This was the second win of the 2005 season for Sebastien Loeb and Citroen who finally conquered their earlier frustrations of rallying in New Zealand. Using new generation Michelins which worked better in the higher temperatures than expected, Loeb passed early leader Petter Solberg to win by nearly 50 seconds from Marcus Gronholm. Solberg came third and continued to lead the World Drivers' championship while Peugeot pulled further ahead in the Makes' series. After leading the PCWRC category for most of the rally, until he had brake trouble, Toshi Arai was beaten on the final stage by Xavier Pons, Cody Crocker won the Group N section of the event.

This was the fourth event in the 2005 World Rally Championship, the second “long-haul” and the second event this year counting for the Production Car series. It was a rally which survived many pre-event problems, created mostly because it was authorised to run two weeks earlier than the originally planned date. This had led to a change of rally HQ and to new start and finish locations. Difficulties arose because of the reduced amount of time for transport of essential team equipment from Mexico. The problems compounded traditional difficulties experienced at this occasion. This would probably be the only event in the series to have more than one service park, which in the current mode in which rallies are being organised is a great inconvenience, but especially so in view of the reduced time since the equipment had to leave Mexico - and the fact that the logical epicentre of the rally, for the first two days at least, was up country in the Kaipara region, some 150km north of Auckland. Paparoa is a delightful country town but the service park, around which the rally was based for the Friday and Saturday, was in a field, hardly the ideal location in which to place seagoing containers. Added to these complications the rally then had to move south to Auckland to another service area for the Sunday. In the end, several teams left their containers in Auckland and transported the contents up country. Then the teams realised the organisers had decided that Shakedown for the top cars would be held at a location halfway between Auckland and Paparoa. For the teams this was one problem too far, and they persuaded the organisers to move Shakedown to a stage near Paparoa, which they duly did. This in turn turned out to be a catastrophe for the media and for the FIA who were already dismayed that their plan for a fixed pre-event press conference was, for the fourth time this season, being disturbed! Altogether this was a bad omen for a rally which in other respects the drivers unanimously agree has some of the more enjoyable stages on the championship. Sebastien Loeb said “Paparoa is not a good solution”... Things could then only get better, which happily they did! The plan was that on Friday and Saturday the rally would be based at Paparoa, and then on Sunday there would be a service park (visited twice) on the outskirts of Auckland itself. South of Auckland, where the stages on Sunday would be held, there would be no service at all, although there would be a Remote Tyre Zone during the middle of the leg.

Tyre-wise this would normally not be a demanding event even though tyres eventually became a focal point of the rally. The stages consisted of medium to fast loose gravel roads though weather conditions are traditionally frequently variable, with rain a common occurrence. The surfaces are not normally especially abrasive and the rally is never mechanically demanding. However, utmost concentration is required from the driver in order to find an effective rhythm. There was little news from the teams. This was to be the first occasion that the OMV team driver Manfred Stohl (best private driver at Monte Carlo) was to compete in a Citroen on gravel. Ford had a new car for Toni Gardemeister, while Roman Kresta was now due to be their official number two driver for the next four rallies. Newcomer to the team was Argentine gentleman driver Luis Companc. Gardemeister spent his 30th birthday in Australia on promotional duties for Ford prior to the event. Mitsubishi had a new car for Gianluigi Galli. There were no problems with engines after Mexico - but fingers crossed that no more sumps were damaged! Peugeot had won the event three times in the last five years and were confident their cars were now achieving the desired degree of reliability, while Skoda came with two new cars. Immediately after Mexico, it was decided that their Shakedown problems were the fault of Jani Paasonen and he was replaced by Janne Tuohino as second nominated driver. Subaru had two more new cars while Suzuki, because they are outside the WCR championship rules, were not subject to the two-rally engine rule. Indeed the cars were sent direct to New Zealand by container after Sweden. Following misunderstandings in Mexico, clarifications about the new two-rally engine rules were due to be announced by the FIA World Council on March 30th, ready to take effect at this event, but in fact few relevant decisions were taken at the meeting. Teams waited in NZ to find out whether Loeb would have a 20 second penalty for his pre-Mexico engine change, but he didn’t and even if he did it wouldn’t have mattered!

Then, the night before the rally started, some other news did come from the FIA. The meaningless limit of eight engines per year was taken off the rule book, but of the things that mattered most immediately, nothing was said. So there was no time penalty issued against the number one Citroen or the number two Skoda drivers, despite what was written. What was said was that if an engine failed between Scrutineering and the Start, it could be changed but under a penalty of 60 not 20 seconds, but only one spare engine could be taken to events.

