McRae: rain will help New Zealand APRC bid

2nd July 2010

By Giles Wade

Proton R3 Rally Team driver Alister McRae says recent rain across New Zealand’s North Island will help him and the other runners at the front of the field on this weekend’s International Rally of Whangarei, round three of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

McRae’s Satria Neo S2000 is seeded at four, two places behind his team-mate Chris Atkinson. The Proton pair are desperate for a change in fortune following a troubled run of late and arrive in Whangarei determined to grab their first maximum points score in this year’s APRC.

“It has been a tough start,” said McRae, “there’s no getting away from that. We’ve had to do a lot of our testing in public on rallies and that’s probably not the ideal way to go about it, but the car is good and has massive potential. We came really close to winning in Malaysia on the first round and we’ve shown the Proton has the pace. These roads in New Zealand should suit our car better than the conventional Group N car – and the wet weather is good news for us.

“There are some pretty quick guys further down the field who would have benefited from dry roads and a cleaning line in the loose gravel if it had stayed bone dry. The rain will bind the gravel together and offer the drivers at the front better grip. Having said that, there’s some tough competition at the front of the field as well.”

The number one seed is Katsu Taguchi, the current leader of the APRC in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and sandwiched between the two Satrias at number three is defending New Zealand champion Hayden Paddon.

The event gets underway with a ceremonial start in Whangarei on Friday night before running 16 gravel stages across the weekend.