Subaru duo to battle for PCWRC title.

All eyes will be on the two Subaru Impreza WRX STIs of Martin Rowe and Toshi Arai when the final round of the Production Car World Rally Championship [PCWRC] starts in Corsica this Thursday [16 October].

The pair are the only drivers capable of winning the title this year.

Rowe goes into the tarmac deciding event with a seven points lead over Arai, while out going champion Karamjit Singh is currently second equal on the points table with Arai.

Singh is not competing in Corsica as he has already contested his designated six rounds of the PCWRC, while Rowe elected not to start the Argentina event and Arai was absent from Germany.

Rowe is quietly confident of success in his David Sutton Motorsport run Impreza WRX STI.

"We don't have to go flat out," said Rowe. "This championship has been about consistency. We've scored points in every round and we only have to do the same again to take the title."

Rowe, the British champion in 1998 is reaping the benefit of his second full year in the PCWRC and the experience that provides and he is not concerned about Subaru's past reputation of performing better on gravel events than the tarmac of Corsica.

"We managed okay in Germany," said Rowe, where he and co-driver Trevor Agnew were second in the PCWRC on the only other tarmac round of the PCWRC. "The new 2003 Impreza WRX STI is quite capable on tarmac and I think we can finish in the top five."

Arai has a bigger mountain to climb if he wants to win the PCWRC. The Japanese driver and his Kiwi co-driver Tony Sircombe in their Subaru Production Rally Team Impreza WRX STI have to win in Corsica and hope Rowe finishes outside the top five. If Arai was to finish second, Rowe would have to place eighth or worse for the Japanese driver to take the PCWRC.

"We can only do as best we can," said Arai, who has not done a tarmac event this year as he missed the Germany round. "We've got no control over what Martin does. We just have to hope some of our other rivals finish behind us, but in front of Martin!"

Stig Blomqvist meanwhile has a chance to give Subaru a clean sweep of the podium positions in the PCWRC if he can finish fourth or better in Corsica. At the moment Blomqvist, the 1984 World Champion, is fourth on points in a second Impreza WRX STI run by the David Sutton team.

Rowe's path to the PCWRC decider has included a third place in the opening event in Sweden, then fourth in New Zealand, second in Cyprus and Germany and victory in Australia.

Arai retired while leading in Sweden and then won the New Zealand, Argentina and Cyprus rounds. He was lying third in Australia and gaining on the leaders when he was forced out of the event on the second day.