More straightforward was the story about the 2005 Production Car World Rally Championship. Main news was that the South Americans had arrived! No fewer than two three-car rally teams from this continent were due to be active this year and both based in the Cordoba region of Argentina. Firstly, the former Cordoba Rally Team has been replaced by the Subaru Argentina Rally Team and long time rival drivers Marcos Ligato and 2001 FIA Group N Cup winner Gabriel Pozzo (last seen together in 2001) were back in the same team again! Sebastian Beltran completing this team. Then Federico Villagra, who comes from Cordoba and rallies with his brother, runs the VRS Mitsubishi Rally Team (no connection with VRS Motorsport, active in British rallying!). VRS prepared cars not only for Villagra but also for Marcello Recanate (from Paraguay) and Luis Rosselot (from Chile). All three are new to the PCWRC. Rosselot, however, was a worried man, he confided in friends at home that he only had enough budget for this opening event, and hoped something would transpire. It had been years since a driver from his country has been seen on WRC events and never outside South America. There was to be a new codriver for three times FIA APRC champion Malaysian Karamjit Singh. After the career retirement of his long time associate Allen Oh, this is to be the British codriver John Bennie. Among the established PCWRC drivers appearing in the 2005 series for the first time this year are 2003 FIA MERC champion, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, and Mark Higgins, both in Subarus. Hamed Al Wahaibi returns this year to FIA championship competition after suspension for suddenly abandoning the 2003 season without reason. He had already contested the 2005 Oman MERC Rally. This year he has a new codriver, David Senior. 2003 FIA Junior World Champion Brice Tirabassi also runs with a new codriver Mathieu Baumel, formerly with S1600 driver Guerlain Chicherit. Ligato change codrivers to another fellow Argentine Fernando Mussano, after Ruben Garcia had to return home for family reasons. The only driver registered in the 2005 PCWRC who has still to appear is the Austrian all-rounder driver Thomas Bleiner. Since Recanate made his original championship registration, the Paraguayan driver has decided he will run under the pseudonym of “Aba” and, confirmed by the FIA, that he would now contest Rally NZ but instead miss Rally GB.

68 crews started, with a heavier presence of Group N cars than hitherto, as from 2005 onwards Group N has become the country’s premier rally formula. Even though this led to many detailed difficulties, this event qualified for the national series as well. Altogether 17 (out of 21 contenders) from Production Car World Rally Championship were present. There was drama at Shakedown when first Harri Rovanpera pulled a wheel off his Mitsubishi, and then Roman Kresta was momentarily blinded by low sunlight, heavily rolled his Ford and had to withdraw. Fastest was Gianluigi Galli (Mitsubishi) over a second faster than Petter Solberg with Marcus Gronholm third in front of Chris Atkinson. Fastest Citroen (a marque which has never done well on this event) was privateer Manfred Stohl, even though his experience of the Xsara on gravel was limited to 100km or so.

Leg 1

Overnight there was a sudden, sharp downpour at Paparoa, just to show that nature cannot be taken for granted, but not enough to damage the site. It had had the effect of dampening some of the morning’s stages, thus equalising the chances for the top runners, but not enough to destroy the ground on which the teams had set up camp. The main drama at the start was that the Skoda engineers could not start up Janne Tuohino’s car and he started the rally five minutes late (50 second penalty) after mechanics changed the ECU. The first stage was damp throughout, a contrast to the second which was already nearly dry and caused many top drivers traction trouble. Despite the changes in conditions, the race for the lead was incredibly tight and after the first four stages, less than one second covered the top three. Unexpected was the arrival of form in New Zealand for the Citroen, with Sebastien Loeb actually in the lead at the first service stop. The expected fight between Marcus Gronholm and Petter Solberg was close behind, while settling in fourth place was Francois Duval in front of Markko Martin. Chris Atkinson was showing local form, after a spin on stage two he went on to make fastest time on stage three - only the second Australian in 13 years to do this. Troubles in the morning, however, were few. Antony Warmbold lost power steering, Armin Schwarz stalled, Gianluigi Galli fought hard despite losing his clutch, which meant he had to start each stage on the starter motor, Janne Tuohino struggled to get a rhythm after his earlier drama.

Four stages in the morning, four in the afternoon, of which only three had been run before and would therefore be “clean”. Loeb played his ace card. While Solberg, Martin, Rovanpera and Gronholm all admitted going out on tyres which were too soft., Loeb went out on harder tyres in the afternoon and pulled well away from his rivals. The only other driver to enjoy the afternoon was Atkinson, who scored one more fastest time. Another driver having a bad time was Galli, who now had alternator failure and was lucky to reach service with his engine still running. Manfred Stohl passed Harri Rovanpera into eighth place, highest non-nominated driver. Luis Companc went off the road, noticed how much time he had lost and immediately retired under the “5-minute rule” which meant it was cheaper penalty-wise to abandon the rest of the day’s activities and prepare for the morning. Gardemeister was going better, and a happier driver.

