Monster makes it six in Colorado

Nobuhiro Tajima has taken his sixth straight win at the Pikes Peak Hill climb in Colorado, and has fulfilled an ambition to break the ten-minute barrier.

The man known as 'Monster' took his 850 BHP Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special up the 20km run in an amazing time 9mins 51.278secs. The previous record was set in 2007 at 10mins 1.41secs by Tajima himself, and he said he was sure he could go faster and break the 10min barrier. He did so this year, and says he'll have a go at going quicker.

75% of this year's event was run on sealed surface, and it is planned that the 2012, and the 90^th , running of the event will be held on 100% sealed surface tracks. A lawsuit filed against Colorado Springs has forced this change to the road.

Monster's run was not completely trouble-free though, his Suzuki's power-steering failed and the engine began to overheat in the final kilometre of his record-breaking run.

Large entry for Finland

Next month's Rally Finland is set to field the largest number of the new WRC-spec machines seen on a World Rally this year.

Ford, Citroen and MINI are set to field, collectively, twenty one different cars, for fifteen different teams, eight of which are registered for WRC Manufacturers points.

Citroen are have four DS3's in the entry list, running cars for Sebastian Loeb and Sebastian Ogier (Citroen World Rally Team), Kimi Raikkonen (ICE1 Racing) and Petter Solberg (Petter Solberg World Rally Team)

Ford are well represented, with no less than ten WRC-spec Fiesta's in the entry list. Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team), Matthew Wilson, Mads Ostberg, Henning Solberg and Evgney Novikov (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team), Dennis and Rene Kuipers (FERM Powertools World Rally Team), Khalid Al-Qassimi (Team Abu Dhabi), Jari Ketomaa (HJ-Autotalo) and Janne Tuohino and all behind the wheel of a Ford. P-G Andersson was due to take part in a Fiesta, but he will start in a Subaru Impreza R4.

Mini are also well represented, on only the second event for the Countryman WRC. Drivers competing in the Prodrive-run machines are Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo (MINI World Rally Team), Daniel Olivera (Brazil World Rally Team), Armindo Araujo (Motorsport Italia), Mattias Therman and Matti Rantanen.

The S-WRC category is supporting a strong entry, with no less than thirteen S2000 cars, mainly Ford Fiesta S2000's. Regulars such as Martin Prokop, Juho Hanninen, Eyvind Brynildsen and Albert Llovera all entered. Volkswagen have also entered two Skoda Fabia S2000's, for Joonas Lindroos and Andreas Mikkelsen. Some of the new R4 cars have been entered in this rally, with two Mitsubishi Lancer X R4's (Juho Salo and Paulo Nobre) and a solitary Subaru Impreza R4 (P-G Andersson) entered.

All in all, 124 cars have entered the rally, showing the popularity of the event, formerly known as the 1000 Lakes Rally.

Ypres Rally 2011: Review

Freddy Loix has landed his seventh with on the Ypres Rally.

Leading from stage 1, Loix was never to be headed over the course of the 18 stage event. Bryan Bouffier took second, 1min 41.6secs off Loix' flying Skoda. S2000 novice Hans Weijs Jr. took third, driving another Skoda Fabia.

Polish driver Michal Solowow took fourth in his Ford Fiesta S2000, over 6mins off the lead. Peugeot UK driver Guy Wilks had an up-down rally, being sat in second and setting consistent times over day one and went fastest over Day 2's opener, but a double puncture on SS10, a slow puncture on SS15 and another puncture on SS16 put paid to his podium aspirations. The Briton did fair better than his Peugeot team-mate Theirry Neuville. A pre-event favourite, the Belgian broke a wheel on SS1 and had to drive on it for over a kilometre to find a place to pull in. It transpired when he stopped his suspension had broken, causing his retirement. He returned on Day 2 but hit a concrete block, breaking the suspension again.

Karl Kruuda took sixth in his Fiesta S2000, while seventh and eighth were Toni Gardemiester and European Rally Champion Luca Rossetti.

Another driver to be forced to retire was Andreas Mikkelsen, who landed his Fabia in a rather deep Belgian ditch. He attempted to extract the car from the ditch, but hit a concrete block and retired on the spot. He returned on Day 2 and took four stage wins.

Pieter Tsjoen, six-times and reigning Belgian Rally Champion, held third overnight, but suffered a strange accident on Day 2. Heading to Stage 11, Tsjoen stopped by the side of the road for a short break before the 9km stage. He pulled away from the side of the road, but hit a metal pole, which pierced the radiator of the 207 S2000. He made it through the stage, going 10^th fastest, only losing 6secs. However, all the water leaked out of the cooling system, despite the best efforts of Tsjoen and co-driver Lara Vanneste, substituting for the injured Eddie Chevaillier, and advice from other crews, forcing retirement.

The Irish had a good representation in this rally, with Robert Barrable taking 10^th overall in his Skoda Fabia S2000. Tommy Doyle took his Renault Clio R3 to second overall in the IRC 2WD Cup.

