EVENT: 7th Rally Japan

WRC Round 14 of 16; PWRC Round 6 of 8

DATE: 26-28 October 2007

WHAT'S NEW IN JAPAN IN 2007

• The third World Championship rally in four weeks, and the first of the final three rounds of the Production Car World Championship, all of which to be held within five weeks. 
• The rally is being later in the year than before.
• Enjoy Obihiro while you are there! There is a possibility that Rally Japan will be based at another city in 2008.
• Stages held in the far north of the route in previous years will not be run, both for climatic reasons and also to help reduce the total distance of the event.
• Because of conflicting FIA duties, permanent Chairman of Stewards Nazir Hossein is unable to attend Rally Japan. His work will be handled by Waltraud Wunsch.
• Don't worry if you see some drivers you have never heard of at the rally. One will be an actor/driver called Daibutsu, who will be a star at the rally in a film called "The Special Stage". He plays the role of a retired rally driver making his career comeback; the film features Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Starion 4WD and Nissan Skyline GT-R cars.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT RALLY JAPAN?

• The four WRC teams have worked together to charter a Japan Air Lines freighter to take their equipment to Hokkaido. The plane is expected to leave Heathrow on the Friday after Corsica. A lot of spare equipment is being brought to Japan directly from New Zealand, taking advantage of the fact that neither of the World Championship rallies held since New Zealand were gravel events.
• The tyre suppliers do not have such a headache.  Teams must specify well in advance how many of which types of tyres must be brought for them in Japan. This is done early enough for them to be manufactured and then sent by boat.
• Why travel to the island at the far north of Japan, Hokkaido, for the World Championship rally? Mainly because this is by far the least populated area of the country.
• Beware the night! The far east location of Hokkaido in relation to the rest of Japan, and the fact that Japan has a single time zone, means that it gets light unusually early in the morning and dark very early in the evening.
• What chance of snow on this year's event? Snow is not unknown in the Rikubetsu area in the month of October. By regulation, no snow tyres may be used on this event; the same tread pattern must be used throughout the event.
• The town of Rikubetsu, epicentre of the northern part of the rally, is famous for its winter antics. One of the most spectacular is a human endurance competition, in which competitors stand naked in the open air; the last one to run for shelter is the winner!
• One remarkable fact about Rally Japan is that the region in which it is held hosts two major rallies each year - Rally Japan and the FIA APRC regional Hokkaido Rally. Apart from using the spectator stage at Rikubetsu on both events, virtually none of the route is common to both.
• The first World Championship rally in Japan was run in 2004. It has always been based at Obihiro, after three trial runs in earlier years.
• The speciality of the rally is the way that pacenotes are made by the competitors. Most of the tracks used on the special stages are narrow, with foliage hanging close to the edges of the road.  This means that it is always difficult to see the exit of a corner, even as the driver enters the bend.
• Although stages are largely the same each year, the route for road sections often changes. Two years ago, the cars passed a large traditional Japanese temple (actually a recently-built replica!); last year, the cars crossed a new and magnificent bridge. Neither feature will appear this year.
• The 2007 All-Japan Rally Championship has ten rounds, with events held all over the country, including one in Shikoku island, three in the south island and two in Hokkaido. Apart from the longer Hokkaido (APRC) event, they are day-and-a half special stage events, each about 300km long. The penultimate round (Hi-Land Masters) was run on 12-14 October; the winner was Fumio Nutahara.
• The newly-proclaimed 2007 Japanese champion, Norihiko Katsuta (Subaru) has so far won five rounds; Ishida has won two and Nutahara one (both in Mitsubishis). Katsuta is to contest Rally Japan in a Group N Impreza, prepared to international regulations and run by Subaru Rally Team Japan, with the New Zealand driver Emma Gilmour as his team-mate. Norihiko's father Teruo was the first Japanese private owner to enter the RAC Rally in Great Britain, when he drove on the 1975 event. Norihiko himself has two children: his son is already deep into kart racing.
• The All-Japan Rally Championship is basically run for Group N cars, but without some of the technical freedoms allowed under international FIA rules, especially relating to exhausts. Because the cost of converting them to FIA rules can be high, these cars will be missing from Rally Japan. Commercially, competitors in the championship are strongly supported by tyre companies. After many successes by Yokohama, this year's title was won using Dunlop tyres.
• The entry list for Rally Japan traditionally includes some interesting cars, especially down the running order among the privateers. One of the makes seldom seen on other World Championship rallies is Daihatsu; if last year is any indication, good performances can be expected from these cars. In 2006, Daihatsu Boon cars (the model is called Sirion in many countries) won two classes in Rally Japan (Group A 1300cc and Group N 1300cc), categories which are not widely supported on other World rallies). This year, a total of five Boons are expected to take part. One disappointment is that the most competitive Boon available for rallying, the M312S model which features a 936cc turbocharged engine with four-wheel drive, has not been homologated by the FIA and thus cannot take part in Rally Japan, even though it is successful in national events.

