The 3rd round of the Chinese Rally Championship (CRC) was held in the middle of September within lingering summer conditions in Xuecheng, Shandong Province. The event was held in the following week after Rally Japan and all teams wasted no time getting under way conducting private tests.
The teams were going through thorough tests during the beginning of the week, but all teams were struggling to find the correct set ups as the concrete surfaces particular to Shandong, were making it very difficult.
The stages were made up of narrow winding roads filled with small jumps, which were troubling the drivers. One miss could send the drivers crashing into stone walls, thick dense bushes or end up bursting their tires on the sharp concrete shoulders. This course demanded more than your standard tarmac settings, but a more flexible set up which could adapt to the conditions.
TEIN supported rally cars made up of over 30 TYPE Gr.N, TYPE HG and Specialized Damper users, making it extremely busy for TEIN engineers. The rally got underway from Friday afternoon with dirt trial type SS1 held within the city limits. SS2 - SS8 were held on Saturday, and the rally concluded on Sunday with SS9 – SS13.
After the opening stage, the HongYun Team and P.Flodin stood in top position. P.Flodin had just come from an exhilarating win in the PWRC round in Japan and was looking to continue with his winning streak. The winner of the last round in Nanjing, M.Higgins of the KST team set a blistering pace on Day1, by setting the fastest times on all stages and blazing ahead of his closest opponent by 3min30sec!
But the unthinkable happened! After the service at the end of SS3, M.Higgins passed on the Time Control, and late that evening, a decision was made by the organizers which resulted in M.Higgins receiving a huge 29min penalty! The team were astonished with the judgment and defaulted from the rally.
Day 2 started with Dong Dong from the KST team, sitting previously in 2nd position, at the top of the table, closely followed by D.Higgins. P.Flodin was 25seconds behind in 3rd position as the final day got under way. The battle was fierce, as with nearly every stage, the top drivers exchanged positions, but after the final stage was completed, it was D.Higgins in 1st overall position, followed by P.Flodin in 2nd and Dong Dong in 3rd. Dong Dong just managed to hang on to finish in 3rd and came home as the top Chinese driver. During the last stage, D.Higgins suffered from some turbo problems but he was able to hold off P.Flodin’s last charge for the top position.
Look forward for more action as who knows what will unfold in the next exciting round, held at the beginning of November in Longyou! |
