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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cave takes shortened BRC win

Welsh rally star Tom Cave has won his first BRC rally, winning the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales by 11 secs over Jarkko Nikara.

“I’ve been waiting to win an international rally for a while, so to finally do it is fantastic – especially on my home event. I really concentrated on making as few mistakes as possible today and it’s paid off. After the problems I had on Tuesday when the steering broke and I went off the road testing my own car, I have to thank everyone who helped get another DS3 organised in time for me to compete this weekend. Needless to say, I am very, very happy with the result.” said the delighted Welshman.

Cave, co-driven by Craig Parry, lead after the second stage in their Citroen DS3 (well, a spare one, after he crashed his normal car in a pre-event test) by 1.7 secs. The young Welshman continued to push and extended his lead as crews reached the service halt.

Cave came out of service like a man on a mission, going fastest on SS7 by a massive 10 secs. However, Cave dropped 10 secs on the very next test, dropping him into the sights of Keith Cronin, making his BRC and 2WD return after 2 years away from the sport.

Then, news filtered through that a BRC Challenge car had caught fire. The police closed the road on safety grounds, and as this was route all the competitors were to travel down on route to SS9. The organisers re-routed the crews, but as the rally was now 90 mins behind time, and nightfall was closing in, they decided to cancel the last 3 stages, and so Tom Cave was declared winner.

Keith Cronin came back with a bang, literally. On the way back to service after the final 3 stages were cancelled, his fuel pump failed. Jarkko Nikara also had problems, breaking a driveshaft and hobbling back to service. Nevertheless, he did take third.

Osian Price made it a Citroen Top 4 lockout in his DS3, 5 secs ahead of Elfyn Evans in fifth, in the highest Ford. Sixth went to Jonny Greer, swapping his usual Skoda Fabia S2000 for a Citroen DS3.

Jukka Korhonen took seventh in the Pirelli Start driver Skoda Fabia R2, having lost concentration with a false oil warning light coming on. Desi Henry lost loads of time with a puncture on SS5, but survived to finish eighth. Ninth went to the man who oh-so-nearly won the WRC Academy last year, before he lost it to an inspired Craig Breen on the final round. Egon Kaur took his Fiesta to ninth. Peter Taylor rounded out the Top 10 in his Renault Clio R3, over 2 and a half minutes off the lead.

Some drivers who didn't make it to the finish include Alastair Fisher, Molly Taylor and Mark Donnelly. Fisher's Fiesta caught fire after a fuel leak ignited on SS5. Keith Cronin stopped to help putting out the flaming Fiesta, getting, along with the rest of the field, a nominal time afterwards. Molly Taylor rolled her Fiesta straight out of the rally on the very first stage.

Round 1 winner and Pirelli from the same rally Mark Donnelly was scrapping with Jarkko Nikara over the rally lead at the start of the rally, only 2.6 secs behind after SS3. But it all fell apart after SS4 when his car went wide after the flying finish, caught a telegraph pole and spun, straight into a tree. The impact was substantial, tearing off most of the front of the car, but, due to the strength of a rally car, both Mark and co-driver Dai Roberts were unhurt.

The MSA Junior Rally Championship section of the rally was won by Garry Pearson, who also won round 1. Pearson survived clattering a log-pile and a bent rear beam to hold off the competition. Two punctures cemented second for Steve Rokland, losing 3 mins after the pair of deflations.

Richard Skyes flew to a 47 secs win in the Challenge Rally in his Citroen C2 R2 Max, ahead of Stephen Smith's Peugeot 106. 25 secs further behind was Damien Smith in third.

In the Bulldog Historic Rally, Nick Elliott took a 16.6 secs win in his MK2 Escort over the MK1 example of Julian Reynolds in second. Will Onions held third up until the final stage, when he fell from the leaderboard and Kevin Davies came though to win.

Matt Edwards took the National Rally on board his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, with Tom Naughton half a minute behind in second. The World Rally-spec Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 04 of Tristan Bailey was third, 4.8 secs behind the Group N variant of Naughton.

