Swedish racer Eriksson set for Medan rally
Swedish racer Eriksson set for Medan rally
JAKARTA (JP): World-class rally driver Kenneth Eriksson of
Sweden is confident he will be able to tame the demanding track
in Medan when he guns his Mitsubishi Evolution in the North
Sumatra Rally.
"Though this will be my first appearance in Indonesia, I have
learned a lot of the difficult rally venues from videos and
thorough discussions with my Mitsubishi teammate Kenjiro
Shinozuka," Eriksson told newsmen here yesterday.
Japanese Shinozuka has been a regular participant of rally
events in Indonesia for many years.
Eriksson and his long time partner and navigator, Staffan
Parmandar, were here yesterday. They left for the North Sumatra
capital today to inspect the track which curls around palm oil
and rubber plantations.
More than fifty cars have submitted their entry forms to the
committee for the four-day annual rally from June 16 to 19,
committee spokesman Helmy Sungkar said.
"We expect more participants by next week," he said.
The rally officially called Bentoel Rally Indonesia '94 will
be split into 26 Special Stages (SS) covering a stretch of 429.72
kilometers. The event is this year's opening of the Asia Pacific
Rally scheduled to be staged in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and China.
Eriksson, who has been with Mitsubishi team for the last four
years, was ranked sixth in the world last year. And since the
introduction of the Lancer Evolution series in 1993 to replace
the Gallant VR-4 model, it has jumped to an impressive
performance in world rallies, Eriksson said.
"We have been setting up the rally as our test of our
products," said Maswir, marketing director of Krama Yudha Tiga
Berlian (KTB) which assembles Mitsubishi cars in Indonesia.
Making its debut in the prestigious Monte Carlo rally in
January, 1993, Lancer Evolution finished fourth and sixth
overall. Its best performance was in the closing of the 1993
world rally series in the Lombard RAC Rally by taking second and
eighth.
"I think with Kenjiro and Eriksson behind the wheels of their
excellent cars, they will have a better chance to win the rally,"
said Maswir.
However, Eriksson added: "It's really difficult to say as
there will be other good drivers in the fray. They are all world
class drivers." (rsl)