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Profile: Timo Salonen Ford Sierra RS SA Rallying fires up!

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Image: Motorpics

Sasol South African National Rally ChampionshipRound One: Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally REVIEW

To describe this event simply as tough would be an understatement, for the slippery and narrow roads and the demanding nature of the stages saw only 22 of the 52 entrants reach the rally’s finish line. For some competitors the gruelling Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally no rallying luck was on their side, while others managed to overcome the harsh conditions to finish this the first round of the 2008 Sasol South African National Rally Championship.

Jan Habig and Douglas Judd claimed the winners’ trophy this past weekend, after they drove a faultless and consistent drive to bring their BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 across the finish line in first place. The defending national champions kicked off their 2008 season campaign in the best possible fashion.

To give the team much needed championship points, Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries in the sister BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 came home in second place overall. Fekken and Arries were leading for much of the rally, until disaster struck the pairing: they were forced to limp through to the finish of the last stage with an engine misfire that resulted in their car’s engine losing significant amounts of engine power. Disappointed as Fekken and Arries may be, they have now proven they have confidence to win more rallies this year.

Team-mates Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) undoubtedly had the worst luck on this event. Running in third place overall this pairing entered the last stage of the event with hopes of bringing the BP Volkswagen Rally Team a dream 1-2-3 finish, but an engine failure only a handful of kilometres from the finish saw them fall out of the rally.

Third place overall went to Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton, driving a privately entered Toyota RunX S2000. According to reports this privateer team drove a conservative rally, while trying to get to grips with their Toyota RunX S2000.

“It’s a brilliant result for us and for Toyota. I’m over the moon with this result”, said Japie van Niekerk. “This is a very technical event where you need to use your head. I concentrated on neatness through the corners and gradually went quicker as we felt more comfortable. The team gave me a brilliant car”.

Only three of the nine S2000 cars entered for the Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally made it to the finish, as all retired due to technical problems or driver error. Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley crashed their Castrol Toyota RunX S2000 out of the event on Day Two, after showing their fellow S2000 competitors that they had a strong car beneath them by posting three fastest stage times on Day One and a 25-second lead of the field by the end of Day One.

All Images: MotorpicsHabig/Judd

“We weren’t going too quickly but the stages are so slippery; it just caught me out,” explained Mark Cronje.

Castrol Toyota RunX S2000 team-mates Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh were also not without incident this rally. On SS4 the pairing rolled their car and lost over a minute in the stage as they limped the car to stage finish. This resulted in Gemmell and Marsh dropping from third overall to seventh, but their luck was due to run out on SS7 when their car slid off the slippery roads, beaching their car and thus forcing them to retire from the gruelling rally.

“The stage was a repeat of an earlier stage and the grip was much better. I went a bit wide into a corner and got onto the ‘marbles’ – the car slid sideways into a bank, pulling two tyres off the rims as we went over. It was a silly, low speed incident but cost us a minute as we drove slowly out of the stage”, Johnny Gem-mell explained.

Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey made a strong start to the event, and at end of Day One found themselves second overall. However on SS6 Damseaux and Vrey , were called it a day when their engine forced them into retirement. Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden (in a Philips/Jonnesway Toyota RunX S2000) made an impressive class debut after having moved up to Class S2000 from Class N4. This pair-ing were running as high as fourth overall on Day One, until gearbox problems forced them to pull out of the event on SS7.

Fernando Rueda and co-driver Gerhard Janse van Ransburg (Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX N4) were the first Produc-tion Car to cross the finish line, as well as finishing a highly impres-sive fourth overall.

“It was a very difficult event, testing one’s capabilities to the limit. I also had to get used to a new navigator. The event was very slippery and very technical. If you put a foot wrong it would have been the end of your rally as many competitors will confirm”,

Fekken/Arries

Rueda/Janse van Rensburg

Koumantarakis/White

Fernando Rueda said. “But I got my season off on a very good note, all of my major competition is on the back foot and will have to play catch up as they did not score any points. I could not have asked for a better start as I have made it my aim to win the Production class in 2008.”

He was happy with his car. “It was good and I can not fault the performance of Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. All our hard work preparing and testing the car paid hand-some dividends”, said Fernando Rueda.

Heinrich Lategan and Johan van der Merwe drove a fantastic rally to finish fifth overall in their SAC Volkswagen Golf TDI, also finishing second in the Production Car Category. However, they do not score points for the national championship.

Hot on their heels was the local team of Richard and Natasha Vaughn driving their privateer Mitsubishi Lancer N4. Their ex-perience and local knowledge was put to good use to bring them a second place Class N4 position and sixth overall on the Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally.

