Block: “New Zealand stages are best in world”

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

Monster World Rally Team’s Ken Block says that the second day of Brother Rally New Zealand has been the most enjoyable of his rally career to date.

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The Gymkhana star is running a reduced FIA World Rally Championship schedule this season and Rally New Zealand marks the American’s second WRC outing in 2012.

Despite not competing in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC since Rally Mexico back in March, Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino are currently 10th on the leaderboard, 46.5s behind MINI’s Armindo Araujo.

“I’d like to do all of today’s stages again,” said Block at the end of today. “These are absolutely my favourite roads in the world and this has been the most enjoyable day of my rallying career despite one little spin. I hope conditions stay dry for tomorrow so we can continue to enjoy these roads.”

Block added: “We have just been sliding from camber to camber and having a ball out there today. I did some of these stages back in 2007 for Whangerai Rally in a Group N car so I have some experience. They are just incredible to drive and I’ve had a brilliant day.”

Credit:WRC.com

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SWRC Day2 – Paddon in control

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

Hayden Paddon remains on course for his second successive victory in the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship on his home round of the series, Brother Rally New Zealand.

Photo: D.Darrall

With a commanding advantage of 36 minutes, Paddon has enjoyed a technically trouble-free day in the Northland stages, but he admitted he hasn’t been able to savour his favourite roads as much as he would have liked.

“We need to work on the car a little bit,” said Paddon. “I can’t get the traction out of the corners, the car’s just washing out. I know these stages really well and there have been corners we’ve been flat-out through before, but I couldn’t do that with this car. We’ve been trying a few things, but it just hasn’t been quite right.”

Paddon added that his big lead would allow him to make more suspension changes to the car tomorrow in search of the perfect set-up.

Proton driver P-G Andersson holds second place, despite retiring his Satria-Neo S2000 on the final stage of the day. Andersson was back in the groove on the roads north of Auckland today, until he was caught out in the second run through the Girls High School test.

“The car has been great,” said Andersson. “I have the best feeling with it all season, it is pulling out of the corners and no understeer – the balance is very, very nice. On the final stage today, we were going through a hairpin right with the steering on full lock, when we caught a big rock with the front wheel. That rock tore the wheel off and sent us across the road into a ditch. We can still make some points tomorrow.”

The Swede will return for the final day still in second place tomorrow, chasing more valuable points in the SWRC race. Poland’s Maciek Oleksowicz is third with Andersson’s fellow Proton driver, Scotland’s Alister McRae fourth and Yazeed Al Rajhi from Saudi Arabia in fifth place.

Credit: WRC.com

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Loeb holds slender lead after Day 2 in NewZealand

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

Sebastien Loeb holds the lead on Rally New Zealand at the end of Day 2, just 6.4 seconds over his team mate Mikko Hirvonen. and for the 5th 4th time this season Citroen are on the way to another 1-2 finish.

Despite Loebs lead. The Champ seemed a little off pace in the morning of day 2. On SS10, the seconds stage of the day Loeb was only 4th fastest, slower than the likes off Ott Tanak. Fords Jari Matti latvala was fastest on SS10 although he was still in a lonely 8th after his problems on day 1. On the following stage, loeb was even slower, and could only manage 5th fastest. This cut his lead to just 1.7 seconds to Mikko Hirvonen. at Stage end Loeb was adamant that there was no problem with the car, and that the others were just faster than him. This set himself and his team mate up for a great battle. Petter Solberg was the man to come through quickest. Moving the Norwegian up to 3rd place dropping novikov to 4th. Novikov’s main task will now be keeping his M-Sport Ford team-mate Ott Tanak behind him.

Further down the leader board It was an uneventful day so far for Thierry Neuville (Qatar Citroen) and Dani Sordo (Prodrive Mini) in sixth and seventh places. Jari-Matti Latvala has been flying in eighth place, yet seems to be too far behind to catch any of the drivers ahead, with a gap of two minutes even to Sordo. A damper problem cost Armindo Araujo time and saw his Mini start to come under a hint of pressure from the increasingly confident Ken Block’s Monster Ford

Photo:d.darrall

After mid-day service Loeb started to creep away once again. He went fastest on the first 2 stages of the afternoon, extending his gap over Mikko Hirvonen to 5.4 seconds and despite latvala being quickest on the following stage, Loeb still furthered his lead to 7.9. Showing his seemingly unbeatable pace once again. But on the final stage of the day, the 26.9km Girls High school stage, Mikko Hirvonen fought back, finishing the day by setting the fastest time of the stage. This meant the Citroen pair ended Day 2 of the rally with just 6.4 seconds between them. “We’ve had a good battle with Mikko [Hirvonen] today,” said Frenchman Loeb. “It’s been difficult this afternoon, very slippery and I really don’t like that Girls High School stage. It’s very technical and I lost about eight seconds there this morning. It’s exciting to have a battle with Mikko and tomorrow I will have to push to keep him behind.” With the Citroen pair heading another 1- 2 finish with a big gap to the next car, its likely Citroen will use team orders to reduce the risk of them two fighting for victory with each other and risk crashing out.

