Sport - Racing : Motor

Subaru Rally from today

By Sanjay Rajan

CANBERRA MAY 2. Every achievement is worthless unless it is a link in the chain of development. In the event, V. Naren Kumar and co-driver D. Ramkumar's participation in the FIA-Asia Pacific Rally Championship, the first round of which is the Subaru Rally of Canberra, to be held in the Australian capital here from Friday, lends more colour and meaning to their triumph in the Asia Zone championship last year. Science and the spirit of emulation are the forces that has made the two what they are. Not to forget that Team MRF's Naren and Ram along with Arjun Balu, will be the first Indians to take part in the APRC. Arjun's co-driver was originally R. Kumar. But the latter has developed a throat infection and is unable to speak clearly.

Mr. Tony Rodricks, Manager, Team MRF, said Darryl Judd, who has been a co-driver in many an Australian Rally championship, will take Kumar's place.

It will be a whole new experience for them, and an eye opener in many ways. Driving Mitsubishi EvoVIIs and competing for honours in the Group N4 category of the Production Cars classification for unmodified cars up to 2000cc, Naren and Arjun will be up against some of the top men in the business.

This includes Malaysia's Karamjit Singh, driving a Proton Pert, the holder of the APRC Drivers' overall and Group N titles, Italian Nico Caldarola, who finished runner-up in the championship last year, the Subaru Rally team led by the six-time Australian Rally champion Possum Bourne of New Zealand and Cody Crocker, who obviously would not want to lose their grip on the prestigious event.

Bourne has won the Canberra Rally the past two years. Karamjit is high on confidence. He recently notched up a victory in the Cyprus round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) in Group N. "We'll know on Sunday,'' said Karamjit when asked about his chances here. He said there has been a 50 per cent change in the structuring of the route from last year. Karamjit has a hectic season ahead, the next stop being Argentina for the WRC round.

While talking about the Indians chances, one has to take into consideration two important factors: the terrain, of which Naren and Arjun have no previous experiences, and the cars. The turbo-charged, four-wheel drive cars that they are to handle here are far more powerful to the Honda Civic EK4 1600cc that the two drove in the Asia Zone event.The competitors were taken through the stages on April 30 and May 1 while the shakedown, on Thursday, was at the Kowen Settlement where the organisers had identified a similar surface to that of the competitive stages. The Rally is to be run over 740.1 kilometres over three days while the 19 special stages totals 266.36 kilometres. Almost all of this is in the forest area. However, the entire route is within 40 kilometres of the centre of Canberra. The event is to be flagged off by Australian Test cricket captain Steve Waugh.

Both Naren and Arjun are realistic about their chances, or the lack of it, so to say. In fact, both said it is the experience that really counts. ``We are getting better by the day. We are looking at finishing the Rally.

It is so different here, the stages especially, there are so many crests that we are driving blind virtually. It is also slippery at high speeds,'' said Naren, who wants to make the most of it in terms of experience. Of the 48 cars participating, 29 are contesting in the Group N4. The other categories are: Group A 8 (13 cars), A 6 (three), A 5 (one) and N 2 (two). There are a couple of big names in the other categories like Malaysia's Saladin in a Hyundai Accent World Rally car in A 8 and Japan's Nobuhiro Tajima in A 6 (super 1600cc series). But focus is on N 4.

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