An exciting drive saw privateers Kosta Koumantarakis and Barry White push their Toyota RunX RSi Class N3 car home in seventh overall, and winning them the Class N3 honours on this event. This strong performance highlights this pairing’s skill dedica-tion, and will bring them more success on future events this year.

Behind them, Craig Trott and Tony Ball (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) started their season off well by winning their Class A6 and finishing eighth overall, ahead of team-mates and fellow A6 competitors Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) in ninth overall and Salie du Toit and Armand du Toit (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) in tenth place overall.

The first Class A7 car across the line was the privateer Volkswagen Polo of Theuns Joubert and Hennie Botes, who also finished eleventh overall, followed closely by Micheal Otto and Sipho Mhlanga (Toyota Corolla) for twelfth position. Chris de Wit and co-driver Dean Redelinghuys (Team Total Toyota RunX A7) finished third in Class A7 and thirteenth overall, after suffering a broken side shaft (which cost the pairing an 18-minute time penalty for lateness) and then an engine misfire to storm up to thirteenth overall and only 2 minutes 2 seconds behind Class A7 winners.

Andre Cleenwerck and Des de Fortier brought their BP Volkswagen CitiGolf A5 to a well-deserved sixteenth place overall and a Class A5 win. Much is expected of this pairing, as they are the only BP Volkswagen Rally Team members competing in this class. With their experience and talent, more Class A5 wins will hopefully bring them the Class A5 championship honours this year.

Charl Wilken and co-driver Greg Goodrich (Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N4) started their rally off by equalling Hergen Fekken’s stage one times, being one second slower than Jan Habig’s stage times. Day One ended with this pairing lying in a strong fifth place overall, and only 14 seconds behind Jan Habig and nearly 3 minutes 30 seconds ahead of the nearest Production Car Category competitor.

“I got caught out by a tricky ‘right eight’ instruction. I came over a blind rise a bit too hot and we went off a bridge into a river-

Fekken/Arries

Wilken/Godrich

Hutchison/Houghton Verlaque/Verlaque

bed”, said Charl Wilken. “I really feel sorry for the team because they put in a huge effort to get the car sorted out in time for the start of the season. We could very well have ended on the podium. We are however very happy with our pace and look forward to attack in Cape Town at the second event of the year.”

Visser du Plessis and Gerhard Snyman (Pirtek Subaru Impreza N4) were unable to start the event as the team were unsuccessful in clearing the car’s engine of a debilitating misfire at the start of SS1.

Notable retirements from this weekend’s rally held in and around Durban were Jon and Doug Williams (Volkswagen Polo S2000), reigning Class A5 champions Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (BP Volkswagen Polo A7), Evan Hutchison and Micheal Houghton (Mo-torite Toyota RunX A7), Stevan Wilken and Llwellyn Fourier (Volkswagen Polo A6) and Lola and Megan Verlaque (Team Total Subaru Impreza). The two Ford Fiesta STs of Etienne Lourens/ Elvene Coetzee and Martin Steyn/Schoeman van Aardt also failed to finish the rally this weekend.

The second round of the championship is the Toyota Dealers Rally in the Western Cape on 4th and 5th April.

Sasol South African National Rally Championship: Round One Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally - Final Classification1) J. Habig/D. Judd (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) - 2h 13min 50sec2) H. Fekken/P. Arries (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) +1min 55sec3) J. Van Niekerk/R. Houghton (Toyota RunX S2000) +5min 33sec4) F. Rueda/G. Janse van Rensburg (Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer N4) +6min 53sec5) H. Lategan/J. Van Der Merwe (SAC Volkswagen Golf TDI N4) +11min 52sec6) R. Vaughn/N. Vaughn (Mitsubishi Lancer N4) +13min 05sec7)K. Koumantarakis/B. White (Toyota RunX N3) +14min 41sec8) C. Trott/T.Ball (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) +15min 21sec9) M. Moosa/G. Martin (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) +15min 47sec10)S. Du Toit/A. Du Toit (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) +16min 26sec11) T. Joubert/H. Botes (Volkswagen Polo A7) +16min 44sec12) M. Otto/S. Mahlanga (Toyota Corolla A7) +18min 13sec13) C. De Wit/D. Redelinghuys (Team Total Toyota RunX A7) +18min 46sec14) N. Higgs/M. Havelaar (HRD Racing Toyota RunX A7) +19min 19sec15) E. Du Toit/P. Vermaak (Toyota RunX N3) +21min 55sec16) A. Cleenwerck/D. De Fortier (BP Volkswagen CitiGolf A5) +23min 11sec17) J. Staasen/D. Staasen (Subaru Impreza N4) +23min 19sec18) P. Bakkes/T. Du Toit (Toyota Tazz A5) +24min 47sec19) E. Storbeck/E. Malherbe (Volkswagen CitiGolf A5) +29min 47sec20) J. De Couveia/J. Aucamp (Toyota Corolla A6) +39min 06sec21) V. Mabanga/D. Strijdom (Team Total Toyota Tazz A5) +41min 04sec22) T. Barbosa/L. Mackenzie (Ford Racing Ford Ka A5) +41min 51sec

