Aussie Glenn Macneall and his Japanese driver, Hiroki Aria, have finished 10th in their first event of the season, the Arctic Rally in northern Finland.
Arai and Macneall finished 10th on the Arctic Rally in a Ford Fiesta R5.As part of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Rally Challenge Program, this was their first stop of their 14-rally schedule.
With a large part of the route within the Arctic Circle, temperatures have been known to dip as low as minus 35 degrees centigrade in the past. On this occasion though, it was just below zero degrees: providing optimal snow conditions for Arai and team-mate Takamoto Katsuta to continue learning this extremely specialised surface, each driving a Ford Fiesta R5.
Both drivers finished all 10 stages of the rally, although Takamoto, co-driven by Marko Salminen, lost 18 minutes stuck in a snow bank on the opening day. He got back on the road to eventually finish 20th overall after two intense days of competition.
Arai and Macneall enjoyed a clean run and were lying fifth until the very last stage, ending up 10th after also getting stuck in a snow bank and losing five minutes.
“It took me some time to find the rhythm at the beginning,” Arai said.
“After first service we changed the set-up and the feeling got better and better. The only problem was on the last stage: the wind had blown snow onto the road so the corners were tighter than on the recce.
“In the end I went into the snow bank: the spectators helped me but I feel sorry for the team. This rally has helped me learn to find the right set-up to get the best possible performance, so I want to keep improving this on all the rallies in the future.”
RESULTS:
1 Teemu Asunmaa/Jonne Halttunen (Skoda Fabia R5) 2h06m56.4s
2 Juha Salo/Jarno Ottman (Peugeot 208 T16 R5) +7.7s
3 Jussi Vainionpaa/Mika Juntunen (Citroen DS3 R5) +3m03.1s
4 Jarkko Nikara/Sayaka Adachi (Subaru Impreza WRX) +3m21.6s
5 Tomi Tukiainen/Mikko Pohjanharju (Ford Fiesta S2000) +3m31.3s
10 Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall (Ford Fiesta R5) +7m11.3s
20 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen (Ford Fiesta R5) +27m56.0s
The next round of the young driver program will be a round of the World Rally Championship: Rally Sweden from February 9-12. The experience gained on the Arctic Rally is set to be extremely useful for Takamoto and Hiroki when they tackle three full days of snowy stages against some of the world’s top drivers.
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