rally-emag 036 april 2016

Issue 36, April 2016

Argentina

Canarias

Ireland

the road to china pt. III / TAC rally BRC / rally de wallonie BRC / zuiderzeeRally drc

p1 paddon

Image: PR

Ostberg, argentina

#rallythemoon

Image: PR

Mikkselen, Argentina

#dancethenightaway

Image: PR

camilli, Argentina

#dusttodust

Image: PR

paddon-kennard, argentina

#kiwis

Rally-eMag April 2016 / Contents

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Who made it?

Publisher: Rally-eMag

Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Johan Vis Foto-grafie, JS Photography, PR.

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom

Backcover artwork: Dam Charles

Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Mo-torsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport, Red Bull Media Pool.

How to reach us?

Email: [email protected]: www.rally-emag.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/emagrallyTwitter: @emagrallyIssuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

ERCrally islas canariasWe’re off

Page 20

INTERVIEWMARK WILFORDRally China ‘99

Page 28

WRCrally argentinaPaddon surprise winner Page 8

ErcCircuit of irelandERC and BRC vs The Irish

Page 36

This month

Belgian & Dutch RCTAC RallyHaspengouw RallyZuiderzeerally

Page 42

YPF Rally Argentina / Review

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ypf Rally argentina

based in: villa carlos paz

Date: 21-24/4/16

number of stages: 18

Shortest stage: Super Especial Cordoba 1.50 km

longest stage: Los Gigantes - Cantera El Condor 38,68 km

total stage distance:364.68 kmSurface: Gravel


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Paddon surprise winner

in ArgentinaVolkswagen was fully focussed to win in Argentina. They wanted vic-tory as it was the last event to com-plete a 13 event-winning spree. Ogier wanted to add Argentina, as he hadn’t won it before. Latvala wanted to continue his good result of Rally Mexico, so you could say they were motivated. But this is Ar-gentina and, even more so than in other events, you never know who will win. Paddon was on our favourite list but against such com-petition, it did not seem a very like-ly chance. But in the end Paddon proved he could win!Words: Harry van VeenendaalImages: PR

What we said in our introduction ac-tually did happen during the battle of Argentina. Latvala is doing well and is leading the rally at the end of the first day. But the actual battle was between Ogier and Paddon. With a string of second places and a stage win, Paddon finds himself second behind Latvala but before Ogier. In the afternoon loop however, Ogier loses something of his handicap as road sweeper and passes the man from New Zealand. “I’m absolute-ly on the limit”, he says. “I will not talk about my starting position any-more, I will just give everything I’ve got and then we’ll see.” Apparent-ly that is quite a lot as Argentina is one of the worst rallies to be open-ing the road. Being second proves that the Frenchman is in a league of his own. In the meantime Latvala is happy with his performance: “Ogi-

er and Paddon are doing very well so I can’t rest, but it all adds up to an interesting fight.” So after day one, Latvala, Ogier and Paddon are leading the rally.

Saturday’s challengePaddon saw some possibilities and started the Saturday with two scratches bringing him within strik-ing distance of Latvala. But then Lat-vala came back and won the next two stages increasing his lead to 14 seconds. But at the second pass-ing of the Los Gigantes - Cantera el Condor stage things changed. Ear-lier Paddon had been 2.5 seconds faster here then Latvala, who went into fighting mode and flew over the stage. Halfway into the stage he bumped into a stone that was on the inside of a long right-hander.

As most WRC teams are based in Europe the journey to the long haul events is quite a challenge. The journey starts when a ship containing some ten overseas containers per team leaves Eu-rope for a voyage around the world. It’s first destination being Mexico and then, Argentina and China. The end of the journey is Australia; before the ship returns to Europe to the teams HQ’s to be

re-equipped for the next season. But we then still have the com-petition cars and the necessary spare parts. At Volkswagen for example this means another eight containers. They fly the long jour-ney to Carlos Paz. And then of course we have drivers and other team personnel. They also have to fly one of the longest non-stop flights from Europe to Argentina to finally end up in Carlos Paz.

A trip around the world


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Happy was his performance on the opening day, Latvala takes an early lead.

After Latvala’s demise the team mechanics virtually had to rebuild Latvala’s car. Almost everything that the regulations allow to be changed was changed. This in-cluded a new tailgate, front and rear shock absorbers, bonnet, front windscreen, both mirrors, left and right fenders, all the anten-nas, and a new underside guard – on the outside. Seats, seat rails, harnesses, new HANS systems

and helmets, front wishbone, front track rod, a complete rear axle, new cardan shafts, water cooler and intercooler. All the top mounts and shock absorbers, as well as all the wheel mounts, drive shafts and wheel arch liners – on the inside of the Polo had to be replaced, and everything within the allowed three hours. Thanks to all this efforts Latvala was able to re-join the rally on Sunday.

Rebuilding a rolled rally car

His suspension broke and the car was out of control. Rather then turning into the corner the car went straight on and hit a stone on the other side of the road. Conse-quently the Polo went rolling and stopped on the roadside. Both drivers were OK but their Saturday challenge was over.

Meanwhile Paddon won the stage and took the lead, During the re-maining two stages he lost a bit of time to Ogier but at the end of the day he still held a healthy lead of just under 30 seconds. But would it be enough? Ogier was obvious-ly agitated and started grumbling again about the starting order and

it being not fair. Paddon proved he is not only challenging his

rival on the sandy tracks but also verbally. Ogi-

er told Paddon he didn’t know what he was talking about: “You don’t have to open the road,” he said. Paddon immediately retali-ated: “I’d love to be in that posi-tion, because it would mean I was leading the championship.”

Thrilling finaleThis was the firm basis for the ral-ly’s finale on Sunday. A torment-ed Ogier focussed on one thing: beating Paddon and win the rally. It started well for the Frenchman. He did not see the fog in the begin-ning of the El Condor stage (Pow-erstage later in the day) Appar-ently equipped with radar eyes he tackled the stage and was seven seconds faster than his rival. But it can even go quicker as Ott Tänäk proved by winning the stage even three seconds faster than Ogier.