De Wit/Redelinghuys

Gemmell/Marsh

Habig/Judd

Cronje/Paisley

Fuel Stop: News Briefs

The current World Rally Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen has realised a long-held dream: to get behind the wheel of a Ford Escort Mk2 rally car.

According sources, the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver climbed behind the steering wheel of this legendary rally car at a rally school in the United Kingdom recently. Hirvonen won his first rally in 1999 in an Escort he borrowed from a friend in Finland.

“The power was amazing and that’s why it’s such an easy car to drive. In my Focus, which is four-wheel drive, you try not to be sideways and its up to your throttle control if you get it precise or not. You can have a lot more fun with this car,” said Hirvonen.

Hirvonen covered about 50 kilometres during his “dream drive.” Afterwards, he joked he would exchange his apartment in Jy-vaskyla for the car, which was restored last year by preparation experts Bill Gwynne Motorsport.

Bjorn Waldegard, who won the drivers’ world title in 1979 at the wheel of an Mk2, also attended the test where he was able to offer Hirvonen some invaluable advice. “He didn’t realise he had to use the clutch because the Escort has a synchromesh gearbox, unlike the sequential gearbox in the Focus,” Waldegard said.

The test is featured in the current issue of British title Motorsport News. - Credit: www.wrc.com.

Hirvonen drives his dream car

The organisers of the Jordan Rally have announced that stage and service area preparations are now complete and everything is ready for the country’s inaugural WRC rally which gets underway on 24 April.

A massive national effort, involving Government Ministries, Armed Forces and the private sector, has resulted in all of the 22 timed special stages, the shakedown venue as well as the brand new Service Park all being completed well ahead of schedule, reported the all-important www.wrc.com website.

“I would like to thank everyone involved in this massive effort for their hard work in preparing the rally venues to such high standards,” said HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Chairman of Jordan Motorsport which manages and organises the event. “This is one of the biggest sporting or social events ever hosted in Jordan so it requires the support of all sectors of society to make it happen. We still have a lot of work ahead of us but I am confident that together we can put on a world class event that everyone - whether rally fans or not - can enjoy.”

All of the event’s stages are located within a 40-km radius of the Dead Sea headquarters with about half of the event being held under sea level. The brand new service park, which has been dug out of the mountains opposite the Dead Sea hotels, will be the focus of the WRC show and is where the teams will all be based during the three day event. - Credit: www.wrc.com.

WRC Rally Jordan all set for 2008

The Suzuki World Rally Team has requested special dispensation from FIA’s World Motor Sport Council to allow the team to carry out additional testing and homologation of its SX4 World Rally Car, according to Motorsport News and www.RallyStuff.Net.

According to sources, fellow competitors Ford, Citroen and Subaru have all agreed to allo the team this special dispensation. This comes after both Suzuki WRC cars retired from WRC Rally Mexico with engine failure. Subsequent to this news being published around the world, Suzuki World Rally Team insiders have been reported as stating that the rally team was under pressure to ente into WRC in 2008, instead of waiting another year to further test and develop their WRC rally car.

The World Motor Sport Council convenes at the end of March, and we hope the FIA allows this rule break for the new team.

Suzuki WRT asks for rule break

Overseas crews have always been made welcome in the British Rally Championship and on this occasion it a Finnish crew who take a break from their PWRC campaign to join the series. Production World Rally Championship leaders Juho Hän-ninen and Mikko Markkula will join the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship for the Pirelli International Rally in April. The announcement adds to the growing level of competitiveness of the UK’s premier Rally Championship as the crew’s profile clearly shows.

Juho Hänninen began his climb towards the top of rallying in the idyllic setting of Vaara in Punkaharju, Finland. His father was an enthusiastic and successful rally driver in his youth and he was the one who inspired Juho behind the wheel for the first time.

He began driving in sprints at fifteen, swiftly proceeding to Young Drivers sprints with Skoda within a year. He was a com-mon sight on the sprint circuit in a Golf, eventually using it to contest a round of the Finnish Junior Championship in Mikkeli in 1999. Since then he has competed in cars as diverse as Volvo, Seat, Honda and Mitsubishi.

