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Top 5 finish for Rowe and Fagg
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Former Production
World Champion Martin Rowe and Port Erin based co-driver Rob Fagg
finished fifth overall on the second round of the Chinese National
Rally Championship earlier today.
The pair, driving for the KST Ralliart Mitsubishi team, were in
tenth position going into the second day after two punctures and
resulting suspension damage delayed them on the opening leg.
The aim therefore was to climb the leaderboard, though they had only
four stages in which to do it, covering 70 kilometres of
competition.
The Mitsubishi Evo 9 was performing well in conditions likened to
those of the
Acropolis
Rally, with encouraging times on
the stages on
Saturday that had given
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them a clean run,
and that continued on the opening test of Sunday, with a good time
helping the pair to ease clear of leading local driver Xu Lang, who
had been less than 10 seconds behind overnight.
At the head
of affairs the overnight leaders, New Zealand champions Richard
Mason and Sara Randall, pulled over immediately after the first
service of the day with what was thought to be water in the fuel of
their Subaru Impreza. They had to pump it out and as a result were
six minutes late to the start of the stage, dropping a minute of |
Martin and Rob
during a pre-event
media lunch
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road penalties and
with it the lead of the rally.
It promoted
former British champion David Higgins and co-driver Ieuan Thomas
into a narrow lead over Finalnd’s Jarkko Miettinen and Mikko
Markkula, both crews in Evo 9’s.
Higgins maintained the advantage, taking a 14.1 second lead into the
penultimate 21km test. Miettinen however put in a real charge to
take 16.6 seconds back and snatch the lead by just 2.5 seconds going
into the final stage of the rally to set up a thrilling finish.
However, with 10km’s of the final 13.5km run still to drive, the
Manx drivers’ Mitsubishi management system switched itself into
‘safe mode’, and his chances were gone, dropping a further 9.6
seconds to give Miettinen a hard fought victory.
Mason also struggled on that final test, retiring from the event.
Rowe and Fagg meanwhile had to contend with a steering problem on
the second stage of the day, which the team felt may have been
linked to a front differential problem.
‘After that there was nothing to gain by pushing hard’, said Rob at
the Guiyang finish. ‘We still set some competitive times though
which was pleasing’.
‘It was another warm day’, he continued, ‘and we’d have definitely
taken this result after yesterday. The new car was good and the
notes worked well, and with our team-mate finishing just behind us
in sixth it is a good weekend for the team.’
Non-Chinese drivers are not eligible for the driver and co-driver
titles, but are able to score points in the teams championship,
which is high profile.
Martin and Rob’s deal will see them contest the remaining rounds of
the series.
The other British driver, former world championship regular Alister
McRae, who won the first round of the championship, set some
excellent times on Sunday to finish the rally after his roll on the
opening stage of the event.
Unofficial Results
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1 Jarkko
Miettinen/Mikko Markkula (Fin) |
Mitsubishi
Evo 9 |
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2 David
Higgins/ Ieuan Thomas (GB) |
Mitsubishi
Evo 9 |
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+12.1
seconds |
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3 Juha
Salo/Mika Stenberg (Fin) |
Mitsubishi
Evo 9 |
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+1minute
55.1 |
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4 Domenico
Caldarola/Paola Cecchina (Ita) |
Subara
Impreza WRX |
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+2:40.2 |
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5 Martin
Rowe/Rob Fagg (GB) |
Mitsubishi
Evo 9 |
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+6:12.7 |
Rob is supported
in 2006 by the Isle of Man Sports Council, Isle of Man Steam
Packet Scholarship and Mexperience.com . A special thanks goes to
Manx Telecom for their continued support, allowing Rob to compete in China.
Media
23/07/2006
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