Limassol, Cyprus -- Canadian rally champion and North American Group N champion Patrick Richard will be taking a cautious approach for the fourth round of the Production Car World Rally Championship this weekend. Patrick and the Subaru Rally Team Canada expect Cyprus to be the toughest event in the championship for both car and driver. Patrick's strategy will be to ensure that he finishes the race and builds on his WRC experience.

"The team was heartbroken by the DNF result in Argentina when the centre differential blew so we are very focused on finishing this event" said Patrick. "Although the temperatures will be challenging, I think the major issues will be staying on the road and not breaking the car, so I'll be resisting the temptation to push hard and take risks."

This event offers one of the roughest and most twisty courses in the WRC calendar. There are numerous tight corners and average speeds will be below 70 km/h. The crew has been working hard to ensure that the car is optimized for the course and Patrick will be driving cautiously during the event.

"During the recce I found the stages to be far more twisty than anything I' ve seen before. I mentally prepared for this, but actually seeing how twisty and rough the stages were was a surprise. So it's going to be quite a test of nerves and also a test for the machine just to finish it" said Patrick. "The roads are narrow and there are a lot of tight, blind corners that you have to slide through with total precision. Some of the stages will be run twice and a lot of fairly decent sized rocks will be lying on the road so that's another thing you have to look out for."

Ola Fl�ene, Patrick's Norwegian co-driver, has competed in this event twice before and he and Patrick remain confident about their chances: "Every stage this season is new to me so I can't go too quickly" said Patrick. "But in this rally there are about three or four stages that are new to everybody else so for once we are starting off on a more equal footing."

Patrick, the only North American to be competing in the WRC, has had a busy schedule recently. He arrived in Cyprus after competing in the fifth round of the Canadian Championship just four days ago. The event in Cyprus begins with a ceremonial start at 8:30pm (local time) on Thursday, June 19th, and finishes at 3:20pm on Sunday June 22nd.

Further information about the event: http://www.cyprusrally.org.cy/

For further information about Patrick Richard go to: http://www.patrickrichard.com

Press inquiries: Tim Gage
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