The 2004 PWRC Season

[rjbetty]

I have been thinking recently about how I enjoyed motorsports more in the past than I do now and have recalled some of my favourite ever seasons.

One that I really enjoyed was the 2004 Production Car World Rally Championship season. I have so many fond memories of this, and was always very frustrated at the time at the lack of coverage this brilliant championship got. Here I share my thoughts and recollections of a classic.


It was a brilliant season in terms of the depth of driving talent involved that year.

Previously, Martin Rowe had scored a popular success in winning the title in 2003, though he did well, it definitely owed more to consistency than outright speed. For that, you had to look to Toshihiro Arai, the Japanese driver who had scored some strong results in the main WRC with the works Subaru team in the last few years. He was usually in a class of his own on non-tarmac rallies.

Unfortunately, in a sad indictment of the sport, Rowe was unable to return to defend his crown, or to really continue his career at all after his title success and became a rally instructor after this IIRC. This absence somewhat spoiled a salivating prospect of 4 British drivers going head to head for the crown.


However, a glorious season was in store as the 2004 entry list was published. Just consider the calibre of these drivers:

Aside from the pace setter Arai, joining him driving the increasingly popular Subaru WRXs were

Alister Mcrae - needing no introduction. A former works WRC driver was a huge boost for the series, and he could be expected to be a very serious contender.
Mark Higgins - Another British Rally Champion, and a highly rated driver who finished 6th on the 2002 Rally GB.
Marcos Ligato - one of my favourite drivers, an Argentinian who I always felt underrated and overlooked. He could hold his own against bigger names, showing good speed, but struggling to get results to show for it.
Niall McShea - Another fast Irish/UK driver. After winning the final round of 2003, was hoped to be a challenger.
Nasser Al-Attiyah - Successful competitor on the Dakar, plus the skeet shooting Olympics!

Other Subaru drivers were Swede Joakim Roman and Italian Fabio Frisiero, both competent enough but nowhere in the class of the top drivers.

In a beautiful PETRONAS backed Proton returned Malaysian Karamjit Singh, the 2002 champion, adding more cred to the series.


As if that wasn't good enough, Mitsubishi boasted even faster drivers. Check this out.

In a mighty works backed effort, Daniel Sola and Gianluigi Galli promised hugely, running alongside drives for the works Mitsubishi WRC team.
Also, a powerfully strong team backed by OMV - comprising Manfred Stohl, "champion" in 2000 (before really being the proper PWRC) and
Jani Paasonen, a massively quick Finn. Both drivers would also be big favourites for the title, with McShea tipping Stohl for the title. They were joined by a promising young 20yr old German called Sebastian Vettel, erk I mean Vollak!

Pole Tomasz Kuchar, who had been given works WRC drives by Hyundai in 2002 and Xavier Pons, plus experienced top Japanese driver Fumio Nutahara bolstered the field, joined by another decent Spaniard, Sergio-Lopez Fombona.

Mexican Ricardo Trivino returned for a 2nd season, having proven adept at picking up minor points, as did Bulgarian Georgi Geradzhiev, with some good backing.




So anticipation was great going into the first round in Sweden.
As expected, Jani Paasonen was up there. In fact, he built up a good lead. Impressively, Galli was 2nd best with other drivers at the top Mcrae, Arai and Sola. As for Manfred Stohl, he crashed out in shakedown and was out of the weekend there and then. He begged and pleaded with the FIA to allow him to then have Sweden as his round to drop for the season (all drivers have to choose a rally before the season to drop to save costs etc). Annoyingly, Autosport never did reveal whether this was successful. As it turned out, Stohl did have to keep France as his dropped round and so Sweden was just tough luck. What a blow for the title right there.

Galli, Sola and Arai all dropped significant time to various degrees, leaving Alister Mcrae to take 2nd behind Paasonen. Dani Sola held onto 3rd ahead of Kuchar, Galli and Arai. Singh had been well placed but dropped massively down the order, eventually coming 10th. A similiar story for Pons, though he had no pace on the snow.

It was all smiles for Nasser Al-Attiyah, who on his debut, on a totally foreign rally to him, being on snow and coming from Qatar, survived to bring his Subaru home 7th for 2pts, while Fombona grabbed the last point ahead of local driver Roman. Niall McShea dropped this round, having to battle accusations that his budget had fallen through and he would be abandoning the season.




