HYUNDAI CASTROL WORLD RALLY TEAM CONTINUES TO IMPRESS IN SWEDEN

The Hyundai Accent WRCs of Kenneth Eriksson and Alister McRae continued to impress spectators and the team alike on the second leg of the 2000 International Swedish Rally, run 220km north of the Karlstad base. From an overnight position of 17th and 19th respectively, Eriksson and McRae, competing in the Accent for the first time, ended the day 13th and 14th and claimed a further three top ten stages times in the process. Eriksson also claimed joint fifth fastest time, alongside Richard Burns, on the day's last stage, the Lugnat SuperSpecial.

McRae enjoyed a steady run, acclimatising himself to the conditions as much as the car, with a mixture of ice, rain and gravel to contend with, following a night of rain and relatively warm temperatures. Throughout the day, he continued to fine tune the car's settings and by the end of leg two, was setting times that he was pleased with, while learning more of the car's capabilities.

"Today has gone very well, " said McRae. "The stages have been very difficult, with lots of gravel and the centre differential wasn't working quite as I wanted it to. But we improved it through the day and overall, it's been very encouraging."

It was Eriksson, however, who demonstrated the true potential of the car, drawing on his huge experience of this, his home event and one he has won outright three times in the past. He again set several top ten stage times and through the course of the day, set faster stage times than Francois Delecour, Juha Kankunnen, Freddy Loix, Harri Rovanpera and Didier Auriol, despite a couple of mechanical glitches.

His car lost its power steering on the first stage and this was traced to a leak on the centre differential, which shares the same hydraulic system. The crew changed the complete gearbox unit and he continued to set a pace on par with the SEAT team. However, the gearbox then lost fifth gear and because regulations stipulate only one gearbox change is allowed per day, he was forced to continue for the rest of the day with no fifth gear. This clearly didn't affect him though, as he went on to post the 7th fastest time of the day on the 48km Jutbo stage and joint fifth at Lugnat. "For the first time in my life, I'm happy to drop some time with small problems. There is so much potential in the car and it's already quick. It's a very easy car to drive fast. In fact, it's fantastic - I'm going to call it 'Amigo'. The public support we get here is also very important - the people are fantastic and I don't want to let them down," he said.

The combination of overnight placings and the car's obvious pace means that the team will be trying hard for at least one top ten finish on this, the car's competition debut. Such as result would vindicate the hard work put in by the engineers, mechanics and drivers of the Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team over the last eighteen months of design and development.

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There were changes through the course of the second day at the top of the leader-board, but Marcus Gronholm in the Peugeot 206 retains first place. However, Thomas Radstrom in a Toyota Corolla WRC slipped back from his second place, overhauled by Tommi Makinnen and former Ford team-mate, Colin McRae. Fifth place remained in the hands of Brit Richard Burns in the first of the Subarus. McRae's team-mate, Carlos Sainz, retired when his engine's oil pump failed, while a similar fate befell Toni Gardemeister in the second nominated SEAT.