The fourth round of Chinese Rally Championship was held in the picturesque Longyou County, Zhejiang Province on 13th-15th November also as final round of FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Longyou has provided Subaru Rally Team China’s Australian driver Dean Herridge with success in the past. The event got a really strong field in the CRC such as quick Finnish guys Juha Salo, Jussi Valimaki and Jari Ketomaa. Also Briton David Higgins has been dominating the Chinese championship for the last two and half years while Tony Green has a ride with a new team for this event. There are a dozen of drivers who are all going to be fighting for the win. SRTC sent Li Wei and Dean Herridge who brought the victory last year at this Longyou Rally.
The event kicked off by Super SS on the Friday afternoon in front of an enthusiastic crowd following by proper competitive stage from next day. Many drivers complained about the road conditions as the stages were getting rough through three times repeating to use. Although CRC entrants Salo, Ketomaa, Green and Valimaki all ran into problems, Dean and Wei showed perfect performance on the day. After Day1’s 10 stages, Dean took second place among CRC with only 40 seconds behind Higgins. Li Wei also performed well and led the Chinese drivers.
On Day 2, Dean started in perfect condition and tried to catch up his main rival Higgins. But after his team mate Wei crashed out on SS 13 while leading Chinese crews, Dean slowed down in order to secure his position and gain team points. However, eventually Dean elevated his position to the top-step of the podium for CRC when Higgins was disqualified after he was assisted by another car after SS14. For the second year in a row, Dean has guided the Subaru Rally Team China and Subaru Impreza to victory at Rally China.
“I’m very pleased with the way the weekend turned out”, said Dean after the podium ceremony. “It’s the biggest event on the series, so gaining CRC Victory after three and a half hours battle made me very satisfying feeling. It’s been a bit of a tough year for our team, so this is a great reward for all our team and the effort they put into every event”.
On the current Teamfs point standings, SRTC is positioned the fifth place, but the gap to the tops is quite a small. The final round of CRC, round five “Shaowu rally” will be held from 19-21 December.