Onto round 2 at the all new Rally Mexico. Dani Sola had had some previous experience and this was expected to be a big benefit. So it proved and as he said he simply put his foot down where he could and took it carefully on the tougher parts, and he controlled the rally throughout. Jani Paasonen ran 2nd early on but rolled out. Alister Mcrae was a bit slower (around 5th) but also crashed/rolled IIRC. Manfred Stohl retired from a similar position. Marcos Ligato hoped to do well too, having been another with experience here, but he was out almost immediately. This left Arai to take a comfortable 2nd, and what a treat seeing him not always be fastest anymore. Niall McShea had a big fight with Singh for the final podium place, and beat him to it.

Pons beat Nutahara to 5th after the latter suffered a few problems, while Nasser Al-Attiyah who was showing well and the luckless Higgins both retired. This left hometown hero Ricardo Trivino to pick up points for a tidy 7th, while Joakim Roman was the final finisher taking a point in 8th, some way off.


More to follow.

[rjbetty]

Onto New Zealand, one of the best rallies going, and Paasonen and Arai were quick but suffered issues, as was Gianluigi Galli who led, but he went out. So it was left to Dani Sola to claim a 2nd victory in a row. At this time I regarded him as the favourite for the title, as he appeared to really be building on his 2003 debut season. Except in the very final stage he went off and was out! Niall McShea went off at the same corner, but survived to finish 8th. This left Manfred Stohl to take a popular victory ahead of Ligato. Meanwhile, Alister Mcrae was consigned to 3rd having suffered major engine problems throughout the whole event. It would have been good to see what he could have done in a healthy car, but in the circumstances, 3rd was another strong result. Paasonen and Arai took 4th and 5th ahead of Pons, who's pace was improved as it had been on each rally so far. Al-Attiyah took another 7th to g with the one from Sweden on another unusual event for him in his learning year. McShea grabbed the final point. Mitsubishi drivers Fombona, Trivino and Gerazhiev were the other finishers.

Standings after Round 3 of 7:
1.Sola 16pts
2.Paasonen 15pts
3.Arai 15pts
4.Mcrae 14pts
5.Stohl 10pts
6.Ligato 8pts
7.McShea 7pts
8.Pons 7pts
9.Singh 5pts
10.Kuchar 5pts
11.Galli 4pts
12.Al-Attiyah 4pts
13.Nutahara 3pts
14.Trivino 2pts
15.Fombona 1pt
16.Roman 1pt
17.Geradzhiev
18.Vollak
19.Frisiero
20.Higgins


Argentina was an interesting one. Arai, Paasonen and hometown hero Marcos Ligato were all quick, but Arai and Ligato retired while Paasonen suffered problems. This left works Mitsubishi drivers Sola and Galli to battle it out for the lead. They both claimed they were just taking it easy, trying to get to the finish. We all knew that that wasn't the case, for the two were locked in a serious battle not only for the rally and the title, but for the right to be selected for the second works WRC seat the following season. With much at stake, we knew their claims of going easy weren't very true. And sure enough Galli went off again into retirement while Sola won to seal his claim for the title, looking like the big favourite at this point.

Paasonen recovered to 2nd ahead of team-mate Manfred Stohl who wasn't really on the pace on this occasion. With Mcrae missing this round and Arai and Galli retiring, it was now looking good for Sola, with 3 rounds remaining and 2 on tarmac, his surface...

Except a few days later, Sola was excluded from the results, promoting Paasonen to the win! This opened the title race right back up again, since Paasonen is not the best on tarmac. Now the two OMV drivers were 1st and 2nd in the standings. while the luckless Mark Higgins had yet to finish in 4 rallies, after so much hopes for doing well...

As for the others, Al-Attiyah was getting better and now survived the chaos to get a podium! Niall McShea was hugely delayed with engine issues having been very quick otherwise. Fombona suffered some problems too but did enough to take 5th, while backmarkers Geradzhiev and Frisiero, both never having scored points despite now being in their 2nd seasons, were the only other finishers, taking 6th and 7th!

