Motorsport: Solberg wins NZ rally title by a whisker

By BOB PEARCE

After almost 400km of high-speed driving, Petter Solberg's victory in Rally New Zealand yesterday may have been clinched by a split-second handbrake glitch.

The Norwegian world champion came out on top after a thrilling last-day battle in his Subaru with last year's winner, Finn Marcus Gronholm, in a Peugeot.

The margin of victory was just 5.9s with Ford's Markko Martin 19.7s further back in third place.

Solberg began the day with a 17.4s lead over Gronholm and six stages, including two passes of the 29.6km Whaanga Coast, to survive.

On the first pass Solberg hit a hidden rock and had no power steering for the last 8km. He lost 20s and conceded a one second lead to Gronholm.

The Finn was 2s ahead with two stages to go. But his rally hopes were dashed by a handbrake mishap just after the start of the Te Papatapu stage.

"The trouble is the handbrake stopper is so close," said Gronholm. "The brake came on and I spun.

"Timo [co-driver Rautiainen] holds the handbrake at the stage start. He released it and then on the second corner I suddenly spun. It's so frustrating."

The spin cost Gronholm 18s and, even though he drove through the last Whaanga stage almost 10s quicker than Solberg, it was not enough.

Solberg's win was his first of the season and his first in this country and was a tribute to his resilience under attack.

"I think the hardest man to have behind you is Marcus Gronholm," he said.

Martin's third placing puts him at the head of the world standings on 26 points, one clear of Citroen's Sebastien Loeb with Gronholm on 24 and Solberg on 23. Ford retain a nine-point lead over Citroen in the manufacturers' championship.

Ford's second driver, Francois Duval, finished a distant seventh behind Loeb, Carlos Sainz (Citroen) and Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot) after losing a wheel on the same rock that damaged Solberg's power steering. He drove out of the stage on three wheels.

Two of the production world championship cars made spectacular exits on the first Whaanga stage. Spaniard Daniel Sola, who had the leading championship car, crashed off a fast right-hand corner. Briton Niall McShea had the same problem and slid his Subaru into Sola's Mitsubishi.

One of the drives of the rally came from Australian Dean Herridge, who drove a Group N Subaru Impreza to ninth place overall, first in Group N and 40s clear of Austrian Manfred Stohl's Mitsubishi, which was the first of the official world production championship cars.

Herridge's car was prepared by Possum Bourne Motorsport as was a similar car in which another Aussie, Cody Crocker, finished 11th overall. Crocker's car was driven by Bourne in last year's event.

The team were also involved in the success of Auckland-based Chris West, who had a dream debut in his left-hand-drive Subaru Impreza to finish as the top Kiwi in the car, which was built for Bourne to drive in Argentina in May last year.

West and co-driver Garry Cowan overcame several niggling problems over the three days to finish 22nd overall. Second New Zealand-based driver was veteran Malcolm Stewart in 25th place.

Masterton driver Richard Mason, who had been running as high as 20th, hit a bank and was unable to continue with four stages to go.

On Saturday Waiuku's Stumpy Holmes went into a series of high-speed barrel rolls in his Subaru, which was badly damaged.

A total of 37 of the 58 starters finished the event, but two were excluded for lateness. The next round of the championship is in Cyprus, where Solberg won last year.

Rally NZ 2004 map and information

Official rally website