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DMACK Dominates For Historic European Victory
DMACK powered to its maiden FIA European Rally Championship victory when Finn Jari Ketomaa sealed a commanding win today on the Rally Liepāja-Ventspils in Latvia – the second round of the championship.
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The stunning performance allowed DMACK to win on its first-ever attempt at the European series and sees Ketomaa move into the overall championship lead after collecting maximum bonus points for heading the field at the end of each leg. He dominated the event in the Autotek Fiesta RRC car to win by 31s after clinching fastest times on eight of the rally’s 15 high-speed special stages in frozen winter conditions.
The event was the first competitive outing for DMACK’s all-new DMG-ICE studded gravel tyre which features brand-new studding technology developed in-house in collaboration with Ketomaa and DMACK’s Finnish partners.
Ketomaa himself was key in the development of the new ‘T-bar’ studding system which delivers greater stud retention and enhanced traction on frozen gravel and ice. Each tyre is equipped with 384 metal studs, with a maximum protrusion of 7mm, which bite into frozen surfaces to deliver maximum grip.
The new tyre also features an improved stiffer compound and an updated construction to deliver greater performance and precision on high-speed winter roads.
The dominant performance is extremely encouraging ahead of next weekend’s world championship counter at Rally Sweden which will see Ketomaa pilot his Autotek-prepared Ford Fiesta in WRC specification.
Ketomaa and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom started in fine form on this weekend’s event. They went fastest on Friday’s qualifying stage and chose to run first on the road for the evening action. Ketomaa hadn’t competed since last summer and settled into a comfortable pace on the first three stages – going into the overnight halt in second position behind works Peugeot driver Craig Breen.
However, he stepped things up a gear on Saturday, going 11.7s quicker than Breen on stage six to edge into the rally lead. He then led from the front, scoring fastest times on all but two stages to the finish in Ventspils.
DMACK heads to Rally Sweden next week with a renewed confidence. In addition to Ketomaa, it will also supply tyres to Fiesta WRC driver Martin Prokop and MINI WRC pilot Michal Kosciuszko. Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen will also kick off his WRC2 campaign for the DMACK Autotek team.
Dick Cormack, DMACK motorsport director, said: “Jari and Kaj have delivered a fantastic victory in Latvia and it’s demonstrated the much-improved performance of our new snow tyre. We’ve worked tirelessly all year and today’s win marks a huge effort from everyone involved – but we go to Sweden next week in the knowledge that all our drivers will have a very good tyre for the event. This is an historic result for a small tyre manufacturer like DMACK and it’s testament to the hard work, technical development and ongoing learning from our world rally participation. Jari has played a huge part in this win as, along with our Finnish partners, he’s helped develop new studding technology which has certainly given us the edge this weekend.”
Jari Ketomaa said: “I’m really happy with this result. We didn’t want to take any risks and knew that we would be able to settle into a rhythm after the first day. The feeling with the tyres and the car was really good and it’s such a big step up and improvement from last year. The conditions on the rally were extreme with very high speeds and lots of frozen gravel so this was the perfect test for tyres, car and my new partnership with Kaj.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in WRC Rally News 2010: |
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