Herridge finished in 2nd at New Caledonia
| CUSCO RACING WORLD RALLY TEAM: Event Report FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship round 1” Rally New Caledonia” |
Newly joined to CUSCO RACING, Dean Herridge finished in 2nd overall! |
| The opening round of 2008 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship(APRC) “Rally
New Caledonia” was held from 12-13 April based on Numea, capital of New
Caledonia. CUSCO RACING entered two drivers; Hiroshi Yanagisawa who continues
APRC campaign since 2006 and his new team mate, Australian Dean Herridge.
For Herridge who visit New Caledonia first time saw very “New” circumstance
with new team, new machine and new Co-driver, Chris Murphy. |
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| Hiroshi Yanagisawa(left) and Yoshimasa Nakahara | Dean Herridge(right) and Chris Murphy |
The event was formed by 15SS using 6 stages adding Super SS at Numea. Day 1 was set with narrow fast stage at hilly terrain, meanwhile Day2 saw contrast on their condition as consisted stages on twisty mountain road. The event had one of longest of APRC, superb 35.41km stage. Also road section was huge as total distance was 1138.28km which made this event extremely tough. Both CUSCO RACING’s machine were 2007 spec Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Yanagisawa used same machine from 2007 season with further refining, meanwhile Herridge used same year model but newly built. Both car was installed several CUSCO products such as guards(SAFETY 21), roll-cage or dog-box. |
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Yanagisawa at ceremonial start. |
The event kicked off by opening ceremony followed two rap of Super SS (3.75km) on Friday 11 April and proper rally stage began from following day. Saturday competition consisted with three loop of three stages; 11.80km, 19.51km, 15.44km. Yanagisawa set top 3 time consistently, however he was not happy with his speed. With having frustration, he finished day1 in 4th overall. Herridge made conservative start at his first visiting event with new machine which drove at competition first time. While driving first loop on steady pace with checking condition, Herridge started to show his speed from second loop. He set second fastest time on SS8, sixth stage of the day, and marked identical fastest time on final stage of day1. He prove his potential to show his performance at even unfamiliar circumstance and finished day1 in 3rd overall. |
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Herridge made hard push(SS15) |
Day 2 consisted with two loop of 35.41km long stage and 8.84km stage, although as having long road section, total driving distance of the day was over 400km which made day 2 very tough. The long stage which was expected as highlight of this event saw tricky condition as sky was clear although surface was dumped by overnight rain. Yanagisawa bet with his setting with accept full wet setting, but it seemed that the decision didn’t work as he hit the rock at 2km from the start of first stage. Due to bending suspension arm, Yanagisawa had to drop the pace. Then he stuck on wet patch on out of left hairpin bend of wet surface and off the course. Regrettably he retired at this point. Meanwhile, Herridge who naturally prefer technical course marked second fastest on same stage and made positive start to podium finish. Now only driver for the team, Herride made hard attack to nearest rival, Mitsubishi driver Scott Pedder. Having hard pressure from Herridge, Pedder off the course and withdraw from the event. From then Herridge who moved up to 2nd overall switched cruising drive to secure his position because margin to nearest rival was huge. However he still marked fastest time on final stage of the event and gained impressive second position of podium. He gained totally 11 championship point by 8 point from overall position adding bonus point from each competition day |
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Herridge(right)/ Murphy at ceremonial finish |
