Maciek Oleksowicz and Andrzej Obrebowski – Castrol TRW MOTOINTEGRATOR crew is about to complete preparation to the first tarmac event in 2012. It is in Alsace where the Rally France will take place in oncoming weekend.

Rally France starts just a couple of days after Rally Poland which – unfortunately – Oleksowicz and Obrebowski were force to skip due to logistical reason.

Rally France is the second tarmac SWRC round in the FIA WRC 2012 calendar. The first one was Rally Monte Carlo, which Oleksowicz and Obrebowski did not nominate. Instead they competed in remote New Zealand.

Maciek Oleksowicz:

- We regret we couldn’t fight in Mikołajki. It is the rally calendar that forced us to make such a decision. It was impossible to take part in a gravel event that is right ahead of a tarmac one. In order to carry out sufficient testing the car had to be converted to asphalt specification just before Rally Poland. I like gravel events, but I’m happy to be back on tarmac. After a couple of loose surface events, French tarmac roads will be something different for us. We have never competed there before. As far as we know, French stages are very challenging and conditions change very quickly. The surface is changeable as well. Fast and flowing sections are followed by narrow and bendy ones. If it is raining one has to be cautions in treacherous corners cut by previous crews.

Recce is planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. Shakedown is scheduled for Thursday morning. It is followed by a recce for Strasbourg super special stage (3,63 km) that will take place on Thursday at 16:25. The first leg is most intense – there are 564 kms to cover including 146 kms of seven special stages. Friday’s leg kicks of at 9.23 with a 28,5 Hohlandsbourg – Firstplan stage.

There are all top five SWRC crews at the entry list.

SWRC classification before Rally France:

1. Per-Gunnar Andersson (SWE) 76

2. Hayden Paddon (NZL) 68

=. Craig Breen (IRL) 68

4. Maciej Oleksowicz (POL) 65

5. Yazeed Al Rahji (SAU) 55

6. Thomas Cave (GBR) 18

7. Pontus Tidemand (SWE) 15

=. Pedro Meireles (POR) 15

=. Juha Salo (FIN) 15

10. Esapekka Lappi (FIN) 10

11. Alister McRae (SCO) 6