Boss praises IRC Production Cup winner

Team boss Manfred Stohl has highlighted Toshi Arai’s professionalism and experience as being key to his capture of the inaugural IRC Production Cup this season.

Stohl, whose eponymous squad ran Arai’s Subaru Impreza R4 STI and that of team-mate Fumio Nutahara in the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, was full of praise of Arai as he reflected on his success this year.

“It was a pleasure to work with Toshi,” said Stohl. “He is very professional and his experience showed. In Cyprus [where Arai clinched the IRC Production Cup] we had no problems at all, with the tyres, the car or the conditions. The team had a very positive feeling all weekend and I think this was the perfect way to finish an excellent season.”

Austria-based Stohl Racing has been active in the IRC for the past two seasons. In 2010 it ran Daniel Oliveira’s Peugeot 207 Super 2000 before turning its attentions to the Yokohama-supported Subaru Impreza R4 project, which broke cover on May’s Tour de Corse-E.Leclerc.