Rally Hokkaido..

[wacked]

Well 2 weeks to go for the rally.. so who all gonna be there...

entries so far -

1. Hiroshi Yanagisawa (JP) / Yoshimasa Nakahra (JP)
Cusco Racing

2. Dean Herridge (AUS) / Chris Murphy (AUS)
Cusco Racing

3. Yuya Sumiyama (JP) / Tadashi Misaizu (JP)
Cusco Racing

4. Scott Pedder (AUS) / Glen Weston (AUS)
MRF Tyres

5. Katsuhiko Taguchi (JP) / Mark Stacey (AUS)
MRF Tyres

6. Gaurav Gill (IND) / Glen MacNeall (NZ)
MRF Tyres

7. Takuma Kamada (JP) / Naoki Kase (JP)
Subaru Team Arai

8. Rifat Sungkar (IND) / Bill Hayes (AUS)
Motor Image Rally Team

9. Cody Crocker (AUS) / Ben Atkinson (AUS)
Motor Image Rally Team

[Mirek]

Does anyone here know if Lancer Evo X will be homologoted at 1st July?

[Rally Hokkaido]

AFAIK, no they haven't been.
However, according to the entry list published today, Nutahara and Taguchi (no relation to Katsu) will be using them in the National round, which is run conjointly with APRC Rally Hokkaido.

Nuttahara has already won a tarmac round here with his Evo X.
The National spec cars are close to international GpN specs. IIRC, they are not allowed safety tanks or non-original brake calipers and rotors, so it will be interesting to compare Nuta's times with the APRC boys over the same stages (of course, road condition will be different).

[TheDogBox]

For all you Dean Herridge fans, I'm interviewing him tonight before he flys off to Japan. The audio will be available on deanherridge.com over the weekend. Bruce.

[Rally Hokkaido]

Day 1 was full of surprises!!
Including three registered crews among the six crews sidelined in SS2!
Scott Pedder suffered a gearbox failure, Sumiyama steering/suspension damaged after an off and Kamada rolled the Arai Motorport new Impreza. The former two will re-start tomnorrow after overnight repairs.
But that wasn't all...
An incident involving the Zero car forced SS3 to be cancelled. Katsu Taguchi won SS4 to place himself second overall at the midday break and first registered driver. Cody Crocker was down in an unaccustomed fourth behind Yanagisawa.
After lunch the leading crews had just completed SS 5 when a thunderstorm hit.
Cody and Katsu suffered most as they ploughed through the large amounts of standing water. Cody lost nearly 3 mins on leader, Arai here! The almost undrivable condition of SS 6, convinced organisers to cancel SS 7 & 8.
So it became the non-registered Arai at the top of the leaderboard followed by
Yanagisawa, Gill & Taguchi taking the three APRC pointscoring positions. Crocker is back in 7th (5th amongst reg'd drivers) and nearly 2 minutes behind
Yanagisawa.
Standout of the day was Guarav Gill who is still recovering from his injuries.
He was consistently fast and stayed out of trouble in extrenmely difficult driving conditions. He lies 16 secs behind Yanagisawa and 7 secs in front of team mate, Taguchi.
Should be a very interesting rally, tomorrow!

[ProRally]

Hi Rally Hokkaido, looks like a eventfull day !!!
So back to normal Obihiro weather :D :D
If you go to the KFC have a Cola on me ..... :D :D :D

[Rally Hokkaido]

Thanks Pro, I certainly will.
In a possible repeat of yesterday's weather, rain is forecast this afternoon, which makes it even more difficult to predict a winner.

However, I bumped into Sugi from Cusco at HQ late last night and
he had a big grin when he said the team was really looking forward to tomorrow!
And, with the gap back to Katsu 23 secs ,Hiroshi looks a good chance to finally make up for the team's bad luck last season. Also Dean. is sitting only 22 secs behind Katsu. Both Cusco drivers were posting almost similar times all yesterday except on SS2 where Dean dropped about 30 secs.

Bring it on!

