Friday, Sep 12, 2003
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Racing : Motor
By Sanjay Rajan
The Rally Hokkaido, which is the third round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship 2003, to be held here between September 12 and 14, will be followed keenly, what with it being looked at as a precursor to the big event next year. All eyes will be on Fumio Nutahara (co-driver Satoshi Hayashi) of the Advaan-PIAA team, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7. Nutahara, who leads the APRC overall as well as Group N standings with podium finishes in the first two rounds, knows the terrain like the back of his hand, he being Hokkaido-bred. But he will certainly have to be on his toes, considering that he has a couple of charged-up competitors. Among them, in Group N (production cars) as well as the overall, is Team MRF Tyres' Armin Kremer (Fred Berssen), also in an Evo7, who is second behind Nutahara in both classifications. Five points separate the two in the overall classification and four in Group N. The defending APRC overall champion Karamjit Singh (Allen Oh), in a Proton Pert, leads the line-up of 62 cars, of which 12 are APRC registered. Kremer is seeded two, defending APRC Group N champion Italian Nico Caldarola is four and Nutahara six. Team MRF Tyres' other entry, David Doppelreiter (Ola Floene), who is third in the current APRC Group N standings, will be the 14th car to go off the block. Kremer, a former European champion, was quite sensational in the first two rounds. He went all out in the final leg at both Canberra and Rotorua, snatching victories (both overall as well as Group) in the Australian capital and finished second in Group N in New Zealand from seemingly difficult positions. So much so that he has actually earned himself the sobriquet `The Comeback Man'. It is, however, Kremer's first time in Japan. Nutahara sounded relaxed at the Ceremonial start on Thursday. Asked to compare Obihiro to the other terrains that he has contested in, he said, "there are not many differences except for the rut factor. If you are driving at the beginning it is OK, but if you are behind many others it will certainly be difficult." The latest version of the Mitsubishi Lancers, the Evo8s, will be also be seen in action. There are 19 special stages in all, tallying to 272.33 km in a total of 1285.22 km, over three days. There will be six stages on the opening day, eight on the second and five on the final day. Meanwhile, the WRC team of Citroen Sport sent Sebastian Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena for a recce of the special stages, which will be a part of next year's WRC.
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