“I’d love to be in that position (opening the road), because it would mean I was leading the championship.” - Hayden Paddon

The final count downPaddon, fourth after Mikkelsen, did not look happy at the stage end. His Hyundai mysteriously stalled once or twice in the stage. On the next stage a similar sce-nario developed.

Again Ogier flew over the stage but this time won it. Second was Dani Sordo at almost fourteen seconds. Paddon, as he would later admit, thought his dream was over. He started the day with an almost 30 seconds lead and after two of the three stages only 2.6 seconds were left. He knew that on the first run of El Condor he lost seven seconds, so the cal-culations were easy. Were they really?

PowerStageWhen Ogier passed the finish line, one thing was clear he would not win the PowerStage. A Hyun-dai had already been faster and the gap was no less than eleven seconds. But it was not Paddon who was behind the wheel. It was Sordo. At that moment the first Paddon split came through. He seemed to be flying and was al-most eight seconds faster than Sordo and even some eight point five seconds faster than Ogier. At the stage end everyone was looking at the splits in anticipa-tion, could he win? As Paddon

reached the finish it became clear he had achieved no less than a miracle: he had beaten Ogier fair and square in a direct battle, the battlefield being Ogier’s domain: the PowerStage! At Hyundai the party couldn’t end as Dani Sordo was second on the PowerStage so two Hyundai’s had been faster than Volkswagen! But what was more important the New Genera-tion i20 is a real challenger and their new generation driver is up to this challenge. They won’t beat Ogier and Volkswagen on a regu-lar basis yet but at least they are giving them a hard time.

TOP: Something about the southern hemi-sphere? Paddon takes win number one!

MIDDLE: Ogier gave it his all, but couldn’t claw back thirty seconds on the final day.

BOTTOM: Solid points for a steady third position for Andreas Mikkelsen.

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YPF Rally Argentina / Round-up

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The reigning champion was quite relaxed. All drivers spent some time away from daily du-ties, apart of course from their fitness programmes that can never be paused. Mikkelsen and Ogier went skiing; Latvala preferred the motorised ver-sion and went skidooing in Lap-land. He then moved on to the Unites States for a roadtrip in California and Mikkelsen went to Thailand. Ogier spent some time with his wife and saved a dog from an animal shelter. But there was also serious busi-ness. In this case it was the fur-ther preparations for the 2017 Polo. Several parts and com-ponents were tested over the globe and the first sketches of the new car were presented.

In Argentina they had two goals: The last rally they didn’t win was Argentina 2015. They had won all the other rallies. So traveling the globe and win-ning all rallies was their first goal. And it could be achieved in Argentina 2016. For Ogier the situation was more or less the same. He had won all the rallies currently in the cham-pionship with the exception of Argentina. So the South Ameri-can WRC round had not been

friendly to the team from Han-nover. In a way the 2016 version was no exception. But Ogier had an extremely difficult op-ponent in the much-despised (by him) rules. Argentina is one of the worst events to have to start as first on the road. And as these rules prescribe this is for two days. Still he nearly made it. Saturday was a bad day but on Sunday he almost proved the insurmountable gap of 30 seconds could in fact be closed. Hayden Paddon had different ideas, but it was very close. So Ogier didn’t win. What was worse was that Volk-swagen did not make it either. Latvala was a serious contend-er but a top mount of one of his springs broke and made it im-possible for him to steer his car into victory. After an enormous rebuild job he didn’t feel com-pletely confident and again was caught with a similar issue in the PowerStage. After an on stage repair job he could con-tinue but had to content himself with two points for his manufac-turer. Andreas Mikkelsen did what he had to do and finished solidly into the points. He did well but also did it a bit invis-ible. But hey who cares if the points are there?

Volkswagen Motorsport

Round-up

Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai did a pre-event test in their New Generation i20. As test-ing is not allowed outside of Eu-rope, they found a place in north-ern Portugal that was reasonably comparable with Argentina. For four days the team tested differ-ent set ups as well as reliability of both cars and drivers. “We hope to continue our recent successes with these tests,” said team man-ager Michel Nandan.

In Argentina the A team consist-ed of Sordo and Neuville. Though Neuville had been demoted for Portugal, in Argentina he was still in the main team. After a promis-ing start, electrical glitches ham-pered the Belgian’s performance and he lost some six minutes. He regained quite a few positions and ended up sixth. For Dani Sordo things went a lot smoother although he had a peculiar prob-lem. After a meeting with one of the ever-present rocks his throt-tle got stuck. He could press the pedal but he had to help it com-ing back. Not the ideal situation if you’re fighting for your chances. Nevertheless he was fourth and claiming to have been able to fight for the podium, had he not had the problem. Given his general speed

this is not an exaggeration.

But of course the man of the day was Hayden Paddon. From the shakedown (where he was fast-est) to the very final stage where he was fastest again he had been fighting like al lion. He thorough-ly feels at ease behind the wheel of the relatively new car and his fighting spirit equals Ogier’s. So what more can you say than that he is a real asset to WRC com-munity. Perhaps the most signifi-cant thing to prove that is the way he ran his PowerStage. Though the stage before the PowerStage was an absolute disaster for him, he still saw a tiny chance. Without the fog of the first passage he was just under a minute faster on the second run. That is fighting spirit. Perhaps Ogier’s tyres were not completely fresh anymore, but in a way you could say that is also Paddon’s achievement. He drove his rival to the limit. Also his ver-bally Ogier seems to have met his match, so let’s finish by repeating Ogier who said: He did an excel-lent job!” We at Rally-eMag are definitely looking forward to more battles between these two and we hope all the other drivers will be inspired.

