The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Arai beats Valimaki to Canberra crown

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Arai beats Valimaki to Canberra crown

Stan Rayan

The day offered a perfect picture of the unpredictable world of rallies

CANBERRA: Subaru's Toshihiro Arai has set his eyes on motor sport's two biggies, the Production Cars World crown and the Asia Pacific Rally Championship honours. And he is right on course. Just days after establishing a good lead in the Production World standings, the Japanese won the APRC's opening round at the Rally of Canberra here on Sunday.

Team MRF's Jussi Valimaki, the first-leg leader on Saturday, suffered gearbox and suspension problems in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo-8 on but still fought on bravely to finish runner-up.

"Yesterday was smooth but today was very difficult, especially in the first five stages. Still, our points look good. We're in a new team and we had very little time for testing," said Valimaki, a star of 33 world rallies.

Perfect picture

Arai now leads the APRC standings with 15 points while Valimaki has 13 after the first round of the eight-event series. The day offered a perfect picture of the unpredictable world of rallies. Fortunes fluctuated frequently and leaders changed often.

Sunday began badly for Valimaki. The MRF star lost the advantage in the day's first stage when a loose log damaged his wheel. With his suspension troubling him later, Valimaki was 34 seconds behind Arai after the 16th stage.

The team's advice to Valimaki at this point was to take things easy and hold on to his second position.

Arai suffered a puncture in the next stage, the long and unpredictable `Mineshaft' marked by broad dirt roads which suddenly turn very narrow. Arai's setback appeared to be a great leveller for he lost nearly 30 seconds but a few minutes later, Valimaki's fourth gear broke.

"We were running on just four gears after that. We couldn't do much," said the Finn's co-driver and countryman Jarko Kalliolepo. But they hung on to finish second.

Meanwhile, the other MRF driver Katsuhiko Taguchi who was forced to withdraw after a radiator problem in the opening leg on Saturday, made his return. He was just going for some second-leg points.

Host Australia had a lot to celebrate with its established stars Cody Crocker and Dean Herridge taking the top two positions in the overall Rally of Canberra.

For Crocker, a seasoned driver on the world circuit,it was his third win on the trot this season.

Arai to miss Caledonia

After the awards ceremony, Arai said that he would skip the next APRC round in New Caledonia as he had to compete in a Production Worlds event. Valimaki sounded happy with the news but it will be too early for celebrations. For Karamjit Singh could be back.

According to Malaysian Motorsport Association sources, Karamjit will be competing at Caledonia. That should set up an interesting contest.

Final placings (APRC):

1. Toshihiro Arai/Tony Sircombe (Subaru, Japan/UK, 2 hrs, 55 mins, 41.9 secs); 2. Jussi Valimaki/Jarkko Kalliolepo (MRF, Finland, 2:56:10.8); 3. Geoffrey Argyle/Jeremy Sinclair (Mitsubishi, New Zealand, 3:02:32.0); 4. Brian Green/Fleur Pedersen (Mitsubishi, New Zealand, 3:13:33.8); 5. Dermott Malley/Stephen Smith (Mitsubishi, New Zealand, 3:19:17.1); 6. Mitsuhiro Kunisawa/Simone Bachmann (Subaru, 3:22:43.3).

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