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SUZUKI
IN 2002
ASIA PACIFIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
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| Nobuhiro "monster" Tajima |
Suzuki and the driver Nobuhiro "monster" Tajima is
ready for a record international field for the opening round of the 2002 Asia
Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), which is the 3-5 May Rally of Canberra in Australia.
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| Suzuki Ignis at last
year's Rally of Canberra |
Tajima won last year's APRC Super 1600cc class in a Suzuki
Ignis, and is determined to defend his title on this year's six-event series.
Experience gained on the Rally of Canberra will also
help Suzuki's Junior World Rally Championship challenge, where the team runs three
Ignis's in the Super 1600 class with drivers from Finland, Germany and Japan.
So far in 2002 Suzuki's Junior World Championship team has competed only on tarmac
events, and the gravel roads of Canberra will serve as a test to prepare for gravel
events in the world series. The first of these, the Acropolis Rally of Greece,
will be held in June, and features some of the roughest roads in the world championship.
At Canberra, Tajima will test several new tyres and parts, and gather as much
data as possible. Canberra's roads are fast and flowing compared to those of Greece,
and Tajima is probably the only driver in the field hoping for rough conditions.
After Canberra the Suzuki team's APRC programme will head to the beautiful tropical
island of New Caledonia. After that the championship visits the smooth, sweeping
roads of Rotorua, New Zealand, Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, the mountain
roads of Shaguan, China and finally the beaches of Pattaya in Thailand.
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