Hot on the heels of his victory in Australia, Jari-Matti Latvala took another Production Car World Rally Championship win on the Rally New Zealand on Sunday, the final round in the series'.
Latvala started confidently, buoyed by his success in Perth and set the pace from the outset, his only consistent competition coming from New Zealand debutant Mirco Baldacci and the pair traded stage wins throughout the first two days. A mistake cost Latvala a one-minute speeding penalty on leg two though, resulting in the Finn dropping to second behind Baldacci, but gearbox woes on leg three for the San Marino driver promoted Latvala back into the lead to take the win. He eventually beat Richard Mason, who took second by 4 minutes.
“I'm so happy! It was a fine rally with a great team who have worked so hard to get these results,” said the Finn. “It was quite an easy rally as we had no problems – the hardest thing was tyre choices. We were lucky when Baldacci had his problem, then I just had to concentrate and drive at my own pace.
“The PCWRC has been great year for us to learn things but maybe we're ready to take things a step further!”
Recently-crowned New Zealand national rally champion, Mason secured second, gaining a place on the final day after Baldacci went out in SS14. He struggled to find a comfortable set-up with his unfamiliar Pirellis, but still managed to steadily up his pace as the event progressed.
“It was absolutely awesome,” said the Kiwi driver, “I'm over the moon! Who knows, if we'd had no punctures, maybe we would have been able to fight with Latvala! But I'm extremely happy to finish second in the PCWRC. I would love to do the PCWRC season next year - I just need to find funding but maybe this result will persuade someone!”
Alexander Dorosinskiy meanwhile, who was new to the PCWRC for this event and driving for Subaru Rally Team Russia on his first ever WRC rally, took third. He struggled with tyres that were too hard throughout and having only brought a small number of soft tyres to the rally, he was forced to make do after using them all on the first day. He had a small off-road excursion on leg one and a fuel pump problem saw him leave morning service on leg two 11 minutes late, but a steady drive rewarded him with the final place on the rostrum.
"I'm happy with this result but this is really a present to me as so many people had problems,” he conceded. "Maybe it is something for next year though.”
Takuma Kamada was next up, also on his debut outing in New Zealand. Like Dorosinskiy he benefited from the events of leg three to take fourth and record his best PCWRC result to date, despite contending with punctures, broken shock absorbers and swerving to avoid a cow!
Mirco Baldacci was classified fifth under the SupeRally, after transmission troubles in SS14. He had been on course to take his first ever PCWRC win, more than 50 seconds up on Latvala, when disaster struck in the 29.82 kilometre Whaanga Coast stage.
