Round 2 of the 2009 Production car World Rally Championship kicks off this weekend in Cyprus, a complete contrast to the opening round of the series, last month’s Rally Norway. In the only mixed surface event of the season, the crews will tackle tarmac stages on Friday, before moving over to gravel tests for the remaining two days of the event based in the town of Limassol.

At the pre-event test on Monday, four Impreza-equipped crews took to the specially prepared 4.71-km test road. Double world champion Toshi Arai and 2007 title-holder Nasser Al Attiyah were joined by newcomers Gaurav Gill and Egoi Eder Valdez Lopez for a day’s running over varying road characteristics, the route going from fast and open to tight, twisty and technical in its latter stages.

The early part of the test road proved a very good place to set the cars up for the high speed sections as the wide roads allowed crews to see very easily that all the geometry on the car is correct. This was followed by a twisty, technical and very bumpy section, indicative of some of the stage conditions expected this weekend. In all, there were three different surfaces on the test: stone, mud and traditional forest roads - giving the drivers a full range of what to expect come Friday.

The day started off dry, but light showers fell steadily throughout the morning, turning to heavy rain in the second half of the day. This made the test road quite muddy after lunch, conditions deteriorating to miserable by day’s end. As usual, it was Toshi Arai who completed the most runs through the stage, the Japanese ace driving continuously from the 09:00 start right up the 16:00 finish. “Yeah, I’m very happy with the car here. This road is good and helps us prepare for the rally well. It’s rainy now, but I hope not too wet this weekend!”

Nasser Al Attiyah, fresh off a MERC victory in Kuwait last weekend, flew here directly from the Middle East, and is hoping to continue his winning streak this weekend. “It’s great to be here in Cyprus. I like the conditions if it’s hot and dry - that suits me more, you know. The car is running well, no problems at all. I’m looking forward to the rally.” Gaurav Gill wasn’t feeling well on the test; he seemed to have gotten food poisoning on the flight over from India. However, he still managed a full day of running, and got familiar with the car in very difficult circumstances.

Young Spaniard Egoi Eder Valdez Lopez was another to acclimatize himself well on the test road, steadily getting used to the car as the day progressed. Other Impreza runners contesting Cyprus Rally but not at the test were Gianluca Linari and Gabor Mayer.

Like the WRC, P-WRC entrants are mandated to use one type of control tyre throughout the entire event.

STI Group N Project General Manager George Donaldson:

“It was a fantastic test road we had on Monday, featuring a huge range of characteristics that should prepare the drivers well for the rally. Normally we would expect a dry Cyprus, but we do occasionally get rain - and that always catches people by surprise. Of course drivers such as Toshi and Nasser know about it, but we were able to brief Gaurav Gill for what to expect, and it was brilliant to be able to do that. The trick for him will be to find a good strategy and then stick to it.

The other new fellow out this weekend is Egoi Eder Valdez Lopez. I was pleased to see him getting more and more out of the car as the day wore on. We’ll be monitoring his progress throughout the weekend as he takes in his first P-WRC event with us.

Cyprus is always a tough rally. The cars and crews get a good workout on each of the three days - and with tarmac and gravel stages on the same event it should be quite a test for all the competitors. We feel well prepared to take the fight to the others, and are looking forward to a competitive weekend. “