Update from Marko Martin & Francois Duval...

[yeti]

My friend works for Jag... who gets sent emails from the Rally drivers... Thought that you might like to read them...

More soon...

C.

From: Markko Martin
Sent: 02 September 2004 10:36
To: All FOE Staff
Subject: Rally of Japan


"Hi everyone, or as they say here in Japan: Konichiwa! The city of Obihiro, on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, is the latest stop for the BP-Ford World Rally Team. We're here for round 11 of the FIA World Rally Championship and everything is new to me. This is the first time that Rally Japan has been in the championship and neither myself nor my co-driver, Michael Park, have ever set foot in the country before.

We had quite a welcome. We arrived in Tokyo on Sunday to take part in a passenger ride day for Japanese media and landed right in the middle of a typhoon! The rain was incredible and high winds made it feel more like a winter's day in Britain! Anyway, everyone had a good time so that was a good start to the week. The typhoon moved north and when we left Tokyo on Monday morning the weather was beautiful. But by the time we arrived in Obihiro we had overtaken it and it caught up with us again here on Tuesday. More rain and high winds!

When we started the recce on Wednesday, it was fine again. The scenery here is quite similar to Scandinavia or northern Germany and not at all what I expected. The special stages are narrow, no more than a car and a half wide, and all are located in forests. They remind me of British forest roads, although not quite so wide. Technically, they are not especially difficult but the roads are lined by quite deep ditches that are filled by grass and vegetation and so are quite hard to pick out.

After finishing the practice period today, we will spend a couple of hours testing our Ford Focus RS World Rally Car before the ceremonial start in the centre of Obihiro tonight. I'm looking forward to this event because it will be something different for all of us. The team scored a good result on the last round in Germany and it would be great if we can follow that up with another good performance here.

A good result on Sunday and you never know, I might even be tempted to try a proper Japanese meal for the first time!

As always you can keep up to date with the latest news and results on http://www.fordrallyesport.com so wish us luck and I hope we can bring you all a good result back to Europe.

Sayonara!

Markko Martin
FordTeamRS

From: Francois Duval
Sent: Thursday 19 August 2004 09:51
To: ALL FOE STAFF
Subject: Rally Of Germany


Hi everyone.

The FIA World Rally Championship is moving at quite a pace at the moment. Just two weeks after the start of Rally Finland and here we are in Trier putting the final touches to our preparations for the Rallye Deutschland. As Belgium does not have a rally in the championship, this is effectively my home event. It is only about three hours drive from my home in Belgium and I know that I will have plenty of support from my fellow countrymen who are making the journey over the border.

The Rallye Deutschland is an important rally for the BP-Ford World Rally Team. After a good result for the team in Finland, we need to score well again here to keep up our challenge for the manufacturers' title. It's a tough rally, probably the most difficult of all the pure asphalt events in the series. The rally uses three totally different types of road - fast roads through the Mosel vineyards with many hairpins and square corners, incredibly slippery roads on the Baumholder military ranges which are normally used for tank training exercises and narrow but flowing lanes in the Saarland.

Each has totally different characteristics. The Mosel vineyards can become quite muddy if it is wet while the roads on Baumholder are always covered in sand and gravel. This is slippery in the dry but in the wet it is quite treacherous. And guess what? The weather forecast is for rain during the weekend... The roads on the ranges also have massive kerb stones by the side which are used to keep the tanks on the road. That might work for tanks, but if you hit one of those in a rally car then the damage would be such that the only thing to do would be pack up and go home!

This is the first time we have driven on asphalt since the Monte Carlo Rally at the start of the year so I'm sure all the teams have moved forward in terms of performance. I tested the Ford Focus RS World Rally Car in Germany a few weeks ago and felt happy with it and I feel confident of achieving a good result.

Yesterday myself and co-driver Stephane Prevot started the recce session and today we drive the shakedown test, which gives us a final opportunity to test the rally car. Then this evening the rally begins in the city of Trier before the competition starts tomorrow morning. Wish us luck and remember to keep up to date with the news from the BP-Ford World Rally Team on http://www.fordrallyesport.com


Best regards

Francois Duval
Team RS

 

[Darin]

Interesting.

 

[Sleek Stratos]

Let us know when they send e-mails regarding their future rides, if indeed Ford pulls out in '05.

 

[VIPFREAK]

Ford pulling out and no more Focus Rally Car? 👎

 

[Sleek Stratos]

Read all about it.

Personally, I think it's scary to picture Martin and Gronholm on the same team, and with Duval potentially going with Citröen there'd be some battle for the manufacturer's title next year. Duval signing on will be Sainz's call though.

 

[VIPFREAK]

That does sound scary... Martin and Gronholm. It kinda did once but I hope this sport isn't going down the tubes again like ALMS did in the early '90s 👎

 

[kensei]

Read all about it.

Personally, I think it's scary to picture Martin and Gronholm on the same team, and with Duval potentially going with Citröen there'd be some battle for the manufacturer's title next year. Duval signing on will be Sainz's call though.

Ya but Peugeut need to get a handle on the 307, especially reliability, before it will be a serious contender for anything. I agree a Martin/Gronholm combo would be devestating.