RALLY OF GERMANY - 1ST DAY
 

Mixed fortunes for the RACC-Repsol-Mitsubishi team on the ADAC Rally of Germany, whilst one of their Lancer EVO VIII, driven by Xevi Pons/Oriol Juliá, finished the opening day in a brilliant first position in the PWRC, the other car, driven by Sergio López-Fombona/Guifré Pujol, has been forced to retire from the rally after a gearbox failure.

On a rainy day, Sergio López-Fombona and his codriver Guifré Pujol started the difficult German rally with a 9th position on the first stage and then they were 7th on the second on a very slippery tarmac surface. At the end of the second stage they were in 8th position overall, a points scoring position for the PWRC Championship.

But reliability problems did appear in the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII and at the beginning of the third stage Fombona was forced to withdrawn with total gearbox failure. This problem doesn't detract from the good performance of the Gijón-born driver, battling head-to-head with most of the more experienced drivers on a surface he masters perfectly.

The Asturian was very disappointed by this early retirement when very well placed since the opening kilometers despite some brake problems that produced a spun on the first stage.
   
     RESULTS
 
1st Leg: Friday 20 August 2004
SS1 RUWERTAL 1 (17.84 km)
SS2 DHRONTAL 1 (21.04 km)
Click on the links above to see the results.
PWRC CLASSIFICATION (GROUP N)
1
 Pons
 MIT
1-27:19.3
2
 Galli MIT
+8.3
3
 McShea 
 SUB
+36.3
4
 Passonen
 MIT
+1:09.7
5
 McRae
 SUB
+1:19.2
6
 Arai
 SUB
+1:19.4
7
 Singh
 PRO
+2:16.0
8
 Vollak
 MIT
+4:00.4
9
 Frisiero SUB
+6:05.8
10
 Geradzhiev
 MIT
+6:52.9
11
 Stohl
 MIT
+14:01.7
12
 Trivino
 MIT
+19:24.7
  Fombona 
 MIT
Retired
Back luck for Sergio in Germany
(photo RACC)
Information from RACC Prensa
 
   IN SERGIO'S VIEW
 
"It's a shame! This was a rally where I had big hopes to do well and this retirement ruins it all. We had brake problems on the first stage, which was quite wet and we were on slicks (that was the cause of the spin), but anyway it was the good choice given that the two following stages were better suited to dry tires and that was to our benefit. But at the end of the second stage we got stuck in third gear and at the next one the problem got even worse and only fifth gear was working so it was impossible to go on as the clutch finally gave up.

The surface at the first stage was the worse you could have, much more slippery than any of the Aviles Rally for instance, because of the dampness and the dirt over the tarmac. Tomorrow we aren't restarting so now it's time to take our time to improve our pace notes without risking the new car as we are saving it for the another rally outside our current program. Anyway I'm satisfied with my setup choice, the car was working very well."
   
 
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