Although Cody Crocker started off the fastest Group N driver Toshi Arai went into the lead of PCWRC and halfway through the morning went ahead of Crocker as well. Argentines Marcos Ligato and Gabriel Pozzo were behind followed by Nasser Al Attiyah and then came Xavier Pons in the first non-Subaru. Fumio Nutahara spun and stalled, Aki Teiskonen spun and damaged both the front and rear of his car, Karamjit Singh felt his car was sliding around too much. Rosselot (the first Chilean to rally outside South America) was upset that he was constantly baulked by his Paraguayan teammate “Aba”. Ligato was pushing Arai hard while the sliding Proton of Singh wore its rear tyres down to the canvas. Mark Higgins was delayed by steering problems after clipping a bridge. Federico Villagra was concerned that his car had flashing lights warning of differential trouble. Teiskonen’s engine expired while Natalie Barratt’s car arrived back on a trailer having taken the “five-minute rule” option to restart the following day.

Leg 2

This was to be the second day in the Kaipara region of Northlands, and despite some overnight rain the conditions in the service park at Paparoa were still bearable. At the end of the first Leg, Sebastien Loeb had a lead of 23.1 seconds in front of Marcus Gronholm with Francois Duval in third place in front of the Subarus of Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson. On the first stage both Subarus fell back on account of some suspension adjustments, made the previous evening, which made their handling worse. This meant that Toni Gardemeister got ahead of Atkinson, but all the time Markko Martin (who restarted in seventh place) was pressing hard and passed both Gardemeister and Atkinson into fifth place even though both Martin and teammate Gronholm had found it difficult to know which tyre choice to make. Atkinson said the car moved around unpredictably. Solberg also had tyre trouble and found the car lacked the stability which the high speed tracks demanded. By the end of the first loop of the day, Solberg had passed both Gronholm and Duval and was now lying second. Duval backed off after a few near_moments and then stalled at the start of stage 11. Loeb meanwhile had moved further to the horizon and after stage 11 was 32.2 seconds in the lead. Harri Rovanpera had a mousse break up and the intense resulting vibrations affected his vision. "I kept seeing a variety of tracks in front of me, and I tried to aim for the middle one..." Luis Companc failed to restart as his Focus was deemed to have been too badly damaged, so Ford's four_car team was down to two. Armin Schwarz hit some turkeys, and Antony Warmbold spun and stalled. Janne Tuohino was catching up from his 50 second disappointment on Leg 1, lying 12th close behind teammate Schwarz. Kresta remained the only nominated driver out of the event. The day which started damp after overnight rain was progressively drying out and the sun came out to stay for the afternoon.

Tyres became a critical factor as the day wore on and the high temperatures continued. Two drivers that arrived at the final service park with the most dramatically worn out tyres were Harri Rovanpera and Chris Atkinson. "The problem,” explained the Australian "is that we have already exhausted our allocation of hard tyres.” Michelin tyres were generally coping with the hot conditions better, and Loeb continued on his trouble free way, 53.8 seconds in front of Gronholm by the time the cars left the Kaipara region for the drive back to Auckland. Gronholm was bemused. "We are driving well, the car has given no trouble, but we just cannot match the times of the Michelin drivers.” On the way through the afternoon, the Finn was able to get in front of Solberg. The first stage of the afternoon was "new", both in terms of use before either in this rally or in other years, and was very slippery for the first cars through. Tuohino got ahead of teammate Schwarz, despite brake failure on stage 14. Stohl spun twice and dropped from eighth to tenth. Duval had brake trouble on stage 14 as well, while Gardemeister held fifth despite scaring himself with a big moment on stage 12. After two dramatic rally wins for Pirelli, Michelin were certainly showing the way here. Michelin tyre chief Aime Chatard explained, modestly "When we did our testing before the event (in Spain and Sardinia) the ground temperatures were similar to those here, and we made our decisions based on that experience. Maybe we were a little lucky..."

