Arai confident of improved Subaru pace

Japanese star Toshi Arai is confident that the pace of his Yokohama-equipped Subaru Impreza WRX STI will improve as he continues his Intercontinental Rally Challenge campaign this year.

Driving the new R4-specification Impreza, Arai took part in what he described as “a very long test session” on last week’s Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc. He believes that the lessons learned indicate a strong future for Subaru in the series.

“This was a very long test session,” said Arai, who finished 13th overall on the island rally. “We were in Corsica to learn and to improve the car. We didn’t know so much about this car on Tarmac because we only tested once in Austria. We have done our work on gravel, where we know we can be strong. We are also trying different Yokohama tyre compounds, which gave us a lot of good information.”

Arai will return to IRC action on Sata Rallye Acores from 14-16 July when Subaru will field a second Impreza for Fumio Nutahara.