By 2000 he was winning class B Junior Championship events outright, using a Seat Ibiza in the Finnish Junior series in 2001 and 2002. In 2004 he won the N3 class in the Finnish Championship in a Civic, taking Group N podiums in Mitsubishis in the Finnish Rally Championship 2005 and 2006.

His debut in the World Rally Championship was in Sweden in 2006 where he won Group N, beating all the PWRC regulars. He repeated this feat in Sardinia with a second in New Zealand, rounding off the year on Rally GB with a switch to a Citroën C2 and victory in class A6.

A return to the PWRC in 2007 netted podiums in Argentina and Great Britain; a second place splitting Guy Wilks and Mark Higgins on their home soil. With retirement in Greece he ended the season fifth PWRC driver but returned to Sardinia in a WRC Mitsubishi, impressing many with eighth place overall.

He has already begun 2008 in style, the new season kicking off with a perfect PWRC ten in Sweden. He fended off fellow Fin Jari Ketomaa to win the event for a second successive year and now leads the Production World Rally Championship.

The 26 year old Fin’s experience and recent good results bode well for his entry in the 2008 BRC, where he will be joined again by fellow Fin Mikko Markkula who has been part of the team since 2007.

Mikko began rallying in the same year as Juho and scored fourth in the Finnish Junior Championship in 2001. He took sec-ond place in the main series the following year alongside Jarkko Miettinen, the partnership netting him a Group N victory on Rally Finland in 2002.

He stayed with the Finnish Championship for the next few years, complemented by outings on the JWRC with Suzuki Sport in 2003 and with Skoda Motorsport’s WRC driver Janne Tuohino in 2005.

2006 saw a move to the Asia Pacific and Chinese Rally Championships with Miettinen, as well as more JWRC and WRC events. His partnership with Juho and the RRE Sports Mitsubishi Team has seen the pair contest the whole 2007 PWRC together with a flawless start to their 2008 campaign.

Their involvement in the opening round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship will help to make the Pirelli Rally in April a truly International affair and keep the BRC regulars on their toes.

For up to date BRC and Suzuki Swift Sport Cup news visit www.rallybrc.co.uk.

British Rally Championship Crew Profile #3: Juha Hanninen and Mikko Markkula

Image: RallyStuff.Net

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Timo Salonen is a WRC legend, and a former rally driver from Finland. Salonen was firstly renowned not for his outstanding driv-ing ability, but for being overweight, wearing thick spectacles and his chain-smoking habit, it has been reported. Despite this, he was hailed as one of the fastest and most competitive of rally drivers in the sport.

Salonen was born on 08 October 1951, and took up rallying as soon as he was able to drive cars. Salonen’s career in World Rally Championship level kicked off behind the wheel of Nissans. It was in 1984 that he achieved his a remarkable run of top-ten event finishes, thereby grabbing the attention of the Peugeot works rally team. Not long after that did they French team sign him up for their 1985 season campaign, partnering the master Ari Vatanen. Salonen outpaced his team-mate, and went on to clinch the 1985 World Rally Championship Drivers’ title. Understandably, Peugeot were happy at keeping the Finn in their team for 1986.

For 1986 he attempted to defend his drivers’ title, but Lancia’s Markku Alen and Juha Kankkunen proved too fast for Salonen, thus settling for third overall in the WRC drivers’ standings.

Past WRC Master: Timo Salonen

FASTFACTS

FASTFACTS

Nationality: FinnishActive years: 1974 - 1992, 2002.Teams: Fiat, Datsun, Nissan, Peugeot, Mazda, Mitsubishi. World rallies: 95Championships: 1Wins: 11Podium finishes: 24Stage wins: 256Points: 524First world rally: 1974 1000 Lakes RallyFirst win: 1977 Rally CanadaLast win: 1987 WRC Rally SwedenLast world rally: 2002 Rally Finland

Salonen switched to Mazda for 1987, the year after the ban-ning of the powerful Group B rally cars. He won the 1987 WRC Rally Sweden in fine style, and continued to win events until his retirement in 1992. Salonen did, however, make a comeback to the sport in 2002, when he entered the WRC Rally Finland in a Peugeot 206 WRC and finished in a highly respectable 14th posi-tion overall.

The Ford Sierra Coswroth had big shoes to fill, seeing as the mighty Ford RS200 was its predecessor. The outlawing of the Group B rally cars at the end of 1986 meant Ford had to develop a rally car from scratch for the following season. It was a gamble, and this Group A Ford Sierra paid off for it was, by the end of the 1987 WRC season, the rally everyone wanted to drive.

