Mitsubishi’s four-times World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen and team-mate Freddy Loix play an enormous part in the success of Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart, however the Finnish Lancer Evolution and Belgian Carisma GT drivers are just part of a massive operation that keeps the team competing and winning at the highest level.
F. Loix’s Mitsubishi Carisma GT is prepared to fit in the cargo airplane which will carry it to New Zealand
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The FIA World Rally Championship is a truly international series that takes seven competing manufacturers to four continents in a season lasting eleven months. To ensure the best possible chance of success, wherever Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart is in the world, working conditions must closely match those at the team headquarters in Rugby, England. Of the 14 events in the 2000 World Rally Championship, four take the team on a 48,000 kilometre round-trip to the African, South American and Australasian continents for events in Kenya, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. This requires at least one duplicate set of long-haul equipment, and it is therefore little wonder that a Logistics Co-ordinator spends a year dedicated to its movement.
Within days of the World Championship winning Lancer Evolution and Carisma GT being completed at Rugby, they are handed over to the logistics team to get them to any of the 14 events contested over the year. Doing this is as much of a challenge as beating the opposition! "Detailed planning can start as much as six to eight months in advance", comments Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Phil Short.
Logitsics is a full time jop for Co-ordinator Derek Dauncey (right) and Adam Walker-Jesse (left)
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"The big one of the year is the Safari Rally", adds Derek Dauncey, the team’s Logistics Co-ordinator. "The rally is in February/March, and we have to start working on it in August and shipping before Christmas, due to the high cost of flying all the equipment. When you consider the containers are not back from Australia until the beginning of December, there is no more than two weeks to turn them round and get them on their way to Africa. It’s a pretty busy time!"
Due to its unique nature, the sea-freight for the Safari Rally is treated as a totally separate issue requiring a different set of equipment, most of which returns to Rugby, unlike Argentina, New Zealand and Australia where the freight can spend up to nine months on the high seas.
The Safari Rally sea-freight, sent on its 7,000 kilometre journey from the UK in mid-December, includes:
1 x 40’ container for two recce cars
1 x 40’ container for approximately 240 wheels and tyres
1 x 20’ container for spare parts
"The type of things that go by sea-freight is equipment we can afford to be out of touch with for three months at a time", says Derek Dauncey. "Anything that relates to technical developments and actual competition goes at the last possible minute".
In addition, the following was sent directly from Rally Australia in November 1999:
A part of the equipment, ready to be shipped to New Zealand
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1 x 20’ mobile workshop container
1 x 20’ container for consumable items
Excluding the two rally cars used by Tommi Makinen and Freddy Loix - which are sent by air-freight at a later date - the total volume of equipment sent out to Nairobi amounted to eight tons.
As far as the remaining three long-haul events are concerned, between 45-50 tons of equipment, in eight containers, spends its life on ships between the middle of March and December.
This includes:
1 x 20’ mobile workshop container, shipped 2,500 kilometres directly from Kenya to meet the Rally Argentina freight
1 x 20’ container for consumable items
1 x 20’ container for approximately 300 wheels and spare parts
1 x 20’ container for a recce car and spare parts
1 x 20’ container for the press team’s equipment
1 x 40’ specially modified container for three cars - 2 Lancer recce and 1 Lancer test car
2 x 20’ high cube containers each carrying a specially-designed service vehicle
Last check for Derek Dauncey (right) and Chris Lundy (left) before the freight leaves to New Zealand
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On top of this, the test car is sent on a 10,500 kilometre sea-freight journey from Argentina to New Zealand, and two additional 20’ containers are shipped separately from the UK to New Zealand and Australia to restock the round-the-world containers after Rally Argentina.
Air-freight is again treated as a separate issue, ensuring Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart has the latest specification equipment for each long-haul rally. "We have to be able to react to development work carried out during a test, where the drivers or engineers have made changes to specifications", adds team manager Phil Short. This additional cargo freight includes:
Rally Argentina
Two rally cars, which then return by air to Ralliart Europe in Rugby
Rally New Zealand
Two rally cars, which are then put in a container and sea-freighted 5,500 kilometres to Australia
Rally Australia
1 x 20’ mobile workshop container to ensure sufficient equipment is available to completely rebuild the rally cars that have been sea-freighted from New Zealand
"Everywhere we go, we have enough equipment and parts to completely rebuild two cars", notes Derek Dauncey.
Aside from keeping track of the equipment in various locations around the world, issuing the documentation to reflect this, including all the consumable items, is a full-time job in itself. "Although the paperwork follows a fairly standard procedure, each country nevertheless has its own rules and regulations that we must adhere to", comments Derek Dauncey. "New Zealand and Australia, for example, have very strict regulations and freight can be held up in customs for days if something is amiss. Most notably they are very particular about the quarantine rules and it’s important that all equipment is clean when it enters the country. It is not acceptable for us to ship dirty cars from Argentina and expect the authorities in New Zealand to be happy receiving them. Although it is my job to ensure everything arrives where it should, it’s a team effort when loading the containers, otherwise we have no equipment and no rally!
T. Makinen’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and F. Loix’s Carisma GT are loaded on a truck which will transport them to the airport
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"Once the containers are on board a ship, they’re out of our hands and it can be difficult to find out exactly what’s going on", he adds. "There’s absolutely no accounting for delays, port strikes or bad weather and last year there was a near disaster when the shippers advised me that one of the containers en route to New Zealand had been lost overboard during a storm. Fortunately a couple of days later they could tell me that it was actually still there, albeit damaged - but then we needed to ascertain how much damage had been done to the equipment and what we then needed to fly out, just in case. I’m glad to say days like these don’t happen too often!"
Despite detailed planning, the team occasionally has to deal with eleventh hour deliveries. "We look at our movement sheet and see who’s the last man to leave", adds Phil Short. "Sometimes he has some pretty heavy luggage!"
After its five-day test in Finland last week (15-20 June) in preparation for August’s Rally Finland, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart heads off to the other side of the world for Rally New Zealand. Based in Auckland for the second consecutive year, this is a firm favourite with the crews. The fast and flowing gravel roads are some of the best in the world for a rally driver and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution crew of Tommi Makinen and Risto Mannisenmaki will be all-out to secure their second consecutive victory.
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