Official Rally New Zealand Thread

[GigiGalliNo1]

It's Alister McRae, Colin's younger brother driving group-N car but participating PWRC.

I know which McRae it is haha but didnt know what car car he was driving!

[SubaruNorway]

I know which McRae it is haha but didnt know what car car he was driving!

The Toyota i gues?

[GigiGalliNo1]

The Toyota i gues?

don't think it is FIA homoligated?!

[SubaruNorway]

don't think it is FIA homoligated?!

Didn't they use it on Rally GB last year, know the australian isen't.

Alister is driving a EVOIX stnr 61 http://www.chrissport.co.nz/results/...startlist1.htm

[A.F.F.]

Juho Hanninen roll and roll !

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v...ewzealand_auto

"kääntäkää nyt ympäri tää saatanan auto"


And, after they have turned the car on wheels, Hänninen says: " Ask if we got all the wheel".

Classic.

[A.F.F.]

I know which McRae it is haha but didnt know what car car he was driving!

It can be clearly seen for instance from the resultpage Matt. Ever though of that?

[klm-607]

An epic battle on the horizon
New Zealand - Leg 2 - Review *(GO MARCUS!!!!)
[01/09/07 - 09:11]

Loeb's lead is fragile...

The second leg of Rally New Zealand was dominated by the continuing battle between Marcus Grönholm and Sébastien Loeb. Both men exchanged best times over the stages, relegating the other competitors' performances into the shadows.

Pushing forward relentlessly since the morning, Loeb caught up to Grönholm and took fragile control of the rally on the day's very last stage. The Citroën driver might have the top spot, but with a margin of only 1.7 seconds it is hard to say what the final results will be in view of the Ford driver's expected attacks tomorrow.

Quite aware that he would not be in a position to fight for overall victory, Mikko Hirvonen preferred to focus on keeping a constant pace in order to build up a solid third overall place, which is something he has done very well.

Loeb's remarkable sprints:
Once again tyres made the difference. Yesterday morning, Loeb made the wrong choice and was unable to follow Grönholm's rhythm. This morning he opted for a compound harder than the type chosen by his adversaries... The results would prove him right.

Four stages went to Loeb, two went to Grönholm, but the tide turned during the Franklin test (SS 8) when the Frenchman recuperated 11 seconds on the Finn who was suddenly struggling with his tyres. Loeb would later be five seconds faster on equal terms during the day's last stage.

But with less than two seconds as a buffer, Loeb knows he will have to deliver an enormous fight tomorrow. It is impossible to know who will have the last word, but the tyre lottery winner will surely stand a better chance.

At the wheel of the other works Citroën C4, Dani Sordo kept the same pace he had yesterday and held on to sixth place. He should be continuing with the same plan on Sunday.

Grönholm played it too softly:
Marcus Grönholm would lose precious time over this morning's stages. Despite all his efforts, the tyres he chose were simply too soft and transformed his Ford Focus into an unstable machine that he compared to a slithering snake.

Grönholm still has something to say...

With a 13-second lead at the end of the first leg, Grönholm knew he would have to maintain the pace to avoid seeing Loeb getting too close. He could not avoid that today, but he will surely be fighting back aggressively tomorrow in order to reclaim the rally lead.

For his part, Mikko Hirvonen has built a comfortable third-place cushion around himself which should lead to a reserved podium spot. Over a minute behind Loeb, the young Finn is 49.8 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

A duel between Latvala and Atkinson
Fourth place seems to be a highly disputed position. Stobart's Jari Matti Latvala and Subaru's Chris Atkinson fought each other all day long with the time gaps between them sometimes measured in tenths of a second. Latvala now has a 10.5-second lead on Atkinson, who complained of oversteer.

Petter Solberg's spirits were obviously down today. The Norwegian confirmed that things were simply getting worse, that it was impossible to drive with an Impreza lacking traction in front and pushing too hard in back. He stands in seventh place, 3'25"9 from the leader.

His brother Henning Solberg encountered problems of a different nature after going off during SS 8 and damaging his car's radiator. He lost over five minutes in the misadventure as he had to stop and remove mud from the front of his Ford Focus. He holds on to tenth place, right behind team mate Matthew Wilson.

Xevi Pons, the third Subaru team driver, has retired again after another roll. Urmo Aava took advantage of Henning Solberg's problems and climbed to eighth place, despite himself being involved in a spin that damaged his radiator and cost him two minutes.

Rally New Zealand will conclude after Sunday's seven stages.

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International

[Addicted]

Can someone anser me a question?

Why did Subaru take on another waste of space, they aleady have atkinson and now Pons who is even more useless!!!

There weren`t many slow and paying drivers left so Subaru took driver with speed and money.

And take a look in Ford`s service area and count how many useless drivers are there. Munchi`s, MacHale , Wilson and my personal favourite mr Abu Dhabi.

[Mauri A]

Are the Finnish names really too difficult? On B.F. Goodrich´s cap that J-M was wearing there stood Jarri-Matti Latvala!

[janneppi]

Jurri-Matti would have been better.