2007 Rally Japan - official thread
I'd like to start the thread on this season's third winter rally !(any cars drive on snow at Monte Carlo, this year?)
Yes, hopefully there won't be any stages blocked by snow, but there are already signs that there could be some affected by it.
On Friday night we had the first snowfall in the region when about 3cms fell on the higher parts of the leg 3 stages. Sipirikakim SS because of its altitude may also have received some snow.
Generally, temperatures are lower than normal at present, with Rikubetsu already down to -5 and Obihiro suburbs recording -1 last night.
Longrange forecast for next week is for generally fine and warmer temps than this week.
Weather forecasts for the area in English are available here: http://www.njwa.jp/eweather/
The route is largely unchanged from previous years with only half of one stage new and one more being run in reverse.
I expect (hope) Petter will surprise with some good times and a podium.
Tyre compounds are the key to Rally Japan's mix of long and short mostly soft stages. Though he won't have Pirelli's this year, he should benefit from being on the only team that sent a tyre engineer here last month to examine the stages before nominating their tyres for the event.