Toshi Arai was gradually pulling ahead of his PCWRC rivals, despite a near_accident when he admitted he had "bicycled" for some way on two wheels. Led by the Argentine pair Gabriel Pozzo and Marcos Ligato, Mark Higgins was pushing hard in sixth place after his bad tyre decision at the start of the event. Karamjit Singh still had grip problems. Federico Villagra had one lurid moment when he went into and then out of a ditch. Brice Tirabassi had a loose steering wheel while both Hamed Al Wahaibi and Luis Rosselot had brake troubles. Aki Teiskonen did not restart but Natalie Barratt did, after gearbox trouble stopped her on Leg 1. "Aba" (Recanate) was finding the conditions difficult, not helped by damage to the rear suspension and there were several instances where he slowed some of the national NZ championship drivers running behind him, notably Chris West. Dean Herridge had already retired after crashing on the first day. Cody Crocker was top Australasian driver after Atkinson, having initially been top Group N driver until he drove eight kilometres of stage 4 with a flat tyre and was then baulked by Herridge's accident. The top cars headed for the afternoon stages driving absolutely flat out. Things came to a head half way through the final stage of the day when Arai lost his brakes on a downhill asphalt section and lost almost one minute, dropping down to fourth and letting the Michelin-tyred car of Xavier Pons into the lead. Villagra kept his eighth place despite a long spell of misfiring. Angelo Medeghini withdrew with four stages to run, suffering from dehydration, but hoped to be fit to restart on the final day.

Two stages round the superspecial at Manukau, on the outskirts of Auckland, rounded off the second day's activities albeit in the rain. Al Attiyah got ahead of Pozzo into second place in the PCWRC category while Guy Wilks rolled heavily on stage 14 and gave notice he would miss the two superspecial stages. The organisers supplied duplicates of all the car's stickers so that the Ignis would be allowed to start the final day with many new panels in place..

Later that evening Michelin people started telling a few more of their secrets. They were using a special construction called Z type "BTO", aimed at giving better control in a lateral sense, which enabled less sliding around particularly for the rear tyres. They had already tried out in Mexico in medium compound form without any conclusive result (Loeb had to drive two days at the head of the field, and could only show his true form in the final two stages) but here things were different. Medium compound tyres were used in the mornings, and as the temperatures rose to an unusual high for this event, the hard compound versions were used for the first time, and Loeb went well. But really only for Loeb. Duval was still fazed by the technical nature of the event and also had brake trouble, though Gardemeister was able to hold a steady fifth place ahead of no fewer than four Pirelli works cars. Perhaps the most impressive result was that these tyres enabled Loeb for the first time to drive this event with confidence.

Leg 3

For the final day there were four stages, two of them run over the spectacular coastal Whaanga Coast road. Bad news came on the first stage when Janne Tuohino, who the previous night had slipped back to 12th place behind teammate Schwarz at the superspecials, retired with a broken turbocharger. He got to the end of stage 17 but lost over eight minutes and abandoned. Petter Solberg had given up the fight and settled for third place while teammate Chris Atkinson was slowed by a set_up error. Duval reported his car was sliding badly. Markko Martin said his car gave no confidence under braking. Harri Rovanpera's Mitsubishi was seriously overheating and running slowly under safemode. On the final stage Martin got in front of Toni Gardemeister, the second rally running where the Finn has had a last stage demotion. Gardemeister had run out of his allocation of Michelin special dry weather tyres and fell back as a consequence. Rovanpera reached the end of the final stage in ninth place but then retired on the road section back to the finish, when he had a tyre failure. At the finish both Citroen and Loeb were relieved to have overcome their previous disappointments on this rally with their win and to be back in the championship battle for this season again.

In PCWRC, Angelo Medeghini did not restart after all, only the second retirement in the category so far. Xavier Pons' moments of glory did not seem to be lasting long as by the second stage of the day Arai had passed him, then Cody Crocker (in his Australian championship car) got past both of them to lead the Group. Nasser Al Attiyah fell back with a rear wheel puncture and dropped to third, but both Karamjit Singh and Fumio Nutahara were still struggling with their tyres, holding respectively sixth and tenth places, Nutahara despite spinning off road through a fence and into a field. Natalie Barratt was still struggling, again with gearbox troubles. Gabriel Pozzo had terminal brake problems and retired before the final stage. Mark Higgins started the last stage but retired with fuel pump failure. Pons, however, was not yet finished. On the final stage he took 18 seconds off Arai to win the category. Ahead of him, however, was Crocker, who brought Pirelli the saving grace of at least winning Group N. And behind them Marcos Ligato took nine seconds off Al Attiyah and beat him to third place in the category by 2.1 seconds! The dramas had not yet finished as the best NZ driver Mark Tapper, having lost two minutes on the final stage with transmission trouble, was struggling but managed to reach the finish, and when Arai finally reached the finish ramp the engine failed and the car had to be towed to scrutineering!
Martin Holmes 10 April 2005