In the IRC 2WD Cup, Kris Princen won the rally after Kevin Abbring wedged his Citroen DS3 R3T in a ditch on Stage 14, losing 3mins in the process. He fought back to fourth over the remaining four stages. Reigning 2WD Champion Harry Hunt exited the rally on Saturday's opening loop.

Madiera drops out of IRC calender

Rali Vinho Madeira has been removed from this year's IRC calender and from next year's calender, citing financial problems. The rally was due to run at the beginning of August.

The rally, based on the Portuguese island of Madeira, was to be the seventh round of the series. A completely sealed surface encounter, the rally would mark the return to tarmac after the series switched to gravel for the Sata Rally Acores in mid July.

“The rally informed us recently that they would no longer be able to honour the terms of their contract with Eurosport Events [promoters of the IRC], notably part of their funding obligations. This has created a number of logistical and operational difficulties and is not what we would have expected from an event promoter. As a result we have decided to remove the rally from our calendar for this year and 2012 when our existing agreement was due to expire.” said Geraldine Filiol of Eurosport Events.

The rally will not be replaced with another event so the IRC will straight go to the Czech Republic for the Barum Czech Rally Zlin at the end of August after they complete the Sata Rally Acores.

Al-Attiyah out to defend Dakar title

Nasser Al-Attiyah has said he is out to find a drive which will enable him to compete on, and possibly win, the 2012 Dakar to follow up his success on the 2011 edition of the mammoth event.

The Qatari driver took the win on this year's Dakar Rally driving a works VW Toureag. However, with VW calling a halt to their hugely successful Dakar programme to focus their efforts on their WRC campaign, Al-Attiyah is out of a drive. Al-Attiyah is not completely out of Volkswagen, with the Qatari scheduled to test VW's rally car as early as December, and he has been linked with a drive in the team.

Al-Attiyah is not keen to jump at the first Dakar drive he is offered, however. He has said he wants to wait until he finds out that VW intend to do, after which he will make his decision.

“There are a lot of options to do Dakar again with another team but for me I must know exactly what I will have for the next three or four years [with Volkswagen]. Dakar is my dream because I won this year and I want to defend my title. I need to know [Volkswagen’s] decision.” he said.

WRC 2010 sequel confirmed

The official sequel to WRC 2010, WRC 2, is due to hit the shelves this October, publisher of the game Black Bean Games have confirmed.

CEO of North One Sport, the WRC's promoter, Simon Long said that WRC 2 will be a worthy sequel to the hugely successful WRC 2010 saying: “The 2010 WRC game put our sport back on the gaming map. With WRC 2 we look to take this further. More realism, more detail and more variety is what we have seen in the studio so far this year. The new game is rich in WRC history, but also gives a glimpse of the future. With MINI taking on the established Citroen and Ford teams and the impending return of Volkswagen, the WRC is heading for a golden era and we want to take our WRC gamers on that journey too.”

Under development by Milestone, developers of WRC 2010, the game is to feature 90 different stages in 15 different countries. The game is also to feature a challenging weather system, with 25 different weather conditions and terrain types to face.

Nine category of rally car also feature, with cars ranging from the classics of the 1960's to the modern day super-cars. Career mode, which enables players to start at the bottom in 2WD machines and work their way up to WRC level, has undergone a renovation, as has the online gaming facility, with 16 different players able to compete head-to-head.

Luisa Bixio, from Leader Spa, of whom Black Bean Games are part, said: “There are millions of WRC followers and racing games enthusiasts all around the world and our ambition is to make them happy with our official products. Most of them simply can’t wait to know more about the next WRC episode.”

“We really want to deliver a state-of-the-art off-road motorsport experience which combines a great graphics impact, the best driving model in this genre and all the WRC elements from the current season such as all classes, drivers, all rallies as well as much more to enjoy.”

Henning pleased with strong return

Henning Solberg got his return to the WRC off to a great start after he scored his best finish of the year, 5^th on last weekend's Acropolis Rally.

On-board his M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta RS WRC, the 38-year old Norwegian drove a consistent rally, aside from brake problems on Saturday, to score fifth place at the end of the rally. His team-mate Matthew Wilson came in sixth, 1min 30secs behind Solberg.

He said: “I am very happy with my position. I just hoped to drive to the finish with no problems and that has been the case so that is good. We have had our share of bad luck at times, mostly with the brakes on Saturday but the car worked very well on Friday and on Sunday.”

Solberg's co-driver Ilka Minor said that the Greek result was well needed: “We needed a result like this. Not just for our sponsors, but for ourselves. It has been a difficult season.”

Solberg was forced to give Rally Argentina a miss to finalise a deal which will see him able to concentrate more on driving than actually getting to the rallies. Team boss Malcolm Wilson said that he would have preferred that Solberg miss Argentina so as that his long-term future would be secured.

Not only did the Norwegian secure fifth place in Greece, he also went home with the Abu Dhabi Spirit Of The Rally award. Another driver who took the award was Petter Solberg, Henning's younger brother.

“I’m very pleased about this award. It just feels great to be back in the WRC and we hope to come back even stronger for the second half of the year. I will try my best in Finland and push for a good result to see what we can do, that is all I hope for.” said Henning.