Fisher gets Scottish run

Alastair Fisher will drive an M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 on next month's RACMSA Rally of Scotland.

Fisher drove the same M-Sport supported Fiesta S2000 to second overall on June's Donegal International Rally, even putting eventual rally winner Tim McNulty under pressure (leading for part of Day 1), with McNulty driving a Subaru Impreza S12B. In taking second overall, he also took the class R4 win.

The RACMSA Rally of Scotland forms part of the 2011 IRC season, and with the likes Jan Kopecky, Guy Wilks, Bryan Bouffier and Theirry Neuville competing, Fisher knows his first IRC rally will be a real baptism of fire.

“The competition in the IRC is very tough but it’s good to get out there and put yourself up against these drivers and show what you can do. I want to push for a strong finish but I’m also looking to build my experience of driving a Super 2000 car and to work with M-Sport again is great. Our pace in the WRC Academy this season has been strong, so it will be interesting to see how we can compare against the IRC regulars.” he said.

The Co. Fermanagh ace has driven the Scottish stages before, having competed in last year's event in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. The Fiesta S2000 is a very different machine to the Lancer, but Fisher showed how he can adapt very quickly, which will prove useful as he has never driven the car on gravel before. He will get a small test on the Wednesday prior to the rally.

“The stages are fast and flowing and offer a really good challenge, particularly the night stages. I’ve got some knowledge of the route and the area so I’ll be sure to make the most of that. And with the live coverage on Eurosport there’s also a chance to get some good publicity.” he said.

Eurosport will again cover part of the event live, however the times are yet to be announced.

ICE 1 Racing excluded from Championship

ICE 1 Racing, Kimi Raikkonen's WRC Team, have been excluded from the 2011 WRC Manufacturers Championship.

The exclusion came about after the team elected not to go to Australia, owing to organising problems and logistical difficulties. The decision was made some weeks back, but the stewards came to the decision to not only remove ICE 1 Racing from the Manufacturer's Championship, but to fine them €16,200 too. Before the exclusion, the team held 5^th in the points table with a total of 48 points.

The statement issued by the Stewards (Stewards Decision 1) stated:

“The stewards received notification that car #8 (Entrant: ICE 1 Racing / Driver: Kimi Raikkonen) had advised the organisers that he would not contest the 2011 Rally Australia.

“Having considered the provisions of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship Sporting Regulations and specifically article 7.3.8, the stewards decide to require the team, ICE 1 Racing, to pay the entry fee to the organisers of the 2011 Rally Australia, to pay to the FIA a fine equal to the amount of the registration fee being 16,200 Euros [and] to exclude ICE 1 Racing from the classification of the [manufacturers'] Championship.”

Despite being unable to score Manufacturers points, Raikkonen will be allowed to contest the remaining 3 rallies of the year, being France, Spain and Wales. Indeed, Raikkonen has put in an entry for France, at the end of this month.

Block not getting to grips with hard tyres

Ken Block has revealed that he hasn't been able to get to grips with Michelin's hard compound tyre in this morning's Rally Australia shakedown.

Shakedown this morning was Block's first time on the hard compound tyre, and his first time in Australia. He described how he couldn't get any grip mid-way through and exiting corners, sliding wide when he applied the throttle. Overall, he called the tyre's grip 'shocking'.

"I haven't tested the hard tyre at all. We worked really hard to get some heat into the tyres before the start of the stage, but it was still horrible in there. I've never felt a situation like that, when you try to heat them up, but come to the first corner and it was like ice. I was pretty shocked at that. Usually, you stamp on the brakes, turn in and get some grip, but with these we were just sliding wide.” he said.

However, the Gymkhana star says he will just have to get used to the tyres. Aside from the grip issues, he's looking forward to the challenge of Australia, saying the stages look 'fantastic'.

"I'll have to get used to the tyres. But apart from that, everything is good. The stages look fantastic and we're travelling through some beautiful countryside up here. I'm really glad to be back on the gravel after Germany."

Before the rally begins proper tomorrow (Friday) in Coffs Harbour, Block completed another leg of his Gymkhana tour in-front of a sell-out crowd in Melbourne.

Tyrone Stages Rally review

36 cars took to the first stage of Saturday's Tyrone Stages Rally on Saturday. After 8 stages, the treacherous roads of Davagh Forest had claimed 13 crews, and with so many crews going off, remaining crews took a somewhat conservative approach. One crew didn't, however.

