Sport - Racing : Motor   

Caldarola has the last laugh

By Sanjay Rajan

RAYONG (Thailand) DEC. 1. Nothing stands still, everything changes. Nico Caldarola's moment of glory was due. He missed it by a whisker last year, but won his maiden FIA-Asia Pacific Rally championship (APRC) Group N (production cars) title this time with a display of patience, perseverence and hard work.

The 40-year-old Italian, who has been in the sport for 21 years and chasing the dream for three years now, not only clinched the Group N title but also won the overall honours after the engine of Malaysian Karamjit Singh's Group A Proton Pert seized owing to low oil pressure on the penultimate stage of the three-day Rally of Thailand, the sixth and final round of the APRC 2002, which concluded here on Sunday.

``I've won the overall championship anyway, but we lost the manufacturers' title, which has gone to Mitsubishi, and that hurts,'' said Karamjit, who retained the title with a round to spare in China last month.

For Team MRF Tyres' Stuart Warren (Darryl Judd), Caldarola's challenger for the Group N championship, it wasn't exactly the best of days.

Not that he had much of a chance for the title after falling 20 minutes behind on the first day as the car went off the road, but Warren's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7 rolled on special stage 14, just as teammate Reece Jones (Jeff Judd) had done earlier, and lost precious time apart from the car getting damaged.

Said Warren, "It was one kilometre into the stage. Prior to this right corner there was this particular dip (so it was during the recce) that had turned into a rut and that toppled us. We lost time and now we have a lot of work to do on both cars before coming to India for the MRF India Rally next weekend.''

Caldarola nearly toppled at the very same rut, but said he managed to regain control as he was going slow. "My sole aim was to finish the rally and so I went easy on the pedal, having put in all the hard work and speed on the first two days.''

While describing Karamjit's misfortune as part of the sport, Caldarola, who runs a driving school and owns a gravel circuit in Rome, said he would now enjoy the hard-earned holiday with wife Mara and their two sons.

In the APRC Group N category, Warren finished third behind Caldarola and Reece Jones in that order, while in the APRC overall Jones finished third behind Caldarola and England's John Lloyd. In this rally overall, Jones finished fourth and Warren sixth.

The final standings (provisional): 1. Nico Caldarola (G. Agnese), Italy, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7, Group N, 2:38.00; 2. John Lloyd (Pauline

Gullick), GB, Evo6, Group A, 2:41.19; 3. Sakchai Hantrakul (V. Sukosi), Thailand, Evo5, Group A, 2:42.23; 4. Reece Jones (Jeff Judd), NZ, Evo7, Group N, 2:47.22; 5. V. Bunchaylua (P. Sombutwong), Thailand, Honda Civic, Group A, 2:57.11; 6. Stuart Warren (Darryl Judd), Aus-NZ, Evo7, Group N, 3:03.28.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Entertainment | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Basketball

• I'll retire after this season: Jordan
  
  Cricket
  
• Indian team leaves for New Zealand
• Australia keeps its grip on the Ashes
• Atapattu steers Sri Lanka to victory
• It's Younis Khan's day as Pakistan completes rout
  
  Golf
  
• Keshev Misra emerges winner
  
  Hockey
  
• Argentina, Holland on a roll
  
  Racing : Motor
  
• Hataria steals the show
• Caldarola has the last laugh
  
  Tennis
  
• Sania to take on Sheetal
  
  Volleyball
  
• Uttaranchal blanks Kerala for maiden trophy
  
  Shooting
  
• Mansher leads the pack
  
  Bridge
  
• Indian Railways `B' triumphs
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu