Suzuki World Rally Team score their best ever WRC result on Repco Rally New Zealand 2008

Posted by RallyScott 31 August, 2008

whaanga.jpg picture by C4B

Rally New Zealand (NZ), Sunday 31 August, day three (SS12-SS16)

Suzuki celebrates with both SX4 WRCs in the points in New Zealand

The final day of Rally New Zealand took crews to some of the most
photographed and talked about stages on the whole World Rally Championship
calendar. The Te Hutewai and Whaanga Coast stages go as far west of the
rally base in Hamilton as possible - they run along the headland of the
Tasman Sea. Both Suzuki drivers Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson were
looking forward to the stages, which are as much a treat for the drivers as
they are for the spectators. And they turned out to be a fitting setting for
Suzuki's best World Rally Championship finish yet, with Andersson climbing
the leaderboard through the final day to sixth and his team-mate
Gardemeister finishing just one place further back in seventh place. It was
no wonder the drivers received such a rapturous welcome back into Hamilton
from the local Kiwi fans and everybody in the Suzuki World Rally Team. A
trouble-free run to seven points on one of the toughest rallies in the world
was the perfect result for everybody.

a.jpg picture by C4B

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister), n.12 (Andersson):

Andersson's only problem through the final day's 85 kilometres of
competitive action was a double puncture on the penultimate stage, beyond
that both Suzuki SX4 WRCs ran without any technical faults - as they have
done for all three days and 353 kilometres of Rally New Zealand.

Driver news:

Toni Gardemeister: "I really enjoy these roads and today, like every day on
this rally, the SX4 WRC worked very well. I had a spin on the long one this
morning, it was quite tough to find the feeling on the gravel in there, but
after that the day has been getting better and better. The team has worked
really hard for this and we deserve the points and the finish. I'm really
happy."

P-G Andersson: "I drove a little bit like my grandmother this morning! I
knew there was so much to lose by making a mistake today, which meant there
was quite a lot of pressure. The car was really good, but it was tough to
find a rhythm and get into the morning stages, they were really loose at
times. As well as that, I was struggling a little bit with the pace notes,
they were too fast for the corners. It was such a shame for the last run
through Whaanga Coast, that's a great stage, but a couple of kilometres into
the stage we got a puncture, so we had to do the whole stage like that. Then
later on, we got another puncture and dropped more time. Okay, this wasn't
the best way to end it, but it has been a great rally for the whole team -
and our faultless SX4 WRC."

o.jpg picture by C4B

Team news:

Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: "As you can imagine, I'm
pretty delighted with the way things have gone. This is a great payback for
all the incredible hard work everybody in the team has put in. We have all
worked tirelessly towards seeing the Suzuki SX4 WRC show this kind of
reliability and pace. There's more to come, but for now we're all just going
to enjoy this result. Fantastic!"

untitledsuz4.jpg picture by C4B