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Front Page
Record-Breaking Win for McRae in Africa
Staff, Tuesday July 16, 2002.
Page 1 of 1
It was McRae's second consecutive world rally win and his 25th in all, moving him to the top of the all-time winners? list. The result in Kenya has elevated the 1995 World Champion to second in the championship standings.
The Ford Focus RS World Rally Car won the gruelling three-day, 2433km event by 2min 50.9sec after completing one of the toughest Safaris in history.
Teammates Markko Märtin and Michael Park finished fourth in another Focus RS, a superb result on their Kenyan debut, enabling Ford to slash Peugeot's lead in the manufacturers' championship to 14 points, with six of the 14 rounds remaining.
The Safari is a unique event in the sport. Almost three-times longer than a traditional world rally, much of it run on open roads and with the additional hazard of roaming wild animals, it is one of motorsport's great challenges.
Heavy rains earlier in the year left the tracks rougher than usual and one particularly gruelling boulder-strewn section reduced competitors to a first-gear crawl at little more than 10kph. In contrast, sections across the vast, open plains saw cars driving flat out for several kilometres.
Just 12 of the original 48 starters reached the finish in Nairobi. Of those not to finish were defending world champion Richard Burns (Peugeot), four-time World Champion Tommi Mäkinen (Subaru) and 2000 World titleholder Marcus Grönholm (Peugeot).
McRae and Grist's pre-rally tactics of finding a comfortable pace that spared the Focus RS unnecessary punishment on the car-breaking roads worked to perfection. They took the lead early on the second day and were never headed, winning three of the 11 competitive sections.
?This has seemed a very long rally but now it's all over I can enjoy both the victory and having taken the record as the most successful driver,? said the three-time winner of the Safari.
?In Kenya you have to play the waiting game and wait for those who are initially quicker to have problems and that's what we did. I had no serious troubles and to win both in Greece and Kenya, the two toughest rallies in the championship, shows how good the Focus is in rough conditions.?
From the rough tracks of Kenya the next challenge for the Ford Focus team is the flat out jumps of Finland 8 ? 11 August.
The road version of the Ford Focus is due for release in Australia this coming October. The Ford World Rally Championship team will be in action in Perth later that month for the penultimate round of the series, Rally Australia from October 31 ? November 3.
Final Positions ? Safari Rally of Kenya
| 1. | C McRae (GB) / N Grist (GB) | Ford Focus RS | 7hr 58min 28.0sec |
| 2. | H Rovanperä (Fin) / R Pietilainen (Fin) | Peugeot | +2:50.9 |
| 3. | T Rådström (Swe) / D Giraudet (Fra) | Citroen | +18:38.6 |
| 4. | M Märtin (Est) / M Park (GB) | Ford Focus RS | +21:28.0 |
| 5. | S Loeb (Fra) / D Elena (Fra) | Citroen | +21:48.1 |
| 6. | G Panizzi (Fra) / H Panizzi (Fra) | Peugeot | +34:41.0 |
FIA World Rally Championship (after round Eight of 14)
| Drivers | Manufacturers' | |||||
| 1. | M Grönholm | 37pts | 1. | Peugeot | 83pts | |
| 2. | C McRae | 30pts | 2. | Ford | 69pts | |
| 3. | C Sainz | 23pts | 3. | Subaru | 35pts | |
| 4. | G Panizzi | 21pts | 4. | Skoda | 8pts | |
| 5. | R Burns | 19pts | 5. | Mitsubishi | 7pts | |
| 6. | H Rovanperä | 18pts | 6. | Hyundai | 6pts | |
| 10. | M Märtin | 7pts | ||||
For further information contact:
Ben Beazley
Media Coordinator
Ford Racing
Phone: (03) 9596 9011
Mobile: 0417-262 753
Email: ben@segalmedia.com.au