Round-up

YPF Rally Argentina / Round-up

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The most significant thing about M-Sport in Argentina was the ab-sence of Malcolm Wilson. Since 1997 when Wilson’s M-Sport started it’s WRC work for the offi-cial Ford team. Wilson has always been present on site. You could see him laugh, you could see him grumble but he was always there. A very old injury dating back from the 1980 Scottish Rally kept him at home. He had needed to recov-er from surgery that had become necessary. He was however not just sitting at home doing nothing as he was kept up to date on an almost minute tot minute basis. And from what we read the press releases we got the impression he was not entirely happy.

But let’s first start before Argen-tina. For their pre-event test the British team did not have to travel very far. They stayed in their own testing ground in the Greystoke Forest. The aim of the test was most of all for both Camilli and Østberg to get more mileage be-hind the wheel of the latest spec Fiësta, but there was relaxation too as Østberg went to the Canary Islands for a well-deserved holi-day. Before the holidays started however he competed in the Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés to

showcase the new evolution R5. Elsewhere in this issue you can read a report including Østberg’s adventures. In Argentina we saw back Elfyn Evans in a similar R5 again.

For Mads Østberg Argentina was one to forget. He was cheerful and claimed to have a good rhythm but the times did not tell the same story. Later on he admitted he did not know what was going on. What was even more distressing for the always happy Norwegian driver was the fact that Malcolm Wilson ominously informed us about his thoughts: “Mads is driving well, but the times aren’t there so we need to understand his issues and work to find a solution before Portugal” For Eric Camilli he was a lot friendlier. Eric did exactly what was asked of him this weekend and he can return to Europe in a positive frame of mind.

In WRC2 Elfyn Evans was eager to continue his winning ways, but an electrical threw him out of the rally on Friday. He came back and although he lost some time with some punctures he managed to fight back and ended fourth in WRC2.

M-Sport World Rally Team

Round-up

Other teams Apart from the regular construc-tor’s teams other familiar drivers were also present in Argentina.

Lorenzo Bertelli under the banner of his Fuckmatié WRT had a host of problems in Argentina. While being eighth a turbo problem left him without power. He did come back but the anti lag system was still not working properly. When everything was working again he came backt to 13th. Under the cir-cumstances He couldn’t wish for more but it was far from reward-ing.

Henning Solberg once again had found a budget for a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. But it being a long time ago since he was behind the wheel of such a machine it took him a while to feel confident again. But at the end of Friday he held a well-deserved seventh place. A pow-ersteering glitch threw him back and he finished in ninth place, agood result for a non-regular.

Ott Tanak has the same car as Solberg but is a regular contend-er and he did well until he was stopped with electrical problems. After returning on Rally2 regula-tions there was no way he could battle for good results but was fre-quently faster than Mads Østberg in a ‘factor’ car. His scratch on the

first Sunday stage was the icing on his Argentine cake.

CitroënThe French team was not in Ar-gentina, apart from Kris Meeke. He was not there to compete but to do the recce that will hopefully help him when he comes back in the new car. “It’s strange to be here in Argentina where I had my first victory, and to which I there-fore have very fond memories”. After the recce, even before the start of the rally he flew back home to continue the test programme of the 2017 car. In this period the team released the first photos of a prototype of the C3 WRC they will be running in 2017. The camou-flage livery was not very helpful in showing what the car would look like but a trained eye may have seen a C3 with a huge rear wing. At the first tests near the Citroën plant in Versailles Kris Meeke was said to have a broad smile on his face when he left the car after hav-ing driven the first kilometres.

Local hero Marcos Ligato had some issues with his last minute acquisition DS3 but the home crowd cheered him to a respect-able 7th place.

Round-up

Overall final classification

1. Paddon-Kennard Hyundai i20 WRC 3:40:52.92. Ogier-Ingrassia VW Polo WRC +14.33. Mikkelsen-Jaeger VW Polo WRC +1:05.24. Sordo-Marti Hyundai i20 WRC +1:17.15. Ostberg-Floene Ford Fiësta WRC +4:56.76. Neuville-Gilsoul Hyundai i20 WRC +9:29.57. Ligato-Garcia Citroën DS 3 WRC +9:39.28. Camilli-Veillas Ford Fiësta WRC +10:16.09. Solberg-Minor Ford Fiësta WRC +10:48.510. Fuchs-Mussano Skoda Fabia R5 +24:42.8

2016 FIA WRCManufacturers’ Standings1. Volkswagen Motorsport 117 2. Hyundai Motorsport 81 3. M-Sport World Rally Team 62 4. Hyundai Motorsport N 49 5. Volkswagen Motorsport II 45 6. DMack World Rally Team 30

YPF Rally Argentina / Standings

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2016 FIA WRCDrivers’ Standings1. Sebastien Ogier 96 2. Hayden Paddon 57 3. Mads Ostberg 52 4. Andreas Mikkelsen 48 5. Dani Sordo 44 6. Jari-Matti Latvala 27 7. Ott Tanak 24 8. Thierry Neuville 23 9. Stéphane Lefebvre 10 10. Henning Solberg 8

40th Rally Islas Canarias

Based in: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

10-12/03/2016

Number of stages: Longest stage: Shortest stage: Total stage distance:

Surface: Tarmac

12Moya, 24.73 km

Galdar, 13.97 km213 km

Rally Islas Canarias / Review

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We’re off!The ERC got of to a false start this season with the postponing of the opening round, Rally Liepāja in Latvia. A lack of snow forced to or-ganizer to cancel the winter event and move it to a later date in the year. That meant that the Rally Is-las Canarias was promoted to be the opening round of the champi-onship, and it brought all the dra-ma one might expect.

