1997 RALLY OF INDONESIA

MITSUBISHI FINISHES STRONGLY IN TOUGH RALLY OF INDONESIA




Team Mitsubishi Ralliart took a hard-earned fourth place on the Rally of Indonesia, widely regarded as the toughest of the 11 World Championship rallies this year, thanks to British crew Richard Burns/Robert Reid and their Mitsubishi Carisma GT. World Champion Tommi Makinen continues to lead the World Championship for Drivers, even though he failed to score points on this occasion.

For the third day running, drivers faced an exceptionally tough challenge. The demanding conditions had already caused the retirements of both works Toyotas and Colin McRae, who crashed his Subaru. Heavy rain made the early morning stages of the final leg in the hills around Parapat treacherously slippery and, while hot sunshine and sweltering temperatures swiftly dried the stages in the cocoa and rubber plantations on the fertile coastal plain, only the last of the 22 stages was entirely free of mud. There was no room for the slightest lapse of concentration and all the drivers had a weary look by the time they completed the tough three-day rally, in which Carlos Saiz of Spain won a fierce battle with Ford team-mate Juha Kankkunen to take victory, with Kenneth Eriksson third in his Subaru. Cheering crowds thronged the route, tens of thousands lining the last few kilometres as the drivers sped along the highway into Merdeka Square and the ceremonial finish in the centre of Medan.

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