Charlie Beattie/Camillus Bradley
1st Overall
1st Open Class

Charlie Beattie, with the very experienced Camillus Bradley on the notes, stormed to a 55 sec win over the MK2 Escort of Declan McNaughton. Beattie took 7 stage wins from 8 stages on the way to his win. Third place went to James & Heather Kennedy in their MK2 Escort.

Declan McNaughton/Jimmy Graham
2nd Overall

There were accidents aplenty during the rally, with Stephen Smith & John McCann going out on the first stage. Gary McEvoy retired his Subaru Impreza before the event with mechanical problems. Arnold Lutton crashed out of the rally of the very next stage in what was said to be a big accident. Andrew McCormick crashed his Vauxhall Chevette into a tree on the same stage, leaving the front of the car 5ft off the ground, up the tree.

James Kennedy/Heather Kennedy
3rd Overall
1st Class 5

SS3 took out three cars, including the then class 1 leader Corey McKay, who was sent into a rather deep ditch after locking his brakes. Before the accident, McKay lead class 1 by nearly 30 secs. After the drama of the first three stages, systematically more cars were knocked out of the rally until 24 finishers remained.

If there was an award for “entertainer of the rally”, it would have been a hotly contested affair. Mark McDonald in his Escort G3, Allan McKay's Ford Anglia 'WRC', Keith Hall's 'Twin-Cam' Corolla and Martin Toner's Talbot Sunbeam would have all been in the running.

In the Class battles, Class 1 went to James Convery's Ford Ka by a single second to Declan Smith's Starlet. Class 2 was taken by the spectacular Martin Toner. Raymond Doyle won Class 3, while Class 4 went to Aaron Cunningham. James Kennedy took Class 5 and third overall. Overall victory and the Open Class went to Charlie Beattie's Mitsubishi Lancer.

James Convery/Grainne O'Kane
1st Class 1

Martin Toner/Tony Naugher
1st Class 2

Raymond Doyle/Mark Nugent
1st Class 3

Aaron Cunningham/Ryan O'Connor
1st Class 4

This Is Rallying

A video made about the epic test of skill that is the Rallye Automobile de Monte Carlo.

With thanks to Antti Kalhola for supplying Global Rally News with the video.

MINI not getting carried away

MINII WRC Team David Wilcock has echoed Dani Sordo in saying that he will not get complacent after the recent outstanding performance on Rallye Deutschland.

Wilcock admitted the focus is still on 2013, when the team plan to begin fighting for the Manufacturers & Driver's titles, but they do have short-term plans to keep their strong run going.

“We know our strengths and also our weaknesses. We know where we have to work and we will do that as we have a clear plan. We will work out a priority order and start attacking them. We are a small team but we are committed and will do everything we can to improve as much as we can. We have short-term objectives with some performance and some reliability. However, we have a clear focus and that is on 2013 and we are now going to stick to that and work to our calculated development plan.”

The two MINI's were as fast as the works Ford's in Germany, which shows the squad are strong on tarmac. However, they only have one out of a possible four finishes on gravel. Dani Sordo scored sixth overall in Italy but retired in Finland, as did team-mate Kris Meeke, but Meeke was taken out of Italy by a stuck throttle.

“We were level pegging with the Ford [team] and able to race them comfortably.” said Wilcock “We take that as a real positive. We now need to switch that over onto the gravel, but at the moment we shall keep our focus on the Tarmac as we have another two rallies on this surface coming up.”

Wilcock added that MINI's ability to be driven in changing conditions, and it's sensitivity made it a good tarmac car. He said the private drivers driving the MINI John Cooper Works WRC on Rallye Deutschland said the same as himself.

“We learned a lot [in Germany]. The MINI is a fantastic little car on Tarmac. It is very sensitive and very drivable in changing conditions and sensitive to changes. The drivers have the ability to tune it to their liking so that is a real attribute. The nice thing is our customers who are rallying it are also saying the same, so there is another strong positive.” he added.

Dani Sordo, who drove the car to third overall in Germany, said that the team won't go to France expecting to win, though third overall in the car's third ever World Rally was 'one of the best results' of his six year WRC career.

“It was one of the best results of my career, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to the next round trying to win. The car is fantastic and, the result was more than I expected.”