Round 3 takes crews to the Pirelli Rally in just over a months time. Global Rally News will be covering all the action yet again!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Ford pair buoyed my productive test

After a promising pre-event test in Portugal, both Ford World Rally Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg are sure they are prepared for next weekend's Rally de Portugal.

Both drivers completed over 300 kms of testing, with Solberg taking the majority of driving duties, some 220 kms worth. Latvala himself drove for just under 50 kms, testing mainly at night to improve his night-driving skills, which, he says, could be a “crucial part of the rally”.

Solberg tweaked his set-up and made some improvements to the car, but will still take a conservative approach to Thursday's night stages.

Nevertheless, he seems confident of a good result, after promising pace in his first gravel rally in the Fiesta RS WRC in Mexico, a rally he could well have won if it wasn't for poor luck.

“I drove for 220 kilometres and made a few more improvements to the set-up of my car. I know from the last round that the Fiesta RS WRC is fast on gravel, so hopefully these improvements will make it even better.” he said.

The 2003 World Champion acknowledged his early “mistakes” in Mexico that he must eradicate, and with Portugal being a longer event than in recent years, much like Mexico, mistakes early in the event could be catastrophic. Early event mistakes in Mexico put paid to any hopes of winning.

“It’s a long rally and I want to be a little calmer at the beginning than I was in Mexico. I made a couple of early mistakes there and I don’t want to repeat that, so it’s important I don’t try to achieve too much too soon,” he added.

With the normal high temperatures and low breezes predicted for next weekend's rally, dust may prove a major issue, something Latvala thinks the 3 min intervals might not be enough to cure the problems that arose in Spain last year, especially during the night stages.

“It depends on the weather, but hanging dust could be an issue and three-minute intervals between cars may not be enough to allow it to clear. The important thing is to ensure we do well on the Qualifying Stage so we’re in a position to [choose our road position first].” said the Finn.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Loeb not happy with endurance rallies

Sebastien Loeb has hinted that he might take up early retirement if FIA President Jean Todt gets his wish for more endurance-style rallies in the WRC.


Recently, WRC Manager Michele Mouton has re-affirmed the FIA's commitment to the WRC, and both Mouton and FIA President Jean Todt have expressed wishes that World Rallies go back to their endurance routes, just as rallies did in the 70's and 80's.

Loeb himself has said he has been finding recce's getting boring, and longer events would only make serve to make this work. He explained how his travel itinerary has changed, meaning he must fly out a day or two earlier.

"I have been doing this a long time. And I have to admit that I find the recce and things like this a little bit boring now. What is the thing that makes me maybe want to retire in the future is the travel, which is very long. I don't want to say this will make me decide now, but there is less motivation for the longer rallies.

"Now we are starting to do the recce on the Monday instead of the Tuesday, which means I have to fly to the rally on the Sunday and then I'm not back for a day longer." he added.



Loeb himself has a plan of his own of how a rally week could work, saying that: "I'm more of a fan of starting the recce on Wednesday morning and finishing it on Thursday," he said. "Then rally on Friday and Saturday - have the party on Saturday night and then go home on Sunday."

This way would prove more cost effective for teams, and could make for more competition for drivers as there is less time to fight back from a mistake. However, even though Rally Finland has run to this format for a couple of years now, it may not catch on due to Mouton and Todt wanting longer rallies.

Loeb did say, however, that he may be able to be swayed if it benefits the WRC, but he is still sceptical about endurance rallies being the key to a WRC revival.

The eight-times World Champion said: "If you tell me that this is good for the media and that you are getting something out of these longer rallies then OK, I understand. I am a driver and will drive when and where I am told. But this is no more of a challenge for me, it's just more stages which are really the same."

As ever, however, there is another side to the coin. Loeb's Citroen team-mate has gone against the flow (and the vast majority of other drivers), saying he would be in favour of them. He said he is aware of the increased costs, something he said must be watched, but the former Ford and Subaru factory driver said he likes the idea of driving night and day.

“I know the arguments about these rallies being more expensive and everything and we absolutely have to be careful of that, but at the same time I have always enjoyed the challenge of driving longer rallies. I like the idea of going through the night and really driving in the endurance style; I would like to have competed more in the past, when there were the really long Safari-style events.” he said.