Words: Steven van VeenendaalImages: PR

Rally Islas Canarias / Review

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Special guestBefore the event started, the surprise entry of Mads Ost-berg took most of the head-lines. The WRC star would use the ERC opener to gain vital experience on tarmac in the Ford Fiesta. Ostberg made the switch from Citroën to M-Sport this year and al-though he has driven the Fi-esta WRC in the past, the cur-rent evolution is a completely different car that he has to learn again from scratch. The break in the WRC calendar between the rallies in Mexico and Argentina gave Ostberg the opportunity to seek other challenges and he found the perfect opportunity on Gran Canaria. Of course, the ERC doesn’t allow World Rally Cars, but the R5 Evo model comes pretty close with re-gard to the handling. For M-Sport director Malcolm Wil-son it was another chance to showcase the capabilities of their new R5 model, which al-ready proved a winner at the WRC2 level in the hands of Elfyn Evans.

The ERC regularsThis year’s title fight looks to become a battle between

reigning champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland, and his Russian rival, Alexey Lukyanuk. It’s a classic bat-tle between consistent pace and raw speed. Kajetano-wicz is both very quick and nearly always makes it to the finish, while Lukyanuk pos-sesses even more speed, but perhaps a little too much as he is also rather error prone. The Russian is getting better and better though, and last year proved he is not just a threat on gravel anymore, his tarmac pace is also right up there with the best of them. The big question will be, can he keep his act together and keep that blistering pace on the road?

Ostberg sets the paceUsually Mads Ostberg visits the Canary Islands to relax and enjoy his holidays, but this time around he was all business and he made his in-tentions clear on the opening stage of the rally by winning it. He won it by the smallest of margins though, as Lukya-nuk was a mere 0.1 seconds adrift. Lukyanuk had select-ed soft compound tyres and was flying through the damp

WRC Star Mads Ostberg made a one-off ERC appearance.

On the hunt for a repeat, Kajetanowicz is looking for back-to-back ERC titles.

opening section of the stage, the second part was far dry-er though and he struggled to the finish, having to let Ostberg past. Still, it proved that Ostberg, ranked second in the WRC standings, would have his work cut out for him to beat the top ERC boys.

Kajto fights backKajetanowicz was somewhat off the pace on the opening stage as he dropped over 10 seconds. He would quickly flick the ‘Beast mode’ switch though as he fought back by winning the next four stag-es. Just to show how close the competition actually was, ‘Kajto’ was down 10.4 seconds after the opening stage, yet after winning four consecutive stage, still found himself down 6.9 seconds to Ostberg, there was not a lot between them on this one! He did open up a sizeable gap to Lukyanuk though, of just over twenty seconds. It would turn out, that would be more important than the seconds he was behind Os-tberg…

Ostberg hits troubleA faulty brake system, not

very desirable on the twisty mountain roads of Gran Ca-naria. ‘I had a bit of warn-ing before when the brake didn’t seem to work well, but thought it was just some dirt getting in the way or some-thing… ‘ said Ostberg after having crashed out of the lead at the final stage of the opening day. ‘It turns out it wasn’t, there was actually a problem and when you’re pushing hard there’s not a lot left in reserve.’ There wasn’t enough left, as he smashed into a wall an damaged his car too severely to continue the rally.

Fight for gloryAfter Ostberg’s demise it was up to Kajto and Lukya-nuk to duke it out for top honours. Kajto had the best cards, but a excessive tyre wear on the opening loop of stages dropped him half a minute behind Lukyanuk. The Russian would not relin-quish this gift, and powered through the final stages to beat Kajto and take a hard-fought victory, his third ERC win in total and second in a row after ending last season with a win as well.

A great start of the season for Lukyanuk with a win on round one.

Luis Monzon was the best local driver, finishing third.

2016 FIA ERC Drivers’ Standings

1. Alexey Lukyanuk Ford Fiesta R5 38 pts2. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 29 pts3. Luis Monzon Artilles Citroen DS3 R5 25 pts4. Yonaton Perez Suarez Ford Fiesta R5 20 pts5. Wojchiech Chuchala Subaru Impreza STi 11 pts6. Robert Consani Peugeot 208 T16 11 pts7. Jaroslaw Koltun Ford Fiesta R5 8 pts8. Janos Puskadi Skoda Fabia R5 4 pts9. Federico Della Casa Peugeot 208 T16 3 pts10. Surhayen Pernia Renault Clio R3T 2 pts


1. Lukyanuk-Arnautov Ford Fiesta R5 2:13:52.42. Kajetanowicz-Baran Ford Fiesta R5 +32.73. Monzon-Deniz Citroen DS3 R5 +1.51.44. Perez-Lopez Ford Fiesta R5 +2.58.55. Chuchala-Dymurski Subaru Impreza STi +5.57.56. Koltun-Pleskot Ford Fiesta R5 +6.17.07. Consani-Vilmot Peugeot 208 T16 +7.19.68. Puskadi-Godor Skoda Fabia R5 +8.00.09. Pernia-Garcia Renault Clio R3T +8..26.210. Kasperczyk-Syty Ford Fiesta R5 +8.37.0

40th Rally Islas Canarias

the roadtochina pt. III

Feature / The Road to China

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Mark Wilford

PR Manager WRC Promoter

In the third leg of our Road to China we go back in time. We found someone who was actually there during the 1999 version of the Rally China. As PR manager for Ford’s rallying activities, Mark Wilford was present during the first WRC qualifying event in China. So what was it like in at the 1999 event?

Well we didn’t really know what to expect because China at that time was still a very closed environment and I think it was almost like a trip into the unknown because we did not really know what to expect when we got there. As we found out, it was very, very differ-ent to any country we had been to at that time and the rally was very different to any other rally. Unfortunately it was a very short rally for us as well, as both our cars retired in the opening kilometres of the first stage. So it was not a good rally for us. Both our drivers, Colin McRae and Thomas Radström hit the same rock about a kilometre into the opening stage, they broke a part in their suspension and that was it, finished, game over.‘ >>

Words and mages: Harry van Veenendaal


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ReM: Can you tell us something more about the rally in those days?MW: I didn’t see much of it did I? But it was, like I said, very different from any other rally that we know. The im-pression rally was happening, they’ve been told not go out on the road basically and I really think they did not have much knowledge of what was going on around them. Like I said, I couldn’t really comment on the rally it-self because I was there the first morning and that was it.

