Determined drive nets team points for Alister McRae & Gordon Noble in China

Posted: July 24, 2006 5:01 PM

His Group N Mitsubishi Lancer EvoIX suffered a light roll on the first stage of the event and the crew lost ten minutes getting the car back on the road. However, Alister and co-driver Gordon Noble spent the rest of the event pushing hard to secure points for the team and develop the EvoIX, in advance of the third round in September.  

                                                                     Alister spent a day testing his new Lancer EvoIX prior to the start of the event but with new dampers and a different centre differential control system to the EvoVIII he drove on the previous round; this effectively became a shakedown for the Liu Panshiu. Alister and Gordon were looking forward to competing on the event in the latest specification of Group N Mitsubishi, over 12 twisty and bumpy mountainous stages.

  However, the first stage of the event was to set the scene for leg one. McRae explained what happened; “It was a tightening left-hand corner and the car slid wide. The rear wheels went off the road and into the ditch by the side and that pitched the car into a roll, into a paddy field. The damage wasn’t severe, although the windscreen came in and the car was filled with mud and peat – it’s the biggest mess I’ve ever seen! It took us around 10 minutes to get the car out and back on the road.”   

The Wan Yu team carried out repairs at the service park but the car wasn’t fully on form. They changed one of the steering arms but didn’t have sufficient time during service to check the alignment of the suspension and as it transpired, the settings were incorrect. This cost the Scot further time with unpredictable handling through the following stages. The team was also using a new specification of damper, and the settings were not to McRae’s liking. The result was that at the end of the first day, McRae and Noble lay in 21st position overall.  

However, Alister remained focussed on the final day of the rally, despite the time loss. “Drivers score points for the teams’ awards on both days of the rally, so there’s still a lot to play for,” he explained at the end of the first day. “We’ll be going at maximum attack tomorrow to get the best result possible for the team.”  

The second day of the event was more typical of McRae’s form and saw him immediately back on the pace. With the time loss from the first day’s accident, he realised that he would be unable to realistically climb back up the leader-board to challenge for the win, he also concentrated on developing suspension and differential settings ready for the next round of the championship.  

“With the new dampers on the car, when we got to the bumpier stages, it wasn’t working for me at all,” he said. “So we spent the day getting it to suit my driving style and we accomplished a lot. We’ve still go a few changes to make but we’ve got a very clear idea of the direction we need to go in now.”  

His efforts were rewarded though, as he claimed third place in the points for the team score during the day, after setting top three stage times on each of the tests and finished the event 12th overall.  

“It’s a shame we lost that amount of time on the first day,” he said at the end of the event. “I think that without it, we’d definitely have been fighting for a podium position or the win. But we made a lot of progress with the car over this event and finishing third in the points on the second day will have helped the team.”  

The event was won by Finn Jarkko Miettinen, with Brit David Higgins second and another Finn, Juha Salo third. Both Higgins and Salo run under the Wan Yu team banner and are team-mates to Alister.  

The third round of the Chinese Rally Championship is the Gui Zhou Rally and runs over the weekend of 22/23 September.

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28/03/06
Alister & Gordon lead Chinese Rally Championship
Alister McRae proved that despite his 18 month absence from the World Rally scene that he is still one of the world's leading drivers.

A new co-driver and a new team did not daunt the former British Rally Champion when he competed on the Shaghai Rally on 25/26th March. This was the first round of the Chinese Rally Championship which attracted drivers from New Zealand, Finland, Italy, Britain, Japan, Malaysia and China.

Having driven in China when the Rally of China was a round of the World Rally Championship Alister McRae was keen to return to this country to accept the challenge of it's rallying.

It did not take long for McRae and Gordon Noble from Northern Ireland to get their act together within the car, the Chinese team providing a reliable car for the winning combination.

Driving the Wanyu Rally Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 McRae led the event by 3.5seconds at the end of day one. A puncture on the second stage of the final day lost McRae the lead. However, an attack over the final stages saw him finish ahead of the field.

British drivers David Higgins and Phil Collins both suffered mechanical problems on the first day. Leading Chinese driver Chi-Lu driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 was second with Nico Caldaro from Italy third and former Asia Pacific Rally Champion and PWRC Karamjit Singh driving a Proton was fourth.

The next round of the Chinese Rally Championship in on 4th August in Guizhou Lupnshini.

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12/03/06
Alister McRae & Gordon Noble to complete in Chinese Rally Championship
This year’s Chinese Rally Championship has attracted leading British rally drivers including David Higgins, Martin Rowe, Phil Collins and Alister McRae.

Last year’s championship was won by Martin Rowe and his enthusiasm for this series has enticed former sparring partners from British and World events to China.

Alister drove in China for Hyundai in 1999 when it was a round of the World Rally Championship, winning the Formula 2 class.

“I am looking forward to returning to China as it is always interesting going to a new country and exploring their continent. There are five events in the championship which are all based in different provinces. I will start the season driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 for the Wanyu Rally Team who are based in Zhenzhou in the Henan province. China has been featured in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship for a number of years and the events are well organised attracting thousands of spectators.”

“My regular co-driver David Senior is already committed for this season so I will be partnered by Gordon Noble from Northern Ireland. I will be starting the first round which is based in Shanghai on 24th March with a new team and a new co-driver” said Alister McRae.