Mads Ostberg is another driver not happy with the way the FIA want the sport to go. Ostberg is perennially looking for funding, and is sure that without the endurance rallies that come with this season, he could have been able to take part in a full championship.

“If the FIA continues to push these long rallies then they are going to hurt the sport. If it wasn’t for longer rallies like Mexico, then I’m sure I would have managed to compete in the whole season. The longer rallies are totally not the right idea.” said the Adapta World Rally Team driver.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Wilson happy with 2012 season, so far

Director of the Ford World Rally Team, Malcolm Wilson, has said he is buoyant about the speed of both his drivers.

Both Ford drivers, Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg, have shown great speed on all three surfaces so far this year. Traditionally, Solberg struggled in Monte Carlo, but took the fight to tarmac expert Dani Sordo and held second for a time, before finally taking third. Latvala also proved his tarmac worth, scrapping for the lead with Sebastian Loeb over the first couple of stages.

Ford never had a good history in Mexico, having always been beaten by the Citroens. The high-altitude stages seemed to suit the Citroens, with their 6-speed gearboxes, against the 5-speed Fords. Rules this year stipulate that all cars much have 6 gears this year, and a 6-speed 'box showed a marked improvement for the Fords. Solberg won the qualifying stage and lead after SS1, and when he punctured, Latvala came through to take the lead. He lead for a time, until a rock snapped his suspension.

However, there is another, less polished, side to the coin. Latvala stuck his car on it's roof in Monte Carlo, having missed a pacenote and slid off. He then rolled his Fiesta RS WRC in Mexico after being spooked by Evgney Novikov's inverted Fiesta. He had been leading in Monte Carlo, and was holding a firm third in Mexico, having fought back up the order. Solberg hasn't been making mistakes, but he has had some horrible luck. A bad tyre choice in Monte Carlo, and many, many punctures in Sweden and Mexico have thwarted his progress somewhat. Indeed, without the Mexican punctures, he could well have won, and stood a good chance of doing so.

Nevertheless, Wilson is sure his team can become more consistent, despite being 38 points off Citroen in the teams championship, saying: “Yes, there have been some mistakes, but the big thing is the pace we have shown on gravel - and, of course with Jari’s win in the snow. Last year we struggled in Mexico, but this time we had more fastest times [than Citroen] and both guys led the event. For sure, Jari made a mistake, but he’s a different driver now; I have no doubt he’ll put this behind him in Portugal.”

Petter Solberg is the team's best hope for the championship at the minute, 19 points off Sebastian Loeb, who currently leads. Latvala is 40 point behind Loeb, after his win in Sweden and two DNF's.

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

McGarrity makes it two from two

Derek McGarrity made it two from two with a dominating display in his newly-acquired MINI John Cooper Works WRC, leading the McGrady Insurance Stages Rally from start to finish.

With McGarrity's new car only arriving a few days before the event itself, he had little time to adjust to it, but it wouldn't look like it, as he won the first stage by 7.8secs. This white-hot pace continued up until the finish, winning the rally by 51 secs after it's 6 stages.

After a scrap with the other MINI of Derek McGeehan, Kieron Graffin made the switch from his usual Group N Mitsubishi to a Subaru Impreza WRC S9 for this event and took second, with McGeehan in third, only 1.7 secs behind.

John McGaffin took fourth in the second Subaru Impreza WRC, 40 secs ahead Group N winners, David Graham and James McDermott in fifth. Sixth went to 2WD winners James and Heather Kennedy in their MK2 Escort.

Dominic McNeill brought his Mitsubishi Lancer home in seventh, 6 secs ahead of David Armstrong in eighth. Trevor Ferguson took ninth, just ahead of event sponsor Fintan McGrady, tenth in his MK2 Escort.

In the showroom category, David Graham took the win by half a minute over Trevor Ferguson, with the Group N 'new boy' Jason Curran, who is still getting used to his new car, third again in Group N.

