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Argyle Wins in New Caledonia - Kremer Leads the
Championship
31MAY04
Argyle & Smith
New Zealander Geof Argyle drove a well judged event to
win the APRC Rally of New Caledonia. Driving a
Mitsubsihi Lancer Evo 8, Argyle took the lead on the
10th stage, after initial pace-setters Armin Kremer and
Malaysian Kramjit Singh had problems. Singh retired his
Proton Pert with an engine failure, while Kremer
recovered to finish 2nd in his Mitsubishi and take the
Asia Pacific Rally Championship points lead.
Argyle - watersplash
The New Caledonian event is the second round of the Asia
Pacific Rally Championship and for the first time the
events first leg was held 220 km north of Noumea in the
mountain roads near the township of Poya. The second and
final day was back to the familiar 'red-roads' in the
Nickel mining area south of Noumea. This year's event
was 223 kilometers of special stages and held in mostly
fine and hot weather.
APRC RCAL Silverstone Win
Geof Argyle came to New Caledonia knowing that a good
result was essential for his championship hopes after
retiring early from the first round in Canberra. "We
need to get points here and more miles in the car", said
Argyle prior to the start. An intercom problem on the
first two stages of the first day meant that his hopes
of challenging for the outright lead suffered an early
blow, but when the event returned for the overnight halt
in Noumea Argyle had climbed to 3rd place and put
himself firmly in contention for a podium finish.
Kremer - Watersplash
Fastest on day one was German Armin Kremer, enjoying the
fast mountain roads in his MRF sponsored Mitsubishi
Lancer Evo 8. However Kremer was the first to have
problems on the second day - dropping time on the first
set of stages with front drive-shaft failure. More time
was lost at service as his team had to replace the
drive-shafts and differential, the final deficit
dropping Kremer to 3rd overall. Howver with Singh's
demise in stage 10, the two Mitsubishi's moved into 1st
and 2nd overall with two stages to go - Argyle now
leading with Kremer 20-seconds behind.
Kremer pushed hard on the penultimate stage and got the
deficit down to 6 seconds and looked like he might get
the lead back on the final 25 kilometer stage. Argyle on
the other hand had reckoned on a safer approach for the
final stages - a plan that paid off as the fast charging
Kremer suffered a time consuming puncture 10 kilometres
from the end of the event. "It wasn't our lucky day
today, we got a puncture and lost 2 minutes", said
Kremer at the final finish control.
Argyle through the river
The final time difference between the two Mitsubishi
contenders was 42 seconds and Argyle was ecstatic to get
a win as well as get 13 APRC points and said at the
finish, "We got off to a difficult start, but the team
worked really hard to get the car right and once we
found the right combination of Silverstone tyres we set
some good times - watch out in the next event Rally of
Rotorua".
Atkinson - Finish Ramp
In third place and only ten seconds behind Kremer was
young Chris Atkinson in his Suzuki Ignis Super 1600,
'that's our best Asia Pacific result to date and great
for Suzuki, that we beat many faster 4WD drive cars',
said Atkinson at the podium finish. Suzuki's result was
made even more complete with Atkinsons team mate Finish
driver Vesa Mikkola getting his Ignis home in 4th
overall.
Brian Green finishing 5th place in his Mitsubishi Lancer
8 after a couple of off-road excursions, but at least he
finished unlike many of the other APRC contenders. First
to go was Italian Nico Caldarola 5 kilometres into Stage
1, off the road on a fast section and damaging the front
suspension.
Next to depart was Kremer's team-mate Katsuhiko Taguchi
crashing off on the 4th stage and retiring. The MRF
Mitsubishi team repaired the slight damage and Taguchi
was able to re-start the 2nd day under the super-rally
rules and take 3 value points by finishing fastest of
the APRC entrants for the day.
Noberto Cangani was headed for a good result after day
1, but on a spectacular river crossing his car injested
water into the engine and retired early in day 2.
Points after Round 2
Pos Driver Nation Points
1 Armin Kremer GER 20
2 Karamjit Singh MAS 18
3 Geof Argyle NZL 14
4 Chris Atkinson AUS 13
5 Katsuhiko Taguchi JPN 11
6 Vesa Mikkola FIN 5
7 Brian Green NZL 4
8 Nico Caldarola ITA 1
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