TYRE SPECIFICS

• Number of sets expected: 6.
• Number of different tread patterns allowed: 1.
• Number of tyres which can be used during the event (including Shakedown): 35.
• Number of tyres which can be nominated for use on the event: 60.
• Maximum stage distance to be covered on the same set of tyres: 80.87km (stages 11-14).

EVENT SPECIFICS

Route

• Total distance: 1575.79km.
• Number of stages: 27.
• Number of different stage venues: 11.
• Maximum number of times the same stage roads are used: 5 (the superspecial at Kita Aikoku, run as stages 9+10, 19+20, 27). The spectator stage at Rikubetsu will be run 4 times (4+8+11+15).
• Stage distance: 350.19km.
• Stage surfaces: gravel.
• Longest stage: 34.96km (stage 12+16).
• Highest elevation on stage: 920 metres above sea level (on stage 24+26).
• Central Service Park: Kita Aikoku Community Square.
• Shakedown Stage: 1.3km long, at the superspecial stage alongside the service park.
• Ceremonial Start: 1930 Thursday 25 Oct from Downtown, Obihiro. All cars in reverse order.
• Official Start: 0600 Friday 26 Oct at Kita Aikoku service park.
• Superspecials: one venue, at Kita Aikoku, to be run twice on both Friday and Saturday evenings at night, then once at the end of the rally in daylight on Sunday.
• Stages in darkness: 4 ( stages 9+10, 19+20).
• Restart times
• Friday (10 stages, 106.18km) at 0600 from Kita Aikoku.
• Saturday (10 stages, 146.68km) at 0505 from Kita Aikoku.
• Sunday (7 stages, 97.33km) at 0540 from Kita Aikoku.
• Finish from 1500 Sunday at Kita Aikoku.

TEAM NEWS

CITROEN TOTAL WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• Promotional work in Tokyo the weekend before the event. Chassis and engines are to be ex-New Zealand. The rush to get the cars off to Japan is even more acute: they have to load their cars onto the freighter in Paris on Wednesday, before the aircraft goes to London to collect the cars from the British-based teams.

BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• After this event, the BP drivers will make promotional visits to various countries in the Far East; between them, they will go to Taiwan, China and Thailand.

OMV KRONOS CITROEN WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• Travel plans are merged with those of the Citroen Total team, except that their single entry car for Stohl must first be converted back from asphalt to gravel specification in the team factory in Belgium before the car goes to Paris airport. This is the only car available for the event. The team thought that the rush to get Stohl ready for the start in Corsica had been bad enough!

SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• The team has homologated new steering arms for gravel, and this will be the first rally in which they are used. The cars and engines are expected to be those previously used in New Zealand

STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• First time for Henning in Japan. Stobart's cars will travel from London with all the other M-Sport cars.

MUNCHI'S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• While the other World Championship teams were busy in Corsica, Munchi's driver Federico Villagra was rallying in Argentina, at the Rally de Entre Rios at the city of Concepcion del Uruguay. The rally finished after this preview went to press, but Villagra was leading at the end of the first leg.

NEWS

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

• The next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting will be held on 24 October, when the World Championship calendar for 2008 is expected to be finalised. Also awaited is more news on the future of the current World Rally Championship formulae, and updates on the "Vision 2012" discussions.

