Rally of Cyprus 2006

Pirelli and Subaru at the Rally of Cyprus after their Asia-Pacific series' triumph

A Pirelli-shod Subaru driven by Cody Crocker wins the important APR championship. Solberg and Atkinson in action in the Mediterranean island's 2006 WRC event.

Milan, 19 September 2006 - The Subaru-Pirelli duo is preparing for the 12th round in the 2006 World Rally Championship, which is due to start on the island of Cyprus on Thursday 21 September, bolstered by their recent success in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, a FIA recognised series of notable importance on both the sporting and commercial fronts.

Thanks to a Subaru Impreza driven by Crocker-Atkinson, Pirelli Competizioni has earned an extremely prestigious victory. By coming second in the Rally of Indonesia last weekend, the Australian driver now has an unbeatable lead over his nearest rival in the championship, Katsuo Taguchi, when the series still has one more event to go - in China at the end of November.

"Taking into account the notable importance of every rally we have competed in this season, I am even more proud of the Asia-Pacific title I have won this year than my first in 2003", said Cody Crocker after his podium finish in Indonesia. "The Les Walkden Rallying team provided me with a Subaru that ran perfectly in every event, while Pirelli always supplied tyres that were ideal throughout the entire season, even when the regulations made it difficult to define the best type to use three months before the start of each rally. Although we competed over roads that were among the most punishing and demanding I have ever seen, we never had any technical or tyre problems and this whole experience has enabled me to greatly improve as a rally driver".

Cody's success in the antipodes is also a good omen for the Rally of Cyprus, which will see the P Zero Racing tyres competing in one of the toughest events of the season. As Pirelli Competizioni Rally Manager Mario Isola explains, "Cyprus is the slowest and most exhausting rally of the season for the drivers, cars and tyres. The risk of hitting stones and rocks that demolish car bodywork and tyres is constantly there over the entire route, and it is for this reason - as in Greece and Turkey - that it is possible to use two different tread patterns. Pirelli will provide its cars with variants of its P Zeros with both the KP and XR tread designs, the latter especially developed for this kind of rally and able to return notable performance on the repeated special stages: this tyre is also best able to stand up to intense heat and the extremely hard loose surfaces such as those in Cyprus".
As well as the Subaru Impreza WRC06s of Solberg and Atkinson, among the cars competing on Pirelli in Cyprus will be the Group N Subaru Impreza STi driven by Arai and Campedelli's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

For more information and pictures on Pirelli's motorsport activities visit: www.pirellicompetizioni.com

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