Burns bursts to early lead in Indonesia Rally
By Dwiatmanta
MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Briton Richard Burns is making an impressive debut at the 1994 Indonesia Rally championship when he steered to victory in the first leg of the race yesterday.
The 23-year-old driver from Berkshire, England, who partnered Robert Reid, shrugged off the disadvantage of youth, his fourth seed and North Sumatra's hot and humid weather by setting the best time of one hour, 20 minutes and 58 seconds.
The overall winner of the 1993 British Rally sat with coolness behind the wheel of his Subaru Impreza and led defending champion and Subaru teammate Possum Bourne of New Zealand by eight seconds as they completed the first eight special stages (SS) covering a total distance of 121 kilometers along rough tracks.
It was a fine start for the Subaru World Rally team whose title defense attempt faces an arduous challenge in the form of the Mitsubishi Ralliart team of Swede Kenneth Eriksson and Japanese Kenjiro Shinozuka.
Driving his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, world beater Eriksson was menacing Subaru's domination at the three-day race when he was frustrated by an engine problem in the seventh stage, which left him in runaway third place 14 seconds behind Bourne. He produced a double best record in the previous two stages.
Bourne, who took advantage of a front pole position, raced to a three minute lead over Burns in the opening special stage and set the pace until the fifth before his junior teammate sped up for yesterday's leadership.
Veteran Shinozuka, who formed a new partnership with Australian Felix Gocentas, saw his hopes of regaining the title he took in 1990 falter as he finished fourth in 1:24.31.
In contrast to the foreign drivers who took the top seven places of the first leg, 13 Indonesian rallyists were forced to bite the dust. Ricardo Gelael and Hutomo Mandala Putra's powerful friends were unable to help them as they crashed out miserably on the twisting, up and down route along rubber and palm oil plantations.
Tommy, as he is usually called, maintained his perfect record at the annual race when he, accompanied by his Toyota Celica, spun off the road causing an engine problem five kilometers from the finish line of the third stage, located between Batu Gingging and Bangun Purba. No injury was sustained by President Soeharto's youngest son.
Tommy also abandoned his Indonesia Rally, the first round of the Asia Pacific series, last year after the fourth special stage.
With Minister of Post, Telecommunication and Tourism Affairs Joop Ave flagging off the race, 48 cars from eight countries started the 1,118-kilometer, three-day crowd-pleasing event in brilliant sunshine across the plantations of North Sumatra.
Today's second leg will be highlighted by 11 special stages covering a stretch of 206.35 kilometers.
The battling drivers will have to tame 25 special legs out of 26 scheduled. The organizers canceled the ninth special stage due poor road conditions.
Selected results:
1. Richard Burns/Robert Reid (GB), Subaru Impreza 1hrs, 20mins, 28 secs 2. Possum Bourne/Tony Sircombe (NZ), Subaru Impreza 8secs behind 3. Kenneth Eriksson/Staffan Parmander (Swe), Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 22secs 4. Kenjiro Shinozuka (Jap)/Felix Gocentas (Aus), Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 3mins 33secs 5. Dominic Buckley/Douglas Redpath (GB), Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 5mins 54secs 6. Alister McRae/David Senior (GB), Opel Calibra 7mins 13secs 7. Karamjit Singh/Ron Teoh BS (Mal), Proton Saga Iswara 8mins 34secs 8. Ledi Kurnadi/Raphael Arioseno (Ina), Subaru Legacy 9mins 34secs 9. Michael Lieu (Can)/Ichino Hakaru (Jap), Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10mins 12secs 10. Dolly Indra Nasution/Faryd Sungkar (Ina), Ford Escort Cosworth 10mins 33secs