As this year will also be the case the rally was based in Huairou. This town was quite interesting because when we got there we were given car plates, and if you had a red car plate this meant you could go into town on a Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays and a blue car plate indicated you could go into town on Tuesdays, Thurs-days and Saturdays.

ReM: And you had both of them?MW: No we only got one. So it was a little bit difficult trying to do what we needed to do if you didn’t have the right plate there was a lot swapping of plates on the cars. But it was unique I felt.

ReM: Are the organizers the same as now?MW: No they are not. The company that is organizing the rally right now is a company called LeTV, which is a major TV company and a major sports promoter as well.

They are used to major sporting events and sporting shows so they’ve got quite a good background and a good knowledge and they’ve been working very closely with us. They’ll have expertise as well from elsewhere to put into the event. So I think it’s going to be a good rally I’m sure.

it was very different fromany other rally

ReM: So it’s worthwhile going there?MW: I think so yes. I went back to China four or five years ago for the Race of Champions in Beijing and it was a very different place then. Very different, much more westernized, a lot more freedom, you could move around a lot more. It will however, never be the same as a European rally but I don’t think there will be nasty shocks and I don’t think there will be any nasty surprises.

ReM: So you think the rally will go on as planned?MW: Yes definitely you can book your tickets now!

ReM: OK let’s go back to the original rally what was it like logistically?MW: Yeah again it was different from what we were used to, as you know, you needed to have a Chinese driver’s license to get there which you had to apply for, furthermore you needed a visa to get into the country, but to obtain the visa you had to have an invitation from the authorities in China. So as a team we had to provide the names of all our team members to the organizers who would then arrange an invitation for us to come to China and then we could get our visa, So it was quite a long process and we couldn’t replace anyone. Just to get a little card that said: ‘yes you can come into this country’, was quite a big job. And you can imagine doing that job for seventy or eighty people is quite a major operation. And obviously for the logistics of getting the equipment in there is a similar situation. Here there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work from all the team coordinators to be able to get in the cars, the parts, the trucks and everything else

ReM: Any customs problems?MW: I don’t think there were any problems when we actually got there. I think the problem was initially getting all the paperwork into China in the first place. Once the paperwork was all there it was OK, but getting it there was a di fferent story.

ReM: How did the locals feel about the rally?MW: I think in the town itself they were aware that something was happening where the rally was happening. The stages however were out in the country, quite a long drive from Huairou.

The rally will go on asplanned?

Definitely, you can bookyour tickets now!


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I really don’t think that there, they had any idea what was going on at all. Like I said they’ve been told the rally was talking place and that they had to be sure to keep off the road but that’s pretty much it. But in the town itself there was quite a bit of enthusiasm. I’m not sure they knew exactly what was going on and what the sport was all about but they were enthusiastic because a big show was coming to their town. Things like that did not happen too much in China in these days

ReM: Want kind of city was it?MW: I can’t remember much about it. To be honest I don’t think it was that big, but I don’t remember that much about the town itself, apart from the fact every hotel had bowling alleys and the only thing you could do was play bowling. But the town was in 1999, but what has happened to it in be-tween I don’t know. I do know there have been a lot of investments in that area be-cause of this APEC conference, so perhaps it was changed from a town to being a city now. But it is not that far from Beijing. So it should be reasonably accessible

ReM: Why did the rally stop in 1999?MW: I don’t really know as I was working for a team. I do know there have been some issues but I don’t know what they were. What I do know about the rally of this year that the enthusiasm for the rally is huge be-cause the economic situation in China was booming until recently and the car sales over there are massive, so all the manufac-turers want to be there, we want to be there

because we want to be back in Asia as Asia is one continent where we have not been for a long time. So it’s good for the teams It’s good for us

ReM: So will all the teams be there? Will M Sport be there?MW: Yes M-Sport will be there they paid their dues and they will be around for all fourteen rounds.

ReM: Does China have a rally culture and do they have local competitors?Year there is a Chinese championship down there in which people like Allister McCrae, Mark Higgins, Chris Atkinson, compete.

ReM: Typical Chinese names..?MW: Yeah... But they have been taking part there for the last couple of years. And I think the motorsport organisation there is reason-ably strong. Chinese drivers have come out in different branches of motorsport, well outside of their own country. So they have a reasonable motorsport background there.

ReM: And what about other people are they interested?MW: Yeah there is a lot of interest because it’s different and because it’s new. And therefore it catches the imagination. If it had been a normal European rally it would not have caught so much imagination but go-ing back to China I think, is really positive for the interest.

This year is the perfect timing to bring the WRCback to China

Next upIt seems that China is ready for the WRC. The people are enthusiastic about mot-orsports and the new promoter is an ex-perienced organizer of sporting events. But perhaps the most important thing is that China has changed. It’s a more open country eager to be a global play-er. In sports, basketball, football and Formula 1 in a way paved the way for the WRC.

Join us next time as we continue The Road to China.

Circuit of Ireland

Based in: Belfast

07-09/04/2016

Number of stages: Longest stage: Shortest stage: Total stage distance:

Surface: Asphalt

14The Glens, 31.21 km

Newtownards TT, 2.30 km210 km

Circuit of Ireland / Review

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ERC and brcvs

the irishThe Circuit of Ireland is more and more returning to its for-mer glory as one of the premiere rallies in the world. In 2014 the event rejoined the European Ral-ly Championship and after a 25-year absence, 2016 marked the return of the British Rally Cham-pionship as well. As the event is naturally included in its home championship, the Irish Tarmac Championship, the top contend-ers of three premium series will do battle on the fast Irish roads. Game on!

