The eighth round of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge series, Mecsek Rallye, was held around the town of Pecs in the south-west of Hungary on 9-11 September. The event attracted 55 strong entries which included Toshihiro Arai who has been active in IRC this year with his Subaru WRX STI R4.

Even though the rally has never been a round of IRC before, the established all-tarmac event has a 45 year long history and has been a regular fixture in the country's domestic championship. The host town was Pecs which had been designated as the 2010 European Capital of Culture and the stages were located across the foot of Mecsek Mountains. Since the roads used for them had a lot of middle to high speed and mostly smooth surfaces, the average speed sometimes reached to as high as 130km/h. So it surely was one of the fastest rallies in the series.

This was the first time for Arai to compete in Mecsek Rallye. But he had already driven a tarmac specification WRX STI R4 in the championship's third round, Tour de Corse, before the more recent experience with the car in the sixth round - Rallye Acores in July - which he had a good opportunity to improve the car set up, though the Portuguese round had been run on gravel surfaces.

For this round, his car finally was able to become the complete R4 spec by equipping the specifically designed rear subframe which had been withheld by his choice. However, things didn't go smoothly for him, especially in the early stage of the weekend, because he didn't have any testing before the event and, therefore, still many things had been left to be tweaked for the maximum performance.

The rally got underway with the ceremonial start in the town of Pecs in the early evening of Friday. And in the prologue stage soon after that, which wasn't counted in competitive stages, Arai displayed a spectacular drive with his WRX STI R4, responding to cheers from spectators.

But, on Saturday, when the proper competition began in the hilly stages, he struggled to find a good set up for the car's suspension and center differential. Because of this, he finished the first stage, Hetvehely 1 (18.21km), in lowly 28th and more or less similar finishing positions - SS2 Orfu 1 (28.00km) in 26th, SS3 Pecsvarad 1 (12.00km) in 23rd and SS4 Alsomocsolad 1 (12.00km) in 27th - followed until ending the first loop in 24th both overall and in the IRC division.

Despite making some set up changes during the lunch time service, his low key result continued in the next two stages, finishing SS5 Hetvehely 2 in 26th and SS6 Orfu 2 in 27th. Then he at last began to pick up his pace and had a somewhat better result in the penultimate stage of the day, Pecsvarad 2, by finishing in 19th. But, as the final stage was cancelled because of a safety concern, Arai's fighting back in Leg 1 cut short in just one stage and he ended the day in 23rd overall and 21st in the IRC division.

Although he had lost a lot of ground during Leg 1, ex-PWRC champion recovered from the slump in Leg 2 on Sunday, thanks to more tweaking on suspension and center differential control mapping. In fact, he finished the first stage of the day, SS9 Zobak 1 (12.00km), in 17th with his great drive.

After finishing the next two stages, SS10 Arpadteto 1 (24.00km) and SS11 Nyarasvolgy 1 (17.70km), in 21st and 20th respectively, Arai took 18th place in SS12 Zobak 2, the first stage of second run of the loop, with quite a good time which was comparable to local drivers who were familiar with the roads. Then he went through the penultimate stage, SS13 Arpadteto 2, in 22nd but finished the final one, SS14 Nyarasvolgy 2, in 17th which was again the highest position he earned in this rally.

At the end of the day, Arai completed the rally which produced many retirements and was classified as 18th both overall and in the IRC division. And he was seventh in the Production Cup as the fastest Subaru driver in the last tarmac rally for him this season.

　[Result : 18th IRC Division]
"This was my first opportunity to compete in Mecsek Rallye. It was a really high speed rally and the average speed sometimes exceeded 130km/h even though they put some chicanes to reduce the speed! And there were some very high speed corners which we entered in fifth gear. Most of the stages were just like a race track.
"This was also the first time for me to drive a complete R4 specification car of WRX STI. The behavior of the car was solid and it felt more rigid than before. On top of this, the tire performance has been improved very much and I could say they were totally different from those we used in Corsica (the third round, Tour de Corse).
"But I struggled in Leg 1 because I couldn't find a good set up that suited the new tires. Then, after making changes on the suspension and the center differential mapping, as well as the wheel alignment, I was able to pick up the pace in Leg 2 and keep up with the local Group N car drivers.
"The complete R4 spec should be more effective in gravel events and our gravel tires have been improved through the testing in Japan. So I will try my best to finish my next round, Rally of Scotland, in better position than that of this rally."

"As we had done for the seventh round, Barum Rally, we provided the new type tarmac tire which has an improved construction. Basically, it was an evolution model we had developed to overcome the weak points which had been pointed out during the Corsican round. Though Nutahara had to retire from the previous round due to a mechanical problem, he had reported a good feeling about the tires and the tire's performance was proved to be good this time again.
"Arai seemed to have a hard time to find a suitable set up. But, by changing its construction, the tire itself now became more flexible, so I would say our idea for the new tire was successfully realized in the products.
"This was the final tarmac round in our development program and we are pleased with our significant technical progress through the experiences attained from running on various asphalt surfaces in Corsica, Czech and Hungary this year. Of course, we are still working on the development for our new gravel tires which should be able to cope with the change of surfaces, based on the experience from Acores. The new tires appeared to be promising in the testing in Japan. We are looking forward to the great drives from Arai and Nutahara in the tenth round, Rally of Scotland."