By Channaka de Silva reporting from Longyou, China
Champion Sri Lankan driver Dinesh Deheragoda has set himself a lofty target of claiming a podium finish in the Asia Cup of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, and vowed yesterday to up the ante at the China Rally, the penultimate leg of this season’s event which starts tomorrow here in Longyou.
Deheragoda is currently lying in fifth position of the Asia Cup in his maiden attempt at a major international Rally championship and feels he has extra reason to go for kill in the dangerous rally that finishes on Sunday.
“It is important that I meet my personal goal in this rally, as I am hoping to gauge my potential for the next season when I am planning to run the full APRC. So, personally a whole lot is at stake for me, and that makes me determined to perform at my best from tomorrow for three days” Deheragoda told “Daily Mirror” yesterday adding “Everything is in place for that and I am ready for the challenge.”
“Currently, I am fifth in the championship. So, if I can finish, get to the fourth place in the overall rankings, I am giving myself a great chance of making it to the Asia Cup championship podium after the next round in Thailand. That is my clear goal,” Deheragoda revealed.
Deheragoda felt he ought to achieve better things for his team Ezy Racing. “We are looking forward to be as competitive as we can. I have set myself a stiff goal for this rally to finish on the podium. We are giving it the best shot. I think I owe it also to the Ezy Racing team which has been behind me giving me every possible push,” he said.
He knows that he has made giant steps of improvement to place him in a great position for better things. “When we started the Malayasia Rally, it was the first time I sat in a car together with Shafraz (Junaid, the team’s co-driver). Over the period of time we raced and practiced together and also due to the effort we have put in, we have now been able to get the driver and co-driver co-ordination to a 90 per cent level of perfection. That’s why I feel, we have clearly improved since we first started”.
Another positive factor is getting his trusted Mitsubishi Evolution X named ER88 into the best condition after a massive differential issue debilitated the car in the previous round in Japan, cutting off his chances of a serious challenge.
“On the plus side, we have identified and rectified all the issues we had with the car. The car is fully prepared and is performing at optimum level, and for the first time this season we are going into a rally with a perfect car.”
In Japan, the car started to shake violently whenever it was revved up and prevented Deheragoda from giving it the full throttle. It was initially suspected to be a broken rear LSD (Limited Slip Differential), but it was ruled out later.
Ezy team mechanics replaced the entire differential since coming here on Friday, but the problem persisted and it was later on Monday that they had finally been able to detect the issue to be a burnt ACD (Active Centre Differential) pump which they replaced.
Interestingly, fellow Sri Lankan racing driver Nishan Weerasooriya who owns a similar car had kindly offered to send it across to Deheragoda in China as it had been difficult to find the required part in a hurry.
A big part of the China Rally is run on concrete surfaces which are not seen anywhere else in the world.
“The uniqueness of the China Rally is that 40 per cent of it is run on concrete surfaces. Of the other 60 per cent, about ten per cent are downhills. I have never raced downhill and to make matters worse, all downhills are gravel. It has rained and the surface is muddy and extremely slippery. So, racing downhill, you need a lot of driving skills and car control. You also have to be very cautious. This is a whole new experience to us,” Deheragoda said of the challenges that lay ahead.
Among leading contenders at Rally China are Austria’s former World Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC) champion Manferd Stohl, three-time British Rally Championship winner Mark Higgins of UK and Australia’s 2012 APRC Champion Chris Atkinson who is driving a new rally car based on the latest seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf developed by motorsport preparation company Prodrive.
The Rally starts in Longyou, 400 kilometres South West of Shanghai, with a ceremonial start tomorrow morning at 9.30 am China time (7 am SL time) in front of expected thousands of spectators.
It will be followed by a short stage one, near Longyou. Over the next two days, the rally will be held across 13 special stages covering almost 231 kilometres and will finish on Sunday back in Longyou city at approximately 3.15pm.
The total distance of the Rally will be 655.84 kilometres.
Czech Republic’s Jan Kopecky has already clinched the APRC before this rally. The MRF-Skoda driver has an unassailable 50-point lead over his closest rival and teammate Gaurav Gill of India who won the APRC last season.