Words: Steven van VeenendaalImages: PR

Circuit of Ireland / Review

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Last year’s winner, Craig Breen, also returned to home soil to defend his crown. The Irishman runs selected WRC rounds this year in the hope of proving his worth to claim one of their seats for the 2017 WRC season. For ‘The Circuit’ he made an ex-ception to his routine and re-joined his old rivals from the ERC and given his skills and knowledge of the stag-es Breen was immediately touted as the outright favour-ite for victory. In the process he would have to deal with the front-runners of the ERC Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Alexey Lukyanuk though as well as the best of the British and the ever fast Irish.

(Very) Early exitOne of his rivals eliminated himself very quickly though as Alexey Lukyanuk didn’t even make it to the start of the event. The flamboyant Russian pushed a little too hard during a pre-event test and rolled his Fiesta bad-ly. It was damaged too se-verely for the team to repair it in time for the start of the event. Lukyanuk had been the early ERC leader but his

retirement, of failure to start, meant he had to sit and watch as rival Kajetanowicz could go and harvest a lot of points without too much op-position.

Evans chargesSo far this season Elfyn Evans is pretty much unbeatable. He won the WRC 2 category in Monte Carlo and Sweden, before taking a commanding win on the opening round of the British Rally Champion-ship, the Mid Wales Stages Rally, as well. In Ireland he continued his winning ways by winning the first stage to open up a six second lead. He doubled that lead on the second stage and looked like a hard man to beat.

Drama and retirement was to follow on stage three as the auxiliary belt let go on the DMACK Ford Fiesta R5. Restarting under super rally rules, the WRC stars showed their class with four fastest overall stage times on Sat-urday before retiring again, this time after an accident.

Craig Breen came to defend last year’s victory.

Another unlucky outing for Robert Consani, smashing his 208 T16.

Let’s fightEvans’ demise paved the way for others to be successful and Craig Breen was ready to pounce. Breen blasted through the third and longest stage of the rally, The Glens, to open up a half-minute lead over Kajetanowicz in second. Alistair Fisher was in third ahead of BRC rivals Fredrik Ahlin and Marty McCormack, who battled for BRC glory throughout the day.

Breen extended his lead dur-ing the second loop of stages before spinning on the final stage of the day, a clear warn-ing that the win wasn’t his just yet on the ever-tricky roads of the The Circuit. On the same stage (a remarkably eventful stage considering it was the shortest of the rally) Fredrik Ahlin also hit trouble when he hit a side kerb and damaged his rear left suspension. The Swede managed to struggle through the stage and make emergency repairs but still lost 23 seconds in the pro-cess. It wouldn’t help them much, a crash the next day put them out of the event.

Soft tyresBreen started the final day with a healthy 26-second lead in hand, but made the wrong tyre choice for the ear-ly morning loop. Kajetanowicz sensed the opportunity and clawed back time stage after stage. He had the gap down to just ten seconds at the mid-day service and when Breen suffered damage to his left rear tyre after hitting a rock the gap was cut in half to just five seconds. That was how close it would get though as Breen responded admirably on the following stages to bring home his second con-secutive Circuit of Ireland vic-tory. It wasn’t easy though “ I felt it slipping from my grasp today, we really had to dig deep.”

Best of the BritsMcCormack was in pole po-sition, but he knew his S2000 spec Fabia would have a hard time staying in front of the R5’s. Hard turned into impos-sible when a fuel pump failure cut his rally short and handed the lead to Josh Moffett, who inherited the lead of the rally and went on to win “It’s the biggest win of my career!”

Elfyn Evans could have been Breen’s biggest rival, but mechanical issues prevented the fight.

Josh Moffett took fourth overall, but more importantly, first in the BRC.

2016 FIA ERC Drivers’ Standings

1. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 60 pts2. Alexey Lukyanuk Ford Fiesta R5 38 pts3. Craig Breen Citroen DS3 R5 38 pts4. Luis Monzon Artilles Citroen DS3 R5 25 pts5. Alastair Fisher Ford Fiesta R5 23 pts6. Yonaton Perez Suarez Ford Fiesta R5 20 pts7. Josh Moffett Ford Fiesta R5 19 pts8. Jonathan Greer Citroen DS3 R5 14 pts9. Wojchiech Chuchala Subaru Impreza STi 11 pts10. Robert Consani Peugeot 208 T16 11 pts


1. Breen-Martin Citroen DS3 R5 1:54:16.12. Kajetanowicz-Baran Ford Fiesta R5 +10.63. Fisher-Noble Ford Fiesta R5 +56.44. Moffett-Rowan Ford Fiesta R5 +1.40.15. Greer-Riddick Subaru Impreza STi +2.07.06. Bogie-Rae Skoda Fabia R5 +2.55.67. Wright-Fulton Ford Fiesta R5 +4.36.18. Cave-Morgan Ford Fiesta R5 +4.51.19. McGonigle-Geaney Skoda Fabia S2000 +5.52.210. Koltun-Pleskot Ford Fiesta R5 +6.26.2

Circuit of Ireland

Dutch WRC photographer Erik van ‘t Land releases his new calendar.The best action from the WRC from all over the world in 12 pages.

You can order it now! €15 or two for €25 (excl. shipping).Email [email protected] for more info.

TAC Rally Words: Steven van Veenendaal; Images: PR

Round 3Belgian Rally Championship

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It was a close-knit fight between Loix and Princen for a long time at the TAC Rally, round three of the Belgian Rally Champion-ship. Loix had been the one to take home the silverware on the opening two rounds of the championship, would he be able to do it again around Tielt?

Two rounds into the championship a clear pat-tern is developing in the Belgian Rally Cham-pionship. Freddy Loix and Kris Princen are in a league of their own and are fighting tooth and nail for top honours. At the end of the ral-ly, it is Freddy who gets to spray the cham-

pagne. It was the story of the season-opening Haspengouw Rally and the following Spa Rally was no different. Would history repeat itself again?

It certainly seemed so. Loix lost some time on stage two and Princen was quick to pounce and snatch an early lead. He managed to cling to the lead but after stage nine the charging Loix finally overtook him. Order restored you might think and it definitely seemed that way.