JUNIOR RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (JRC)

• Per-Gunnar Andersson became the first-ever two-times FIA Junior Rally Champion last Saturday, the second day of the Tour de Corse, when it was announced that his last remaining rival, Urmo Aava would not restart for the final day. Aava, who was Andersson's Suzuki team-mate, had been leading the category until he went off the road at half distance. Swedish driver Andersson was also champion in 2004, and had hoped to regain his title in 2006, when he was controversially excluded after winning the penultimate round. This success came on the event where Suzuki gave their SX4 World Rally Car its debut.

PRODUCTION CAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

• Toshi Arai has a good chance to win the series on this event, on his home ground. Even though there will be later qualifying rounds at Ireland and Great Britain, the race for the PCWRC title has narrowed to just three drivers. This is to be the sixth and final round for championship leader Arai, who chose the final two rounds as the two he must miss. The other possible champions are Mark Higgins and Gabiel Pozzo, who drive for the Tango Rally Team; both will enter all final three events.
• Arai, Pozzo and Fumio Nutahara are the only three of the top ten drivers in the championship to contest this event.
• First time in the series for Yoshio Ikemachi, who has been registered in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) this year. He drives the SYMS entry while Romanian driver Claudiu David (who entered Argentina as a privateer), drives the number 43 OMV Bixxol RTY entry. Although TaCK (number 53) originally nominated Greece as one of their six events, when they did not start there the FIA agreed that they could swop their nomination to Japan, where Evgeny Vertunov will instead be at the wheel. There are no Guest entries on this occasion.
• One curiosity, Evgeny Vertunov now drives for a second team. Having already appeared in the car of Subaru Rally Russia in Greece and New Zealand, he now drives for the TaCK team in Japan.
• Although teams are limited to six entries in the series, it is theoretically possible, because of the team entry and Guest entry systems, for a driver to compete in all eight rallies as a PCWRC driver.
• Drivers cannot, however, score points more than six times, and the scores taken by the FIA will be the first six rallies.

NON-CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRIES

• No Mitsubishi World Rally Cars will be at the event, but Mitsubishi's prototype Group N Evo X is expected to be used as an organiser's zero car. A version of the new Subaru Impreza, converted into competition form, is also expected to assist the organisers as a route-opening car. This model will first shown to the public at the Tokyo Motor Show just before the rally.

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Middle East Rally Championship (MERC).

• Cyprus Rally, an FIA candidate event as well as a qualifying round of the MERC, was held on the same weekend as Corsica. There were difficulties with the organisation, with two of the four stages on the first leg being cancelled because of "spectator trouble". Charalambos Timotheou won the event in his Mitsubishi. Championship contenders Nasser Al-Attiyah, Khalid Al Qassimi and Amjad Farrah finished second, fourth and fifth respectively. With two rounds to go, Al Qassimi leads the series with 49 points, ahead of Al Attiyah (40) and Farrah (35).

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS

• Drivers (after round 13 France): Gronholm 104, Loeb 100, Hirvonen 74, Sordo 45, P.Solberg 38, Atkinson 29, H.Solberg 28, Latvala 24, Duval 12, Kopecky + Gardemeister 10, etc.
• Manufacturers (after round 13 France): BP-Ford WRT 179, Citroen Total WRT 147, Subaru WRT 71, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT 64, OMV Kronos Citroen WRT 39, Munchi's Ford WRT 6.
• PWRC (after round 5 New Zealand): Arai 39, Higgins 15, Sohlberg & Pozzo 12, McShea + M.Baldacci 11, etc.
• JRC (provisional final leaders): Andersson 43, Aava 38, Prokop 34, Beres 26, Molder 20, etc.
• Andersson is Champion.

EVENT HISTORY

Recent winners (* = non-WCR event)

• 2006 - Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena, Citroen Xsara WRC (102.52kph).
• 2005 - Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen,
• Peugeot 307 WRC (102.22kph).
• 2004 - Petter Solberg/Philip Mills, Subaru Impreza WRC (103.87kph).
• 2003* - Toshihiro Arai/Tony Sircombe, Subaru Impreza WRX.
• 2002* - Possum Bourne/Mark Stacey, Subaru Impreza WRC.
• 2001* - Masah Ishida/Sayuri Ishida, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

ENTRY DETAILS

• 116 entries have been received, including 13 World Rally Cars and 16 registered entries in the PWRC