02/Feb/2003 Mixed fortunes for CHR competitors on Sunday :

All of the CHR-entered competitors started this year's Monte Carlo Historic Rally fighting off sleep on the arduous all-night 'concentration leg' of the competition. Three hours into the concentration leg, the #15 car, with the Erik Comas/Yoshiyuki Abe crew aboard, suffered a fuel leak, causing an unwanted delay. After spirited repairs, Erik returned to the fight, clawing back lost time as he attacked the frozen roads. His efforts were well rewarded as they arrived in Valles Le Van the first of the five CHR-run Alpine.

On the Valles Le Van - Valence classification leg, participants had to go all out for the duration; a 225 km stretch that was to take about 5 hours 5 minutes. Competitors continued to one of the more famous places on the Monte Carlo Rally, following the snow-covered roads of the Ardeche. The leg was: Burzet/Arcens - Saint Bonnet le Froid/Saint Bonnet le Froid - Lalouvesc/Desaignes. Special Stages were run from three locations, with a total of 340 participating vehicles following each other through the time controls.

On the 2nd of these stages, one of the CHR machines ran into trouble. The #14 car of Francois Gagnaire/Michel Abattu went off the road and had to be recovered by a wrecker. Luckily, damage was minor and the crew will resume competition on tomorrow's stages.

Conversely, a gearbox breakage on the #15 car stopped Erik on course. Although today's running had to be abandoned, every effort was made to find a solution so the crew could continue tomorrow. Eventually however, repairing the damage was deemed impossible and a sad decision had to be made - the car was retired from the event.

Meanwhile, the two all-Japanese crews, Hitoshi Kato/Yoichiro Suzuki and Shunji Hasumi/Emile Yamano, along with the Olivier Jacque/Marc Minari car, all arrived in Valence without any trouble and on schedule.

Erik Comas:
"Although we were competing in a works car with a glorious past, this time I guess it simply wasn't meant to be. You always know there's a chance of something going wrong. It's unfortunate, but there's not much we can do about it.

However, since I was able to run maximum attack on the snow-covered roads in the most charming part of the rally, I am very, very happy. From tomorrow, we'll be providing powerful backup support for the four other crews"