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| 2004 The Troodos Rally / FIA Middle East Rally Championship - Round 7 of 8 |
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| 1 - 3 October 2004 |
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CHRIS THOMAS CLAIMS THIRD IN HIS MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION
Tsouloftas’ championship dreams shattered in opening leg
Four Lancer Evolutions in the top six in Cyprus |
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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr. N
Chris THOMAS / ’CHIPS’
(3 October 2004)
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Cypriot Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Chris Thomas claimed third position in the Troodos International Rally, the seventh round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, which finished in Nicosia this afternoon. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution drivers also claimed fourth, fifth and sixth positions behind Qatari overall victor Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah.
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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr. N
Sotos TRICOMITIS / Georgious GEORGIOU
(3 October 2004)
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Thirty-nine cars, including 12 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, started the two-day event which ran over a new route designed by the Cyprus Automobile Association, the organizer of the FIA WRC event hosted in May this year. After being flagged away by the Mayor of Nicosia at the ceremonial start, the crews then faced 18 challenging and varied stages in the Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia triangle, covering a mixture of rocky, twisty and high-speed tracks through farmland and the foothills of the Troodos Mountains.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah took the lead from the outset, however multiple Cyprus National Rally Champion Andreas Tsouloftas saw his dreams of winning the FIA Middle East Rally Championship for the first time shattered in the fourth stage of the event when his new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII ground to a halt in a notorious water splash. “That’s it, the end of the season for one small problem,” said the Cypriot, who had begun the event just nine points behind series leader Khalid Al-Qassimi.
The water hazard played havoc with a number of crews. Lebanon’s Roger Feghali, who was tackling his first gravel event outside his homeland in a bid to gain more experience ahead of the 2005 season, suffered with dust problems in the opening stage, a flat tire in the second and then he too succumbed to water ingestion in his Lancer Evolution’s engine. While he managed to finish the stage, he was forced to retire with terminal engine damage. He was soon joined on the list of retirements by fellow Lancer Evolution driver Khalifa Al-Attiyah.
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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr. N
Abdo FEGHALI / Joseph MATAR
(3 October 2004)
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"I knew that Nasser and Andreas would be pushing very hard", said a disappointed Feghali. "They needed to win the rally to keep their hopes of winning the championship alive and I knew that I could monitor my pace against them straight away. I expected to take a while to settle in. At the end of the first stage I had a small electrical problem and was still in contention for the top three. Then I had a puncture on the second stage and was still only a handful of seconds away from second.
"I was taking it easy, nothing more than first gear at the water splash, but the engine had been misfiring with a couple of faulty plugs and we think some water got into the air filter and damaged the engine. That was the end. I feel frustrated but also pleased with my pace. Without the minor problems we would have been much faster and maybe on the podium at the finish".
Behind the top three podium finishers, Lancer Evolutions finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the hands of Dimitris Papasavvas, Sotos Tricomitis and Soullis Savva respectively. Both Jordan’s Amjad Farrah and Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Al-Sabban - lying fourth and fifth in the series before the event - failed to make the start but the non-Cypriot Mitsubishi contingent was bolstered by Qatar’s Khalifa Al-Attiyah and Lebanon’s Abdo Feghali in a Lancer Evolution VIII built by Ralliart in Dubai, the same car in which brother Roger won the Rally of Lebanon in July.
In the FIA Middle East Rally Championship standings, Khalid Al-Qassimi takes a nine point lead into the final round of the series, the Dubai International Rally (December 1-3). To have any chance of claiming second in the series, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Andreas Tsouloftas needs to take outright victory.
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FINAL OVERALL CLASSIFICATION |
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Driver / Co-driver |
Nat. |
Car |
Gr.
Cl. |
Total Time |
Difference |
| 1 |
Nasser AL-ATTIYAH / Chris PATERSON |
QA/GB |
Subaru Impreza |
N/4 |
2.13.35.80 |
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| 2 |
Khalid AL-QASSIMI / Michael ORR |
UAE/IRL |
Subaru Impreza |
N/4 |
2.17.00.75 |
+ 3.24.95 |
| 3 |
Chris THOMAS / ’CHIPS’ |
CY |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII |
N/4 |
2.21.24.14 |
+ 7.48.34 |
| 4 |
Dimitris PAPASAVVAS / Evaggelos XENOFONTOS |
CY |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII |
N/4 |
2.25.16.74 |
+ 11.40.94 |
| 5 |
Sotos TRICOMITIS / Georgious GEORGIOU |
CY |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII |
N/4 |
2.27.34.22 |
+ 13.58.42 |
| 6 |
Soullis SAVVA / Yiannos CHRISTOFI |
CY |
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III |
N/4 |
2.29.40.70 |
+ 16.04.90 |
| 7 |
Natav DOTAN (IL)/Angelos LOIZIDES |
IL/CY |
Subaru Impreza |
N/4 |
2.29.47.45 |
+ 16.11.65 |
| 8 |
Spyros PAVLIDES / Theodoros VASILIADES |
CY |
Subaru Impreza |
N/4 |
2.37.06.55 |
+ 23.30.75 |
| 9 |
Lakis PARELLIS / Panayiotis SHIALOS |
CY |
Opel Corsa GSi |
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2.39.10.79 |
+ 25.34.99 |
| 10 |
Georges LISANDROU / S. ELIA |
CY |
Seat Ibiza |
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2.39.29.08 |
+ 25.53.28 |
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| Nationalities:
CY=Cyprus /
GB=Great Britain /
IL=Israel /
IRL=Ireland /
QA=Qatar /
UAE=United Arab Emirates /
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