Standings after Round 4 of 7:
1.Paasonen 25pts
2.Stohl 18pts
3.Sola 16pts
4.Arai 15pts
5.Mcrae 14pts
6.McShea 12pts
7.Al-Attiyah 10pts
8.Ligato 8pts
9.Pons 7pts
10.Singh 5pts
11.Kuchar 5pts
12.Fombona 5pts
13.Galli 4pts
14.Geradzhiev 3pts
15.Nutahara 3pts
16.Trivino 2pts
17.Frisiero 2pts
18.Roman 1pt
19.Vollak
20.Higgins

[rjbetty]

Germany was the first tarmac rally of the PWRC season, and one of my absolute favourites. During a fine summer in the vineyard, though it was raining too I think, championship contender Galli was out after stage 1, while Sola missed this round due to driving the 2nd WRC seat this time (he crashed out after being a great 3rd on SS1). This left the not much fancied Xavier Pons to lead the rally from the outset! Manfred Stohl was considered a favourite to win here, but it was his turn to suffer major engine troubles this time, as he ran and finished a distant last throughout.

This left Niall McShea to put his Irish tarmac expertise to good use to claim 2nd, while Arai was quicker than, but lost out to Alister Mcrae for 3rd in the end. Paasonen was impressive in knowing this wasn't his best rally, so just did the best he could to consolidate his title lead in 5th - without trying too hard and crashing as he was very prone to do. Now he was the overwhelming favourite for the title. Karamjit Singh claimed 6th to add points to a season which wasn't really going well for him. Opening his points account with a good drive to 7th was young Sebastien Vettel, I mean Vollak in the 3rd OMV car. My eyebrows were raised by a 2nd points finish in succession for Georgi Geradzhiev in 8th, a driver who I didn't rate as he was VERY slow in 2003. What a step up he made this season, even ahead of Ricardo Trivino, though it later turned out Trivino was faster and had issues. Manfred Stohl was 10th, and having to miss France, his championship hopes looked over...

Standings after Round 5 of 7:
1.Paasonen 29pts
2.Mcrae 20pts
3.Arai 20pts
4.McShea 19pts
5.Stohl 18pts
6.Pons 17pts
7.Sola 16pts
8.Al-Attiyah 10pts
9.Singh 9pts
10.Ligato 8pts
11.Kuchar 5pts
12.Fombona 5pts
13.Galli 4pts
14.Geradzhiev 4pts
15.Nutahara 3pts
16.Trivino 2pts
17.Vollak 2pts
18.Frisiero 2pts
19.Roman 1pt
20.Higgins




With just 2 rounds remaining, and Paasonen, Stohl and Arai having to miss France, there was still no clue as to who would emerge as champion. So onto Corsica, where Sola and Galli were expected to re-assert themselves over the likes of Pons. Except after stage 1, both were out!! But even so, Pons drove brilliantly to build up a huge lead, which he then controlled. His confidence had risen massively from the start of the season and suddenly he was right up there.

There was a great battle between British drivers behind, once again resolved in Niall McShea's favour, ahead of Alister Mcrae, replicating exactly the podium from Germany. Mark Higgins finally, finally finished a rally coming 4th. Fumio Nutahara drove well to record 5th, his second finish of the season alongside Mexico. A very rusty Tomasz Kuchar brought his Mitsubishi home 6th, on his first rally since Mexico. I still don't understand to this day how he wasn't excluded and fined for not doing all 6 of his allocated rounds, as I know the FIA take this sort of thing very seriously... Does anyone know anything about this? I was always interested to know.

Nasser Al-Attiyah scored another good 7th on another unusual rally for him, while Ricardo Trivino bagged the final point. It was Sebastian Vollak's turn to be nowhere all rally with major problems as he came a massively distant 10th and last, his championship hopes officially over as his team-mate Paasonen crossed the line...


So now with just 1 rally left, it was left to this...

1.Paasonen 29pts
2.Pons 27pts
3.McShea 27pts
4.Mcrae 26pts
5.Arai 20pts
6.Stohl 18pts
7.Sola 16pts
8.Al-Attiyah 12pts
9.Singh 9pts
10.Ligato 8pts
11.Kuchar 8pts
12.Nutahara 7pts
13.Higgins 5pts
14.Fombona 5pts
15.Galli 4pts
16.Geradzhiev 4pts
17.Trivino 3pts
18.Vollak 2pts
19.Frisiero 2pts
20.Roman 1pt

[rjbetty]

ROUND 7: AUSTRALIA - THE SHOWDOWN

With 4 drivers still mathematically in contention for the title, this promised to be a battle of WWF proportions.

How Xavier Pons must have been kicking himself for choosing Australia as his round to drop, rather than Sweden where he was poor. Now just 2pts off the championship lead, but ineligible to score any more, he was officially out of it.

He far exceeded his own expectations though and it was a sign of how much he had come on this season that he still took part in his group N Mitsubishi (though couldn't be included in the PWRC results) and finished 6th overall, scoring pukka WRC points!