That was until the sun started to make way for the rain…

Tielt

BelgianRally

Championship

B

Belgian RC / TAC Rally

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As the final loop of stages commenced, the first drops of rain started to fall and with them the dynamics of the rally changed completely as it turned from head-to-head battle between two drivers, into a tyre war. How much rain was going to fall? How long do you dare to go on with slick tyres? Those were the questions and Loix and Princen were looking for answers.

GamblePrincen was the one who took the gamble as he chose the softest tyres with maximum cuts. All he needed now, was for the rain to keep falling, the more the better. And fall it would. Unfortunately for Princen, it fell a lit-tle bit too late: “My tyre choice was perfect for the final stage of the rally, but the long penultimate stage was far too dry. I had to try something, it just started to rain too late.” Princen’s gamble allowed Loix to take his third consecutive victory of the season, although he would admit that it

had been far from easy “I have never had to drive as hard in the Belgian Championship as I have to do this year. It is compliment for Kris Princen who is pushing me to the limit and we are both loving it!”

ShowboatBehind the battle for the win, Dutchman Hans Weijs Jr. quickly turned into the crowd favourite. He was asked by Schmidt Racing to pilot one of their BMW 130i’s for the occasion, a rear-wheel drive car handsomely nick-named “The Beast”. It turned out the car was indeed a beast, as Weijs regularly recorded top-six times, right up there between the WRC and R5 machinery. Moreover he entertained the crowds with his spectacular (read: sideways) driving style. In the end it landed him fifth overall, a re-markable feat considering his car and the opposition he faced, another testament to his talents.

Again Princen was Loix’ closest rival, but again he came up short and had tot settle for second.

Dutchman Hans Weijs flew over the stages in his BMW M1 and powerslid his way to an incredible fifth place, much to the delight of the fans.

B


1. Loix-Gitsels Skoda Fabia R5 1.31.31,42. Princen-Kaspers Peugeot 208 T16 +6,43. Demaerschalk-Eelbode Citroën DS3 R5 +1.20,14. Verschueren-Hostens Skoda Fabia R5 +1.23,85. Weijs Jr.-Verbaeten BMW 130i +7.44,86. Becaert-Beernaert Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +7.54,47. Coene-Vandemoortele Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +8.12,18. Parmentier-Desmedt Ford Fiesta R5 +8.38,49. Braeckevelt-Caytan BMW M3 E36 +8.55,110. Boulat-De Busser BMW M3 +8.55,6

2016 Belgian Rally Championship Drivers Standings

1. Freddy Loix Skoda Fabia R5 60 pts2. Kris Princen Peugeot 208 T16 48 pts3. Vincent Verschueren Skoda Fabia R5 33 pts4. Anthony Dovifat Citroen DS3 R1 20 pts5. Steven Dolfen Peugeot 208 VTi R2 20 pts6. Lucas Walbrecq Renault Twingo RS R1 18 pts7. Sebastien Bedoret Renault Twingo R2 14 pt8. Xavier Bouche Skoda Fabia R5 10 pts9. Stephan Hermann Fiat Punto HGT 10 pts10. Fred Bouvy Porsche 997 GT3 10 pts

Round 4

Belgian Rally Championship

Rally de WallonieWords: Steven van Veenendaal; Images: PR

Although it should be well and truly spring by now, the Rally de Wallonie was held under autumn-like circumstances. Low temperatures and heavy rainfall turned the asphalt roads of the Namur province into slippery mud-covered tracks. As cutting is the key to success on Belgian rallies, the conditions got gradu-ally worse as more cars made their way through the stages. With 25 stages to go, this year’s event would provide a daunting challenge to all competitors.

Old Friend

In all probability Francois Duval would have preferred a bit more straight forward rally to make his return to the championship. Com-ing back after years without com-petition (bar his outings in classic rwd Escorts) to do battle with Fred-dy Loix is by no means easy. Doing so in the harshest of conditions is nearly impossible. It would be clear quickly though, that he hadn’t for-gotten the tools of the trade.

Namen

BelgianRally

Championship

B

British RC / Mid Wales Stages Rally

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WRC BullyingPrior to the event Chris van Woensel spoke his mind about the starting order on social me-dia. Unlike Sebastien Ogier’s anger about having to start first on the roads, van Woensel was displeased about having to start too far back in the field. Van Woensel uses an previous-gen (two litre engine) WRC and apparently the Belgian organiz-ers aren’t too fond of them. Van Woensel regularly was awarded a starting number in the twen-ties, causing him to start behind slower cars and forcing him to the tackle the stages after all his main rivals have had ample op-portunity to smother the stage with dirt and mud from the roadside shoulders. His com-plaints didn’t help though as in Wallonie he was again seeded down the order in 23rd. Clearly exasperated by this decision he got his sportive revenge on the opening stage of the rally. The spectator-friendly classic ‘Citadel’ stage fell victim to van Woensel thirst for success as he recorded the fastest time to take an early lead.

Blitzing DuvalOn the second passage through the Citadel stage however, it’s Duval he shows that he means

business. He records a sensa-tional time of nearly eight sec-onds quicker than anyone else, handing him to lead before the rally gets underway proper on Saturday’s stages. Duval doesn’t let up and con-tinues to hammer home stage wins. First of the front runners to forfeit is Kris Princen, who crashes heavily on stage four. Loix meanwhile is uncharacter-istically off the pace and doesn’t record a stage win until stage thirteen, probably calculating his risks after the exit of Princen, his main championship rival.

Exit DuvalAfter a strong Saturday per-formance Duval finds himself in the lead with almost half a minute to spare. The day’s final stage, would prove his Water-loo though. The tricky condi-tions catch Duval who goes off the road and is forced to retire. It hands the lead back to the steady driving Loix, who wasn’t taking any chances, which sometimes is the best way to go. As all his rivals fell to the conditions, Loix kept his car on the stages and on track for an-other Belgian title. On Sunday he ‘merely’ had to maintain his lead, which he did, making it four wins out of four starts.

