Auriol is the primary to confess he’s not coming into to compete toe-to-toe with the present technology of drivers. As he identified to Match Simple president Hisashi Kunie when the concept was initially floated: “Okay, however , I don’t drive anymore! It’s up to now now.”
That didn’t cease him from eager to scratch the pure itch of a world champion, although. Studying plans had been afoot for a Rally Japan entry, his first query was: why not enter WRC2?
“After they proposed this rally with the JN1 automobile, I attempted to push to have a Rally2,” stated Auriol. “Even when it was simply to get pleasure from driving a correct rally automobile, reasonably than compete. However the workforce doesn’t have this automobile, so it was unimaginable. However it could be even nicer to have been in a quicker automobile!”
The automobile he’ll drive is a road-going GR Yaris with some modifications to match the Japanese championship’s JN1 rules. Although Auriol is a part of the rally, he received’t be categorised as a WRC entrant – JN1 vehicles aren’t WRC-eligible – the brand new automobile will nonetheless current a problem to the 1994 world champion.
“It’s right-hand drive,” Auriol identified. “The final time I drove right-hand drive was with the Metro 6R4 [in 1986]!
“It additionally has six gears, so there will likely be a number of gear adjustments. It’s so much for an previous man! It’s additionally sophisticated as a result of there isn’t a hydraulic handbrake – I requested!”