Like most other manufacturers at the time, Ford found themselves in tricky bind. For rallying the only cars they considered viable for rallying were a Sierra with 4x4 or a turbocharged Sierra. The Ford WRC engineers needed not two different cars, but a car that comprised of both these elements... The question was immediately raised: which car to take to which rally?

For the first rally of the 1987 season, Ford shipped the RWD turbo Sierra model to Monte Carlo. The weather played her part, and heavy snow began falling days before the start of the opening rally. Ford hastily prepared one Sierra 4x4 for the event: at the start Ford had one turbo Sierra and one 4x4. It was reported that for the following rally, the WRC Rally Sweden, the Ford Rally Team took along the 4x4 model. From this rally onwards, however, the team only used the Ford Sierra turbocharged, as they felt that the power of its engine would be more of an advantage than the traction provided by the heavier and slower 4x4 version.

The Sierra Cosworth (with the turbo strapped to the motor) was characterised by its huge whale-tail rear spoiler, adding a touch of excitement to the long Ford Sierra body shape. The engine was this car’s true masterpiece, as Cosworth fettled with it to pump out 300BHP at 6 500rpm and 408Nm of torque from 4 500rpm. This is thanks to the massive Garrett turbocharger, but also to the clever guys at the rally headquarters.

This was a spectacular car to watch winding its way through a rally stage, and was impressive for its acceleration. However, it never brought great success to the team on the World Rally Championship stage. It won numerous national championships around the country, but it was outpaced by the likes of Audi, Mazda, Subaru, Opel, Lancia, Fiat and Volkswagen in the pre-meir rally class. The Ford Sierra Cosworth rally car of 1987-1990, which competed in the Group A category, only managed one WRC event victory, which does not do justice to this car’s breadth of talents.

This week’s favourite WRC car:Ford Sierra Cosworth (Gp A) Mk1

Spotlight on: Kosta Koumantarakis/Barry White Toyota RunX RSi Class N3

Kosta Koumantarakis is on a charge this year! On the first event of the 2008 Sasol South African Nation-al Rally Champion-ship, Koumantarakis and co-driver Barry White were placed first in Class N3 and a highly commend-able seventh position overall.

Speaking to Kou-mantarakis after the gruelling event, he stated that his Toyota

RunX RSi N3 suffered problems with its VVT-i system on Day One of the rally, resulting from the high ambient temperatures of the day making the oil run hot. He was forced to drive more cautiously over the rest of the rally, and managed to keep the ahead of his Class N3 competitors. Ettiene du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (in a brand new Toyota RunX RSi N3) placed second in Class N3, some 7minutes and 14 seconds adrift of Koumantarakis/White.

With a strong showing on this event, and a confi-dent start to the 2008 season, keep an eye on this crew on future national events!Images: Motorpics

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Turn page for KZN Regional Rally results: Round TWO

2008 KwaZulu-Natal Regional Rally Championship: Hitachi Power Tools Tour Natal Rally

Round Two of this highly competitve regional championship was run in conjuction with the national championship, and made for interesting results.

Richard and Natasha Vaughan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) topped the regional classifications, after winning a total of six Special Stages (from a total of ten). He completed the stages with a total time of 2hours 26minutes and 55seconds, 1minute 36seconds ahead of second place finisher Kosta Koumantarakis and Barry White (Toyota RunX RSi) who clocked one fast-est stage time.

Craig Trott and drver-turned-navigator Tony Ball (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) claimed the final step of the podium, just 40 seconds behind Koumantarakis/White.

Plagued by mechanical problems all weekend long, Chris de Wit and co-driver Dean Redelinghuys (Team Total Toyota RunX A7) posted the fourth fastest rally time, being 2hours 32minutes and 36seconds.

Father and daughter pairing Brian and Kirsty Scott brought their Volkswagen Polo across the finish line in fifth, and in do-ing so collected invaluable points for their regional championship title bid.

With a time of 3hours 08minutes and 08seconds, and sixth place, were Bertus Labuschagne and Lou Zietsman in a Volkswagen Golf MkII.

This championship is hotting up, with competitors gaining in skill and confidence as the season progresses. With three teams competing in the national championship, and all former winners of this regional championship, its strength cannot be doubted. Well done to all finishers, and good luck for the following round.

Images: MotorpicsRichard and Natasha Vaughan De Wit/Redelinghuys

Brian and Kirsty Scott

Trott/Ball