The exasperated Chris van Woensel powered his ‘old’ WRC to victory on the open-ing stage. Unfortunately he wouldn’t make it to the finish though.

Francois Duval splashed back on the rallying scene and immediately took the fight to Loix.


1. Loix – Gitsels Skoda Fabia R5 2:10.20,92. Bouche – Fernandez Skoda Fabia R5 +44,43. Verschueren – Hostens Skoda Fabia R5 +46,14. Allart – Surson Skoda Fabia WRC +2.14,45. Baugnet – Cuvelier Ford Fiesta R5 +3.51,96. Fernemont – Maillen Ford Fiesta R5 +3.59,67. Collard – Borlon Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +6.25,68. Hermann – Maraite Fiat Punto HGT +10.59,19. Bouvy – Hottelet Porsche 997 GT3 +11.17,110. v Rompuy – Feys Citroen DS3 R5 +13.32,4

2016 Belgian Rally Championship Drivers Standings

1. Freddy Loix Skoda Fabia R5 80 pts2. Kris Princen Peugeot 208 T16 48 pts3. Vincent Verschueren Skoda Fabia R5 45 pts4. Anthony Dovifat Citroen DS3 R1 30 pts5. Steven Dolfen Peugeot 208 VTi R2 26 pts6. Lucas Walbrecq Renault Twingo RS R1 26 pts7. Xavier Bouche Skoda Fabia R5 26 pts8. Stephan Hermann Fiat Punto HGT 21 pts9. Fred Bouvy Porsche 997 GT3 20 pts10. Sebastien Bedoret Renault Twingo R2 19 pt

B

Zuiderzee Rally Words: Harry van Veenendaal; Images: Johan Vis Fotografie (JV), JS Photography (JS)

Round 1Dutch Rally Championship

Img: JS

Dutch RC / Zuiderzeerally

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In March some 60 teams came to the Dutch rally season opener: the Zuiderzeerally. It is based in the Dutch town of Emmeloord, in one of the polders in the former Zuider-zee. The event consisted of three separate events. Apart from the normal rally there were two so called shortrallies.

These are sprint rallies with a limited mileage for beginning rally teams. The first one was the Zuiderzeeshortrally, an event with stages like the proper rally. These stages ran over a va-riety of rural roads ranging from narrow cob-ble stone streets to meandering roads on the dikes that prevent the polders from flooding. They all have their own challenges. The cob-

bled streets are not flat, they have a kind of round form so that water can flow to the sides of the roads. Just like the dike roads they are often covered with a layer of slippery clay, left behind by tractors ploughing the adjacent land. For foreign competitors the dike roads have another challenge. The countryside in completely flat and the dikes being somewhat higher make it hard to read the roads. Some-times the trees lining the roads help you, but for people not used to this phenomenon it is al-ways tricky. The third event called Zeebodem-shortrally (shortrally on the bottom of the sea) just uses a challenging stage in an industrial estate with long flat roads and brake breaking corners.

Emmeloord

DutchRally

Championship

D

Dutch RC / Zuiderzeerally

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The Zuiderzeerally organizers have a policy where they try to spread the nuisance for people living along the stages. Not everyone is a rallyfan so by changing the route every year they try to make it a bit easier on the people and on themselves because getting the necessary permits is not an easy task in the over populated Netherlands. For this reason the rally now concentrated in the rural area around the old town of Kampen. Right from the start Dennis Kuipers made clear his intentions. He wanted to win! With his vast experience of quite a few WRC events and a host of other national and international rallies he was no match for the other competi-tors. He won all the stages and consequently the rally. A simple case of he came he saw he conquered.

Traditionally some foreign competitors visit this event to do some testing

of tarmac settings. Among them we saw Ib Kragh preparing for the Danish championship in a Citroën DS3 R5. Also from Danmark was Brian Mad-sen, one of the spectator’s favorites, because of his howling Peugeot 306 Maxi. But the best surprise was Christian Riedemann, a German Cham-pionship works driver in his Peugeot 208 T16 R5. Unfortunately he had to retire early in the rally because of mechanical issues. But the special nature of the event enabled him to return in the Zeebodemshortrally later that evening and he won that. Victory was less important than the extra mileage. A nice batlle unfolded behind the winner. It was a family feud between Jasper and his younger brother Jim van den Heuvel (now com-peting on the world stages in the WRC2 class). The older brother had just a little bit more experience and was second. Both Jim and Brian Madsen scored the same time and were joined third and fourth.

Former Danish champion Brian Madsen delighted the crowds with his spectacular (sounding) Peugeot 306 Maxi.

Jasper van den Heuvel tried, but his Mitsubishi was simply no match for Kuipers’ WRC power.

Img: JS Img: JV

D


1. Kuipers-Poel Ford Fiësta RS WRC 55:17.92. vd Heuvel-Bakker Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +1:45.43. vd Heuvel-Gillis Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +2:47.64. Madsen-Posorski Peugeot 306 Maxi +2:47.65. v Ballegooijen-Findhammer Mitsubishi Lancer +3:04.06. Boon-Thirie Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X +4:11.57. v Iersel-vd Einde Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X +4:20.48. Kragh-Pedersen Citroën DS 3 R5 +4:21.19. vd Marel-vd Marel Opel Adam +5:04.710. Brouwer-Kroeze Audi Coupe S2 +5:42.1

2016 Dutch Rally Championship Drivers Standings

1. Dennis Kuipers 24 2. Jasper van den Heuvel 21 3. Jim van den Heuvel 16 4. Antoine van Ballegooijen 15 5. Timo van der Marel 12 6. Gerben Brouwer 11 = Martin van Iersel 11 8. Piet Hein van der Heijden 9 9. Marcel van Leeuwen 8 10. Edwin Wolves 8

Img: JV

see you next time...

See you next time...

rally-emag 036 april 2016

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