For the PWRC contenders, it was an all-out battle as Toshihiro Arai, Alister Mcrae, Niall McShea, Daniel Sola, Gianluigi Galli, Manfred Stohl, Jani Paasonen (who was taking things very carefully to protect his points lead) and a charging Karamjit Singh, who seemingly had nothing to lose after a dreadful season.

For all the build-up, much like Britain 2001 for the main crown, most of the top drivers were out after the first day. Sola, Galli, Singh and Stohl all retired from 2nd position, while sensationally, the title favourite, Jani Paasonen was excluded for an infringement! Game over.

This left Niall McShea who was also treading carefully and a mega fast Arai who suffered problems and looked to be taking a nothing to lose approach to make the most of his slim chance, and Alister Mcrae who was now leading with a measured and assured drive. Now all of a sudden everything had switched, and it looked like the younger Mcrae, who had not won a rally this season, while others took the big prizes, was suddenly going to take the title by stealth, and with a glorious win of his own. He led the rally throughout. I remember following all this on Teletext through the nights (this being in Australia) with so much anticipation. I was always so frustrated at how teletext only showed the top 10 even though there was room to list a few more precious bits of info. I didn't have internet in the valleys you see...

On the final Sunday, after 4am, and just being too tired having followed all night, with 22 stages down, then a few hours break until the final group of 4 in the famous bunnings jumps stages. I went to sleep confident in the knowledge that Mcrae's time had come, and he seemed so assured throughout the rally and just needed to bring it home now, having done the hard work and built up a big lead.


So that afternoon when I got up, I explained to my mum the situation, that Alister had it in the bag with just a little way to go, as I switched the TV to go on teletext. As the pages were loading up I joked with my mum saying "What if he's retired haha?" [right near the end]. "OMGosh can you imagine?"

As the page changed and the final result was revealed, I was in a state of shock and horror, as the results revealed one final sting in the tail:

1.Loeb - Citroen
2.Rovanpera - Peugeot
3.Duval - Ford
4.Hirvonen - Subaru
5.Atkinson - Subaru
6.Pons - Mitsubishi
7.Crocker - Subaru
8.Arai - Subaru
9.McShea - Subaru
10.Baldacci - Mitsubishi

NO! Alister really had retired. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing as I was rooting for Alister the whole way. It just couldn't be true, couldn't be happening. But there it was in front of me. No Alister, though he had been listed in the top 10. Now both Arai and McShea were there, but Mcrae wasn't. I immediately realised that McShea was now champion, and this at least made me happy, but I was absolutely gutted for Alister. What a heartbreak for him.

Later on, I watched the highlights on ITV (terrible as they were!!!) and sure enough, on stage 23 of 26, Alister retired from his big lead and it was a heartbreaking sight to watch the onboard of Niall McShea as you could see Mcrae's car pulled up on the side... Though it was great to hear McShea singing We Are The Champions and enjoy his deserved success.


As for the others, there was much attrition, resulting in a podium for Fumio Nutahara. Nasser Al-Attiyah was 4th ahead of Sebastien Vettel (Vollak!) and Fabio Frisiero who scored again.




So there you have it, one of the most closely contested and competitive championship seasons I have seen, unpredictable to the end. What a great season with lots of drama, successes and failures. Ah I miss these days.

Final Standings
1.McShea 35pts
2.Arai 30pts
3.Paasonen 29pts
4.Pons 27pts
5.Mcrae 26pts
6.Stohl 18pts
7.Al-Attiyah 17pts
8.Sola 16pts
9.Nutahara 13pts
10.Singh 9pts
11.Ligato 8pts
12.Kuchar 8pts
13.Vollak 6pts
14.Higgins 5pts
15.Fombona 5pts
16.Frisiero 5pts
17.Galli 4pts
18.Geradzhiev 4pts
19.Trivino 3pts
20.Roman 1pt

[rjbetty]

So what became of these drivers? Sadly Mcshea inexplicably suffered the same fate as Martin Rowe and this was the end of the road for him! Though he did manage to return to the PWRC in 2007 (another brilliantly competitive season) and finished 4th overall even though missing several rounds, winning in Ireland.

Toshihiro Arai remained in the PWRC and won the title in 2005 and 2007, only one of 2 double PWRC champions, until his retirement after 2010.

