WRC: 1000 Lakes preview

• pakar@cc.jyu.fi (Petri A. Karonen)
• University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
• Mon Aug 12 23:05:59 EDT 1996

Official Press Release
Makinen Looks for Home Advantage

Tommi Makinen is looking to increase his lead in the FIA World Rally
Championship by making it a hat trick of wins on his home event, the Neste
1000 Lakes Rally on August 23-26. He will be closely pursued by Carlos
Sainz, who needs to keep the Finn within striking distance to be able to
benefit from his expenced advantage on the Southern European events, which
round off the series. 

Colin McRae will want to push hard the points leaders to stand any chance
of retaining his title. 

Mitsubishi have nominated an all-Finnish squad to support works driver
Makinen in their bid for manufacturers' points. Test driver Lasse Lampi
will take the wheel of group A Lancer, while Jouko Puhakka tackles the
event in his usual Group N version. 

Subaru send their usual line-up to Finland, with McRae joined by Kenneth
Eriksson and Piero Liatti. 

Ford's only nominated drivers are works men Sainz and Bruno Thiry nut a
lot of interest will focus on the debuts of local rising stars Jarmo
Kytolehto and Harri Rovanpera in similar cars. 

Juha Kankkunen leads a trio of competitive Toyotas, entered by a Finnish
team. and is joined by Thomas Raadstrom and Marcus Gronholm. 

Several visiting privateers in competitive Group A cars add spice to the
action, including Rui Madeira and Andrea Dallavilla in Toyotas plus Andrea
Navarra, Angelo Medeghini and Masao Kamioka in Subarus. 

Group N should see Jouko Puhakka's Mitsubishi challenged by the similar
cars of Jorge Recalde, Gustavo Trelles, Uwe Nittel and Olli Harkki. 
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   =            Petri Karonen     Email: pakar@tukki.jyu.fi            =
   =   World Rally Championship Infosystem: http://www.jyu.fi/~pakar/  =  
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