Mexico : Subaru World Rally Team - ShakedownA cactus, a Subaru WRC - it must be Rally Mexico!
The pre-event reconnaissance of Rally Mexico's ten stages took place between 0700hrs and 1900hrs on Tuesday and Wednesday. "The recce was good, no problem at all,” said
Chris Atkinson. "We ended up changing the notes a bit because the roads seemed wider and smoother than previous years and it looks like the roads will be a little bit faster this time around. But there's a lot of loose dirt on the roads too, which could be a problem for the first few cars through.”
Petter Solberg's co-driver, Phil Mills, added: "It was good, very much the same as last year, so there were no big surprises. It's the same loose conditions, same warm weather and every bit of road we've been on before, in one combination or another.”
Thursday is shakedown day, and in Mexico today Solberg and Atkinson completed their final pre-event checks and preparations, before the rally starts for real on Friday morning. Between 0800hrs and 1200hrs Solberg and Atkinson drove their brand new Impreza WRC2007s on a 5.
13km test road that closely resembled the sort of stages they'll tackle over the weekend. Both drivers made multiple passes through the stage, which was 16km from the service area in Leon, and said they were satisfied with the set-up work they had carried out.
Although the shakedown is a non competitive part of the event, official times are recorded and encouragingly both Subaru's were near the top of the sheet. Fastest overall was Citroen's Dani Sordo, with a time of 2:49.2s, while his team-mate
Sebastien Loeb went second fastest in 2:49.8. Solberg and Atkinson were third and fourth fastest, with times of 2:50.8s and 2:51.6 respectively.
Source SWRT
