Rohrl wins after Mouton’s demise

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 44

Rohrl wins after Mouton’s demise

From

JOHN FRIDD,

in Auckland Walter Rohrl, the world rally champion, cruised to victory in the Sanyo Rally of New Zealand yesterday after his arch-rival, Michele Mouton, ended her charge to victory with a blown motor in her Audi Quattro. Rohrl attributed his victory to the fact that although. he could not beat Mouton’s four-wheel-drive Audi he always drove as fast as possible and kept pressure on the dark Frenchwoman. “I was always pushing, trying to stay near her so that she couldn’t slow down, and that was the reason for Michele’s bad luck, when she blew her engine,” said Rohrl yesterday afternoon after accepting the winner’s laurels in Auckland’s packed Aotea Square. Rohrl’s Martini Lancia

had performed faultlessly during the gruelling 2600 km event, and he came home 15min 58s ahead of the consistent Finn, Timo Salonen (Nissan 240 RS), with the second Lancia of Italy’s Attilio Bettega third, 15min 31s behind Salonen. Next came the second overseas Nissan driver, Shekhar Mehta (Kenya) and then the first New Zealander, Jim Donald (Auckland) in his Nissan Bluebird Turbo. Malcolm Stewart, of Dannevirke, scored a solid sixth in his ex-Donald Escort RS ahead of the third Nissan 240 RS driver, Reg Cook (Auckland). Michele Mouton’s demise yesterday morning capped off a disastrous rally for the big-budget Audi A team. They had already lost Stig Blomqvist and Hannu-toe-kola and were relying on their third driver to score

some much-needed points. However, when Rohrl roared through stage 28 west of Taumarunui he saw the same sight which greeted him on one stage of last year’s Motogard Rally — Mouton standing in front of her car with the bonnet up, peering in at the engine. “There was a hole where there should not have been one,” she said later. The blown engine handed Rohrl the rally on a plate and gave Lancia its second successive surprise victory — in the last world championship event, the Acropolis, both Mouton and Mikkola also failed to finish, letting Rohrl win. Rohrl has only the Lancia team’s home event, the San Remo rally in Italy, left on his 1983 calendar so his 22point lead in the championship over Mikkola could well be whittled away later

in the year. Brian Stokes, of Waikuku, almost forged his way into the top 10 in his Group Two Escort 1600, which would have been a magnificent achievement in a world championship event. However, Stokes clocked in Bmin late for the third to last special stage, as his crew had been working feverishly to repair a broken throttle-line. An Bmin penalty was added to Stoke’s over-all time and this dropped him to eleventh at the end, just behind the Toyota Corolla of Kevin Smith (Waikanae). Stokes’s arm, which had a steel plate inserted a month ago, gave him much pain on the final leg and he admitted yesterday that it “had been rattly” on the last Stokes won his class after his arch-rival, Shane Quinn

(Palmerston North) was put out with a blown motor on special stage 26. Smith’s Corolla was not the only 1300 cu cm car in the top 10 — the former national champion, Paul Adams, brought home his tiny Toyota Starlet Sprint in an amazing eighth place. Ross Jeffrey, of Christchurch, was forced to abandon the rally in special stage 24 in the Kaingaroa Forest on Monday night when his Escort’s rear axle broke. The two other South Islanders in the 33 finishers were Grant Aitken (Dunedin, Nissan Bluebird) and Peter Watt (Omakau, Mazda RX7), who took twenty-second and twentythird places respectively. Results:— . Overall: W. Rohrl-C. Geistdorfer (West Germany, Lancia Rally), 12hr 10min 13s, 1; T.

Salonen-S. Harjanne (Finland, Nissan 240 RS), 12:26:11, 2; A. Bettega-M. Perissinot (Italy, Lancia Rally), 12:41:42, 3; S. Mehta-Y. Mehta (Kenya, Nissan 240 RS), 13:10:35, 4; J. Don-ald-C. Porter (Auckland, Nissan Bluebird Turbo), 13:20:50, 5; M. Stewart-D. Parkhill (Dannevirke, Escort RS), 13:30:58, 6; R. Cook-W. Jones (Auckland, Nissan 240 RS), 13:35:15, 7; P. Adams-J. Scott (Auckland, Toyota Starlet), 13:52:55, 8; M. Chandler-D. Campbell (Auckland, Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0), 14:05:45, 9;' K. Smith-N. Tulitt (Waikanae, Toyota Corolla 1300), 14:35:35, 10. World drivers’' championship positions after seven rounds: Rohrl 87, Mikkola 65, Markku Alen (Finland) 60, Ari Vatanen (Finland) 44. Manufacturers’ points after six rounds: Lancia 86, Audi 62, Opel 61. Nissan 48.