.
Michelin:
Three tread patterns have been selected by the Michelin runners in Australia. Michelin Z will be used for clear and hard surfaces, Michelin ZE with a more open tread pattern (the tyre introduced last year) and Michelin ZA which is designed to cut through the top layer on loose surfaces to seek out more compact ground beneath.
Pirelli:
Subaru and SEAT will rely on just two tread patterns from the Pirelli PZero range, the K and KM. The K pattern offers many options, including extra hand cutting, on dry roads. The KM tyre will most likely be the tyre of choice for the event and includes a brand new evolution version that is designed to cope with damp surfaces should the recent rain extend into the event itself.
Text provided by FIA
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