FORD IN SEARCH OF VICTORY HAT-TRICK IN LAND OF THE RISING
author: Andries vd Walt
After winning the last two versions of Rally Japan in 2007 and 2008, BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team returns to the Pacific Ocean island of Hokkaido next week intent on sealing a third consecutive win there. Rally Japan (9 - 12 September) takes the squad back to its preferred gravel roads, the team having won two of the last three loose-surface rallies with its Ford Focus RS World Rally Car.
This 10th round of the FIA World Rally championship is the last of the 2010 season to journey outside Europe and returns to the series after a year's absence. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen climbed onto the top step of the podium in both 2007 and 2008 while team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila are on form on gravel, having won in New Zealand and Finland recently.
The rally is again based in Sapporo, Japan's fifth-largest city, in the central Do-oh region of Hokkaido, the country's most northerly island. It is the biggest motorsport event in Japan, with more than 540,000 fans attending in 2008. The jewel in the rally's crown is the 43,000 capacity Sapporo Dome, a modern baseball and soccer stadium that hosted the 2002 World Cup. It will host a spectacular indoor super special stage on each day of the rally, over a course modified since 2008.
The bulk of the competition is based on undulating, medium to fast gravel forest tracks, many of which are particularly loose. The rally is held seven weeks earlier than in 2008, so the cold weather and leaf-covered surface is likely to be replaced by drier roads and temperatures of around 25ºC. However, a strong likelihood of rain could make the tracks slippery and muddy.
|
|
