Crushing success for French rally team

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 42

Crushing success for French rally team

by

JOHN HAWKINS

Peugeot team personnel were entirely justified in being jubilant in Auckland last week after a crushing demonstration of superiority on the AWA Clarion Rally of New Zealand.

Not only had the Peugeot cars finished first and second on the gruelling four-day event, having barely missed a beat, but the team had just received word from its management in Paris that its efforts had ensured it of a continued programme of rallying into the 19905.

The rally was all about two teams. The French Peugeot team, whose purpose built supercar has transformed the face of rally car technology, faced the might of the West German factory Audi team.

The Audi drivers, particularly Walter Rohrl, had fought bravely. They had stayed with the nimble French projectiles for three days, but from the moment the Peugeot’s Finnish pilots really started to put the hammer down the Audios had no chance.

Suddenly the previously dominant Audi has been made to look a big rally car beside the diminutive Peugeot. The difference between the two marques on the special stages could hardly "be more pronounced. The manoeuvrable little Peugeots scurried through the stages with dragster-like acceleration, while the Audis assaulted the country roads with awesome demonstration of the power that their five cylinder, 20 valve engines produce. It is not that the Audis handle the conditions badly, just that the Peugeot handled them better than any other car yet rallied. Apart from the nagging suspicion that Rohrl might have been able to beat them had everything been running perfectly, the rally served to confirm what Audi already knew — a new car is essential. The Peugeot has outdated everything else and until new generation cars arrive, probably next season, the rest are going to be left with precious few scraps to feed on. , The rally also serveji to cement Timo Salonen

No. 1 driver in the team. It was Salonen who dominated

this event while the previous team speedster, Ari Vatanen, looked for a solid finish after a season of mishaps and wins. It would be foolish to rule out Vatanen’s chances, however, and with Salonen now running a reduced programme until the end of the year there will be the chance for Vatanen to reestablish himself in the team with some steady performances. His next chance to do this will come in Argentina when he lines up with a new team-mate in the form of the former Formula One grand prix driver, Carlos Reutemanri, a formidable adversary. For the Japanese manufacturers, Toyota and Nissan, the rally was a disaster. The problems started for Toyota before the rally began, when Hans Thorszelius, the co-driver for the Toyota No. 1, Bjorn Waldegard, took ill and had to be replaced by a Belgian journalist who had no experience of reading pace notes, especially those in Swedish. This placed Waldegard at a distinct disadvantage, and one almost sensed a feeling of relief from Waldegard when his car developed transmission trouble early in the event, leading to his withdrawal at the end of the first leg. The rising Toyota star, Juha Kankkunen, faired little better, ironically striking transmission problems at the Mystery Creek rallycross stage near Hamilton, the same venue that cost him so much time during last year’s event. Although Kankkunen fought back courageously, setting top five times on many stages, his cause was hopeless and he too was destined to retire, with a mysterious electrical fault on the last day. This year, Nissan’s conventional cars were further out-gunned by the latest generation of rally machinery and it was not even able to count on its traditional reliability. The No. 1 driver, Shekhar Mehta, was outpaced by his New Zealander teammate, Reg Cook, early in the rally, and Mehta withdrew at the end of the

second leg after losing further time with an electrical fault. Cook overcame a disturbing accident early on the first day and gearbox problems at the start of the third leg to fight back strongly in one of his best drives for some time to finish sixth. The Group A category, for lesser modified vehicles, was the domain of another Japanese manufacturer, Subaru. The New Zealander, Peter “Possum” Bourne, showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition in spite of constant braking worries throughout the event. Bourne’s closest challenger

was New Zealand’s most experienced rally driver, Paul Adams, but Adams was caught out by the slippery conditions near Rotorua. From then on, Bourne was able to dictate the terms for his teammates, Tony Teesdale and Mike Kirkland. Bourne’s performance against the likes of Kirkland, a Kenyan who came to New Zealand with a big reputation, suggests that he is worthy of further consideration by Subaru, should the Japanese be looking for a driver capable of taking further successes in the international arena. Although Kirkland en-

joyed his experience on the New Zealand rally, it was perhaps too much to expect him to adapt to vastly different conditions, and the less powerful Group A car, under such difficult circumstances. The left foot braking technique required by the four-wheel-drive cars proved particularly hard for him to master. Perhaps more than anything else, the rally proved that New Zealand has a number of top class drivers capable of holding their own at this level of international competition. Apart from Cook, Adams, Bourne and Teesdale, Malcom Stewart drove fault-

lessly to impress the Audi management with a fine fifth place overall, gaining the honour of first New Zealander, while Neil Allport once again showed his pace, while he stayed on the road. Of the South Islanders, Inky Tulloch drove his ageing Escort with considerable verve and Brian Stokes fought back doggedly after mechanical failure on the first day to gain a place in the top 20. The Aucklander, Ray Wilson, once again made the. baby class his own and it would be interesting to see this driver in a car capable of taking over-all Group A honours. The organisers of the rally again did an efficient job. The rally proved tre-

mendously popular with the public. Ironically it is this very popularity that is proving the biggest problem, with thousands of spectators lining the rally route. Spectators jamming every vantage point and placing themselves in extremely dangerous positions, including standing on the outside of corners, were a big problem and as well as this spectator traffic clogged the roads on touring stages causing competitors to speed in an effort to •make up time. There are no simple answers to these problems, but there is a feeling that the event may have to return to some of the more unsociable hours of past years to survive.