Japan Rally : Subaru / PCWRC - Leg 1
The inaugural Japanese PCWRC event got off to a resounding start this morning under cloudy skies and temperatures hovering around the 18-degree mark. Crews headed out of the Service Park at 6:00am for the first set of four stages, leading up to lunchtime. The afternoon`s tests were a repeat of the morning`s stages, followed by the Super Special in the evening, making a total of nine tests on the first day of competition.
SS1, the 9.05-kilometre Pawse Kamuy 1 test, saw Marcos Ligato the top of the SUBARU runners, chasing category leader Fumio Nutahara, seven seconds up the road. Toshi slotted into third place, followed by Gabriele Pozzo in fourth, dead even with Aki Teiskonen. Sebastian Beltran was sixth, ahead of Hamed Al Wahaibi in eighth, 18.8 seconds off the stage leader.
The second test of the morning, the 2.73-kilometre Rikubetsu 1 stage, was where Toshi got past Ligato by 2.2 seconds, while Pozzo remained in fourth. Aki Teiskonen fell back slightly, losing 2.9 seconds on the Argentinean.
On SS3 (7), the longest stage of the rally – the order was turned on its head as no fewer than three of the STI-equipped PCWRC runners fell foul of the conditions, getting punctures on what appeared to be the exact same spot on the stage. Toshi Arai was the first to hit trouble, bursting a tyre between the 26.4 and 30.6 time checks, dropping the Japanese favourite to fourth. This elevated Gabriele Pozzo to third as Marcos Ligato lost nearly three minutes with his puncture at the same spot, leaving the Argentinean in seventh. Aki Teiskonen thus moved up from fifth to second. His nearest rival Gabriele Pozzo was over 22 seconds back.
The morning`s final stage was Sipirkakim 1. Toshi Arai was quickest, 0.4 faster than leader Nutahara who maintained his position at the front. Meanwhile, Aki Teiskonen lost 18 seconds to the Japanese driver, though maintained a 28-second gap over third-placed man Pozzo. With the 4th-quickest time over the stage, Marcos Ligato stayed in seventh overall, but was closing in on fellow Barattero driver Sebastien Beltran, the gap reduced to only 3.5 seconds.
Toshi Arai
“Our suspension setting is completely wrong. The front is too soft and the car`s going too far sideways. I hope we can improve for the afternoon.”
Tony Sircombe
“The car is oversteering quite a lot, making it hard for us to be very smooth on the stages; and this may have contributed to the puncture. Things should be better in the afternoon. We can go back to a setting that we had during testing, so we`ll see if that works.”
Gabriele Pozzo
“We dropped some time in the long stage because there were many stones. Also, it`s very narrow, so it`s hard to have the car in a good position at the end of the stage. The hard part this afternoon will be the long stage; otherwise the rest is like a normal rally.”
The afternoon`s loop of stages, a repeat of the morning`s tests, saw a major change in the order of the PCWRC runners. Most notably, Toshi Arai made an incredible run on the last two stages before heading to the Super Special. Arai had been third over SS5 and SS6, then moved up to second place after setting the fastest time on the very long (50.06-km) SS7, where he posted the quickest time by a massive 39.8 seconds! Toshi would go on to equal this huge gain on the much shorter 18.74-km Sipirkakim test (SS8), before heading to the evening`s Super Special.
Meanwhile, Aki Teiskonen lost some of his earlier pace when the Finn got caught behind Marcos Ligato`s dust on SS8, spinning in the process and dropping down the order. He would end the day`s forest stages in third, just 1.6 seconds ahead of Pozzo.
The other flier of the afternoon, Gabriele Pozzo, was second quickest on SS7 and again on SS8, to sit third at the end of the afternoon. Arai was the only man able to beat the Argentinean on both these stages, and this he did by 39.9 seconds on the afternoon`s final test. The Phoenix-like rise by the Japanese saw erstwhile leader Fumio Nutahara`s gains smashed from 1 minute 31.2 seconds after SS6 – to a scant 2.8 seconds as crews headed for the evening`s floodlit Satsunai stage, SS9.
Consistent all day long, Sebastien Beltran kept sixth throughout the afternoon`s stages, despite a puncture on SS7. Hamed Al Wahaibi ended the day in seventh, while Marcos Ligato climbed to fifth after running seventh for most of the day.
At the end of leg one, Nutahara lies 4.8 seconds ahead of Toshi Arai, himself nearly one and a half minutes ahead of Gabiele Pozzo. Aki Teiskonen is just one second back in fourth, while Marcos Ligato ends the day sixth, a further five minutes back. Sebastien Beltran and Hamed Al Wahaibi are seventh and eighth, with sometime-SUBARU competitor Natalie Barratt ninth in her Mitsubishi.
Sebastien Beltran
“Our puncture on SS7 cost us over four minutes. It looks impossible at the moment to move up, but the hardest stages of the rally are over. We`re basically concentrating on gaining experience this year.”
Gabriele Pozzo
“The car`s working well, but we haven`t been running at maximum attack. This is a long rally, and I`m confident tomorrow will be better. Also, I`m looking forward to the shorter stages. Today`s leg was terrible!”
Tony Sircombe
“The fog on SS8 made visibility very poor. That and the low light meant that we were being cautious over the last little bit.”
Tomorrow`s leg sees competitors tackle no fewer than 12 special stages, covering 100 competitive kilometers. Including the liaisons to and from the tests, the rally crews will drive over 586 kilometres before returning to the Service Park subsequent to re-visiting the Satsunai Super Special.


Tags: subaru, toshi, japan,