Jani Paasonen bagged a partial Skoda drive but p****d off his employers here as well, as he did with Malcolm Wilson and Mitusbishi before, getting himself sacked again. I haven't heard of him since, which is a shame as many including me, felt he could have been another Tommi Makinen.

Xavier Pons took on a 2nd season in the PWRC, doing very well, beating Arai in a straight fight to win in a wet New Zealand, until abandoning his season halfway through to become Manfred Stohl's team-mate in the OMV Kronos Citroen WRC team. He stayed in the WRC for several seasons, doing pretty well but never quite making the podium. He returned to win the inaugural SWRC (now WRC2) in 2010.

Sadly, Alister Mcrae seemed to disappear over to Asia but his name has popped up here and there.

Manfred Stohl was disappointing I thought in 2004, but took up the WRC full time, doing very well, scoring several podiums and coming 4th overall in 2006. He was never expected to repeat that in 2007 with stronger opposition around, but his 2007 was very disappointing, which I rate equal to Giancarlo Fisichella's in F1 the same year, as he just gave up and was cr@p. He's not been seen much since though finished 10th in a one-off in a Fiesta in 2012.

Nasser Al-Attiyah exceeded mine and his own expectations in 2004, and continued to do so in 2005 where he won Argentina, scored many podiums coming 2nd overall. He won the title the following year before being disappointing after that, but he is now in the WRC today.

Dani Sola was such a disappointment coming 8th having looked like taking the title after Argentina. He seemed to try too hard in both his PWRC and WRC outings, crashing too much, though to my eyes, he looked very quick on all surfaces. His 2005 with 6 outings in a WRC Focus were a huge let down as I expected big things from him. In retrospect, considering Antony Warmbold's revelations, I have to believe Malcolm gave Dani substandard equipment, perhaps to make Dani look bad to help justify his selection of Roman Kresta, rather than Sola for the 2nd works Ford seat for 2005.

Fumio Nutahara did a good job, improving to 4th in 2005 and 2nd in 2006 with 3 wins!

Karamjit Singh faded and left the PWRC midway through 2005, angering the FIA. I ask again why was Tomasz Kuchar let off, not that I want him in trouble!? I haven't heard much from Singh since.

Marcos Ligato stayed around a few more seasons, doing his usual thing of being fast but never finishing/getting much points. 2005 was different though as he was measured all season and took several podiums to finish 3rd overall! That maiden victory still eluded him though. He was dropped for 2007 but a surprise return in 2012 saw him finally win a PWRC round in New Zealand and almost win the title, in 2nd overall. Now he's disappeared again.

I have no idea where Tomasz Kuchar went after 2004.

Nor young Sebastian Vollak for that matter. I was very interested in his career and felt he did quite well. I would like to have seen how he would have developed.

Mark Higgins had a terribly unlucky 2004, finishing just 1 round. He stayed on for 2005 and was much more competitive. But unbelievably, it was more of the same, only finishing 1 round, 2nd in Australia, having missed out on several big results. He returned in 2007 finally finishing rallies with a bit more regularity, and even winning Mexico ahead of Arai, t come 3rd overall in the PWRC. Haven't heard much since though...

I have never ever heard of Sergio-Lopez Fombona ever again after 2004 AFAI know.

Fabio Frisiero stayed in the PWRC in 2005 and shocked me by getting a podium in the first round in Sweden!! Though by default, he also scored more good points finishes including 4th in Argentina. It was against a weaker field but his pace had improved.

Gianluigi Galli was a terrible disappointment in 2004 in terms of his final points. But his speed impressed me greatly. Stayed in the WRC with god success till a big crash in 2008? What on earth happened to him after that? Why isn't he in the WRC anymore. I want answers Max! (yes I blame you for the WRCs woes which you started in 2004!)

Georgi Geradzhiev was still a nowhere backmarker in 2004, but his pace and performance looked greatly improved in his 2nd season, and he scored points twice. Haven't heard from him since.

Ricardo Trivino was a little unfortunate not to score more points in 2004. His pace too was improved over his careful 2003. He finished 8th at home in 2008 in a Peugeot WRC but was excluded for having the wrong gloves (laughable really, an outsider would think you were joking). Anyway he returned to the PWRC with Ligato in 2012, giving it a retro feel and making me very happy, finishing 7th overall and getting on the podium! Has gone walkies again though.

As for Joakim Roman, the Rowan Atkinson lookalike (come no, he does a bit!) disappeared after a couple of rallies in 2005 and I haven't heard of him since.