Petter Solberg now sits safely in 3rd, and said earlier in the day that, it will be good to finish the rally on the podium and won’t do anything stupid, or repeat the mistake he made in Greece where he pushed and crashed out. – Because Petter used hard tyres on friday when the others used Softs. That means he will be the only top driver to still have a set of new Soft tyres for Sundays stages. And with the weather expected to be rain on the stages, it could work to his advantage, having said that, its doubtful that it will make up for the loss of time on day 1 when he was on hard’s.

Petter Solberg’s team mate and Factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala battled back after yesterday’s off-road excursion to claim two fastest stage times. The driver is eighth going into the rally’s final day. “Today has been okay – we have been working with the set-up of the car and the last two stages have been a lot better for me,” explained 27-year-old Latvala. “Unfortunately my situation is not so great at the moment, but that’s rallying sometimes and I now need to get things together and continue with a positive outlook.”

Novikov is doing a great job in 4th and team mate, M-Sport Ford driver Ott Tanak is fifth after a polished performance at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta RS WRC whilst Citroen Junior driver Thierry Neuville won a cat-and-mouse game with MINI WRC Team’s Dani Sordo to hold sixth. The 24-year-old Belgian now leads Sordo by 18.7s going into day 3. “We had a good fight with Dani, and tomorrow I must concentrate on keeping him behind us. Everything has been working well for us today – the car is feeling a lot better now and we have really enjoyed these stages,” said Neuville.

Rounding off the top ten is Monster World Rally Team’s Ken Block who is positively glowing on his return to the WRC. “These are absolutely my favourite stages anywhere in the world,” said the American Gymkhana star at the end of Stage 15.

The final day of Rally New Zealand will challenge the WRC crews with seven special stages that cover 61.33 competitive kilometres.

Overall Results

Loeb leads
Hirvonen +6.4
Solberg +1:33.3
Novikov +2:02.5
Tänak +2:23.8
Neuville +2:47.2
Sordo +3:05.9
Latvala +4:58.0

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SWRC Day 1 -Paddon leads home event

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

Local star Hayden Paddon leads the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship race at the end of the opening day of Brother Rally New Zealand.

Photo:D.Darrall

The Kiwi, who won last year’s Production Car world championship, was forced to play catch up to Proton’s P-G Andersson for the first two stages this morning, but when the Swede dropped his Satria-Neo S2000 on the third test, Paddon moved to the front of the field and stayed there for the remainder of the day.

Paddon admitted he hadn’t been overly concerned by Andersson’s pace, pointing out that he was saving his own charge for tomorrow’s stages north of Auckland which he prefers.

Andersson started the day with exceptional pace, posting eighth fastest time overall through the first stage. He would probably have repeated that feat on Whaanga Coast had it not been for a spin mid-way through the test. But then disaster struck for him in Te Akau South.

“We had too much speed going into a right-hand corner,” said Andersson. “I made the mistake making the notes on the recce, we had a four right and we should have had a three right. The car went off the road, I didn’t really even make it into the corner and it dropped down a steep bank. It wasn’t far off the road, but it was too steep to come back. It’s very frustrating.”

Proton’s day got even worse when the sister Satria of Alister McRae, then running second to Paddon, refused to fire at the start of the morning’s fourth and final test.

Yazeed Al-Rajhi was another SWRC driver to suffer a tough morning in his Ford Fiesta RRC. He was forced to stop on stage one to make repairs to his car’s gearbox. He then caught a slower car on stage two and was hit by a stone flicked up by the car running ahead, which damaged the Fiesta’s radiator and forced him out.

Fellow Ford driver Maciej Oleksowicz (Fiesta S2000) made it two stages further only to retire on stage four.

Presented with a four-minute lead going into the afternoon’s four stages, Paddon admitted his approach would be tempered.

“We can do a bit of testing this afternoon,” he said. “It’s a shame though, it would have been good to have a fight with the other guys. I wasn’t too worried about P-G. I don’t like Whaanga Coast, I don’t know why, I’ve just never got on with it, so I knew I could get some time back tomorrow.”

Despite his healthy advantage, there was a scare for Paddon when his Skoda was struck down by clutch and gearbox problems, which left him with second and sixth gears only. Fortunately he was able to make it back to service in Auckland where his mechanics will carry out an extensive overhaul ahead of Saturday’s tests.

Credit: WRC.com

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