Arai ends 2012 on a high with class victory in Cyprus

Toshi Arai might not have been able to successfully defend his IRC Production Cup title this season but he emerged from the Cyprus Rally on Sunday victorious nevertheless following his first win of 2012.

Driving a Subaru Impreza R4 STI for rallying legend Tommi Mäkinen’s eponymous team, Arai took advantage when team-mate Jarkko Nakara suffered significant delay on stage seven and controlled his sizeable lead to the finish. Cypriot Savvas Savva finished third with German Armin Kremer fourth.

Afterwards, an elated Arai said: “I was so surprised to be on the podium but thank you to Yokohama tyres. They have made a good tyre on Tarmac and gravel and we had good tyres here. I am disappointed after stage three when we went off the road but so happy to come back to this podium position. The roads are quite rough and in a Group N car it’s difficult but the car is so strong and we had no problem at all. It was a difficult rally.”

Andreas Aigner started the event in contention for the IRC Production Cup crown but a brake cylinder failure on stage two led to his retirement. He restarted on the second day and although he was quickest in class on five stages to finish in eighth place, it wasn’t enough to give the Austrian the 22 points he needed to overhaul Renault driver Robert Consani, who captured the title alongside co-driver Nicolas Klinger, despite the French pair not being eligible for category points in Cyprus.

Marco Tempestini and Vitaliy Pushkar were also in contention for the award but were in trouble early on.