Dominant DMACK Victory With Home Event Win DMACK celebrated a dominant WRC 2 victory today after Jari Ketomaa and Kaj Lindstrom delivered an untouchable drive on DMACK’s 50th WRC event. The Finns stormed to a 57-second victory on the final round of the FIA World Rally Championship this weekend after leading from start to finish on Wales Rally GB. The result secures their runner-up position in the WRC 2 Driver’s Championship – backing up DMACK’s world title as 2014 Team Champions. Estonians Ott Tänak and Raigo Molder in a M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC also delivered an impressive drive, finishing seventh overall and top privateers on their return to the premier category. DMACK had been expecting a strong result on its home round of the world championship. Its DMG+2 gravel tyres have proved extremely competitive on this year’s gravel events and excelled on this weekend’s muddy, slippery conditions. Ketomaa set the early pace when the event kicked off on Friday morning, as crews tackled some iconic forest stages in mid-Wales. After setting fastest times on five of the opening day’s eight stages, he opened up an overnight lead of nearly 40 seconds and controlled the event from there. Pushing his Autotek-run Fiesta R5 when the conditions suited, Ketomaa extended his lead to finish nearly one minute ahead of his closest rival. Tänak’s solid run proved he has the speed and talent to mix it with the world’s best. He successfully debuted DMACK’s new S6A gravel tyre, which has been designed specifically for WRC cars, and delivered the grip and performance needed to mix it with the manufacturer teams. Alongside Ketomaa’s winning drive, DMACK-equipped drivers scored a number of other memorable results. Welshman Tom Cave finished fourth in WRC 2 while local star Osian Pryce set a number of stunning stage times on his way to 18th overall on his four-wheel-drive rally debut. Phillip Morrow had a strong event and finished as top Production specification runner in his Mitsubishi Evo while Top Gear magazine editor Ollie Marriage used DMACK’s clubman rally tyre to take a class win on the National section of the rally. The climax of this year’s WRC was another demanding round. While the weather wasn’t so tough, the Welsh stages were super slippery. Mud on the first pass and polished bedrock on the second ensured drivers faced some difficult conditions. But DMACK’s soft S6 compound worked exceptionally well, allowing drivers to master the fast forest tracks. Friday’s action took place in mid-Wales with two passes over a four-stage loop including the iconic Sweet Lamb test – the longest of the weekend at 23.55km. Then competitors headed north, closer to the rally base near Chester, where the racing headed to the tricky Clocaenog and Dyfnant forests. Today’s final stages included two runs through Kinmel Park before podium celebrations in Llandudno. Drivers covered 305km of action across 23 timed special stages. Dick Cormack, DMACK managing director, said: “This is a special result for DMACK. After five second places, Jari has scored a dominant and memorable victory on our home event and Ott’s performance amongst the WRC regulars has been outstanding. DMACK products have worked exceptionally well in some very tricky conditions to score victories in both the International and National sections at the hands of experienced and clubman competitors.” Jari Ketomaa said: “My main target was to win this rally and it feels really nice to take a victory at the end of the season. Rally GB is a tough event and a rally that every driver wants to win. It was a very controlled drive, after opening up a gap we just held position and pushed when we needed to. We knew the tyres would work well here and victory was our only aim.” Ott Tänak said: “We’ve had a very good weekend and I’ve really enjoyed being back in a WRC car at the top level of the sport. It was important for us to drive without any mistakes, to get the experience and hopefully this result will be good for our future. The conditions were difficult but we worked well together and the new DMACK tyre was strong in the rough sections.”
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:23:17 +0000
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