Sport - Racing : Motor   

Bright chance for Warren-Judd

By Sanjay Rajan

SHAOGUAN (China) OCT. 20. There is no denying that man changes all the time. But there are certain moments when the change becomes noticeable.

Like how on Sunday there was a marked difference in Stuart Warren's style of driving from what one knew, especially in the wet terrains between special stages eight and 11 made wickedly slippery by a downpour in the afternoon.

The Team MRF Tyres entrant, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7 and co-driven by Darryl Judd, went all out, pushing the overnight APRC Group N leader, Italian Nico Caldarola (navigator Giovanni Agnese), to the hilt in the second leg of the Rally of China, the fifth of the six-round Asia Pacific Rally Championship 2002 for cars here.

So much so that the gap between him and Caldarola has been reduced to under a minute from the one and a half minutes it had been at the end of leg one.. "It's gettable and we'll go all out for it on Monday,'' said the Warren-Judd combination, gunning for a hat-trick of Group N titles.

Malaysian Karamjit Singh (Allen Oh), driving a Proton Pert in the Group A, continues to hold the APRC overall lead, but the defending champion rued not changing his tyres from dry to mud for the last two stages of the day, which, as he learnt later, were exceedingly slippery. But he, nevertheless, has a good three-minute lead over second-placed Caldarola.

New Zealander Reece Jones (Jeffrey Judd), in an Evo6, shifted to the ones specifically for mud while Stuart Warren had cuts in the tyres for more grip, and the two reaped the benefits of clocking the best times in those two stages.

Though happy that he'd managed to reduce the gap between Caldarola and himself, Warren said it would have been that much better had he not encountered loss of pressure in the left rear tyre in stage six — the day's first stage.

Warren continues to hold the third spot in the APRC overall behind Karamjit and Caldarola.

Caldarola did n't have the best of days either, spinning off in stage 10 and hitting a rock, which damaged the exhaust of his Evo 7, leading to a perceptible fall in the power of the car.

Meanwhile, the other Team MRF Tyres entry of Arjun Balu (D. Ram), who had an accident on the opening day, did not compete for leg points, as the car could not be readied in time.

Provisional overall classifications after leg 2:

APRC Group N: 1. Nico Caldarola (Giovanni Agnese), Team Top Run, Italy, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7, 2:49.50.6; 2. Stuart Warren (Darryl Judd), Team MRF Tyres, Aus-NZ, Evo7, 2:50.48.0; 3. Reece Jones (Jeffrey Judd), NZ, Evo6, 2:51.51.4.

APRC overall: 1. Karamjit Singh (Allen Oh), Petronas EON Racing, Malaysia, Proton Pert, 2:46.50.9; 2. Nico Caldarola; 3. Stuart Warren; 4. Reece Jones; 5. John Lloyd (Pauline Gullick), NA Motorsport, GB, Evo6, 2:58.32.9.

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