[wwbroe]

Looks like being an interesting rally, with lot off surpises and nice battle in difficult conditions. Keep us informed about what is happening. Thanks. ;)

[Rally Hokkaido]

OK, here is the Day 3 report for you, wwbroe and everyone else.
Well, I didn't think it could get much more interesting than Saturday's Day 1.
I was wrong!
The weather stayed fine and we witnessed possibly the closest ever finish
in an APRC round. It reminded me of the WRC Rally New Zealand result between Loeb and Gronholm.
Finally, Taguchi Katsuhiko defeated Yanagisawa Hiroshi by 2.3 seconds!
It took six stages for Katsu to whittle back the 20 sec overnight deficit to Yanagisawa, but by then Yanagisawa had started to respond to the challenge and so the two were only ever separated by one or two seconds over the final four stages - nail biting stuff for the Team Managers!
No one could tell me when Cody Crocker hasn't been on an APRC podium, but I think it must be over two years! Luck (= the weather) was against him this time.
Today he was back on form and drove brilliantly to claim back 40 seconds of the minute he had been behind third placegetter, Dean Herridge.
Arai Toshihiro also drove well and must be ecstatic just to finish an event in his N14 Impreza, let alone dominate Rally Hokkaido as he did. He finished nearly one and half minutes ahead of Katsu in the overall result. It wasn't all good news for his team this weekend however as he did have some rear brake Problems today and the damage to team mate, Kamada's car yesterday has forced the team to cancel its appearance at the next round, Rally of Indonesia in only a month's time. Unlike Toshi, Kamada is eligible for APRC points but like his boss in PWRC has had a miserable season so far in the APRC.

It was mixed fortunes for the MRF tyres team, too. Unf, Guarav Gill retired on SS11 with transmission problems, not sure if it was the same as Scott Pedder's trouble yesterday. Scott enjoyed himself today under SUPERrally and even took a couple of stage wins amongst the APRC registered competitors.

I managed to take some pix including some of the Evo X in the national rally section, will try to upload tomorrow.
Meanwhile, lots of good pix are available in the media gallery on http://www.rally-hokkaido.com

[ProRally]

Yes also in the gallery this 'older' picture from 2005

http://www.rally-hokkaido.com/images/photo/4.17/official1.jpg

:D :D looking serious there RH.... :D only Dima is smiling :D

[Rally Hokkaido]

Yes also in the gallery this 'older' picture from 2005

http://www.rally-hokkaido.com/images/photo/4.17/official1.jpg

:D :D looking serious there RH.... :D only Dima is smiling :D

Ah, the notorious 'gang of eight' (plus one sponsor rep.)!
Time has taken its toll on their number.

Perhaps Dima had just been told of a business chance in Russia!!

[wwbroe]

Ah, the notorious 'gang of eight' (plus one sponsor rep.)!
Time has taken its toll on their number.

Perhaps Dima had just been told of a business chance in Russia!!

Thank you for the updates Rally Hokkaido, nice work ans so we keep informed about what is going on in rallying on the other side of the world. Keep up the goood work. ;)

[Rally Hokkaido]

I only managed to take a couple of pix during the weekend.

Of the two Evo X's in the national round, Nutahara retired on Day1, re-started and retired again on Day 2. Takuchi Yukihiro finished 13th after running about 2 secs/km slower than top runners.

[Rally Hokkaido]

Nuta's car

[Rally Hokkaido]

Taguchi's car.
BTW, MRF Tyres Team won't be running Evo X's this season even though they will be FIA homologated in time for the last two rounds.
The other Taguchi (Katsu) will run one in Ralliart/PIAA colours at WRC Rally Japan in Oct/November.

[Rally Hokkaido]

Only a matter of time before a Cusco driver is on the top step of podium in APRC.
The cars are strong and all three drivers can match each others times and, on occasions, the top guys' times as well!
This is Dean through a fifth gear curve.
(Somebody pls buy me a camera with a lens)

[Mirek]

Thank You for the information. Is it true that Evo X is 100 kg heavier than Evo 9?

[Rally Hokkaido]

Yes, I think so.
I didn't see the list of weights at Rally Hokkaido but was told by a scrutineer that they are much heavier. I was also told by a leading driver who is developing an Evo X that that the handling is compromised by the extra weight and also the new engine is not producing as much power, yet.

[Mirek]

Thank You