Curran landed himself a 20 sec penalty for landing into SS1 start control early, putting him on the back foot before the rally had even begun and throwing him back to 33rd overall and last in Group N, but he and co-driver Barbara Love fought back to claim third in Group N and 12th overall. Jason and Barbara hope to do the full Northern Ireland Rally Championship this year, and two thirds from two events mark a near-perfect start for the likeable pairing.

The Junior 1000 Rally was won by Ben Crealey and Liam Regan in convincing fashion, marking their second straight win. After only 4 stages, young Ben's winning margin was an impressive 20 secs. Kyle Orr took second in class in his Peugeot 107, with Rhys Bunting in third.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Mikkelsen woes hand Kopecky win

It looked like Andreas Mikkelsen would continue his winning streak in the IRC with yet another win, but this time on tarmac on the Rally Islas Canarias. After all, he had lead for all bar two stages, and only when he slowed tactically to allow team-mate Jan Kopecky into the lead on yesterday's final stage.

However, it wasn't to be. The flying Norwegian was leading the rally by 3.6 secs heading into the final stage, and it looked like he would get his first tarmac win. The Skoda pair had been fighting hard between themselves throughout, and through the 21.36 km San Bartolome De Tirajana stage, Kopecky and Mikkelsen were only split by one tenth of a second. Then, tragically, Mikkelsen's Skoda developed a power-sapping misfire, dropping him half a minute and the rally win.

Understandably distraught, Mikkelsen said: "It was an engine misfire, no power at all..." said Mikkelsen. "It was so close to my first victory on Tarmac. It's a shame. Nothing we can do."

Nothing had warned him of the problem, his only mistake being during SS7, sliding off the road & bouncing back onto the road, but surviving. Kopecky came though to take the win in the end, but he wasn't celebrating emphatically, saying: "It's a pity because it was a nice battle the whole weekend,” said Kopecky. “Winning because of his problem does not make me so happy."

“We were pushing quite much on the last three stages and finally Andreas had some problems with the car. I must say I don’t feel so happy because I wanted to beat him in a fight. But this is what can happen in rallying so thanks to ŠKODA because they gave us an opportunity to be here and thanks to my new co-driver Pavel Dresler because today he improved himself a lot and did a great job.” said the Czech driver.

Third place went to the event promoter, Luis Monzon. Indeed, he has won twice before, in 1991 and 1994, but he is more often seen racing GT cars today, not rally cars. These days, he's usually promoting the rally, but does drive now and then. Running third on his return is hugely impressive, and even more impressive is the fact that he hasn't sat in an S2000 Peugeot for 4 years now. Fighting with the two young German's in Sepp Wiegand and Hermann Gassner Jr., he pulled clear and rocketed into the distance as he got his set-up to his liking. However, Monzon was over 3 mins behind the leading Skoda's, showing the pace of the IRC frontrunners.

In yet another all-German battle over fourth, Sepp Wiegand came out on top after Gassner Jr. crashed out of the rally, courtesy of an overly optimistic pace note sending him into the scenery. The scenery might be nice to look at in the Canary Islands, but when your fighting for position in your €250,000 S2000 rally car, it's not somewhere you want to go flying into.

Jonathan Perez took his Peugeot 207 S2000 to fifth, nearly seven and a half minutes behind Kopecky. Just behind him in sixth was IRC 2WD Cup winner Joan Vinyes in his Suzuki Swift S1600. Even though this is an impressive result, it shows that the entry lists are starting to thin out.

Seventh and eighth went to second and third in the IRC 2WD Cup, with Gorka Antxustegi and Angel Marrero taking the positions, respectively. Débuting his Skoda Fabia S2000 was Janos Puskadi, who took ninth. Rounding out the Top 10 was Rashid Al Ketbi, who broke his car's clutch and had to drive for 3 stages with no clutch, putting great strain on his car's gearbox.

After the rally, Luis Monzon was announced as Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy winner this time round. His drive was praised by Jean-Pierre Nicholas, the former World Rally Championship driver, and Monzon was very pleased himself, saying: “I don’t find the words for this,” said Monzón. “Colin McRae for me was the best driver in the world. To receive this trophy is the maximum feeling.”

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Loeb flies to sixth Mexican win

The 2012 edition of Rally Mexico began with the short DC Shoes Street Stage, run around the streets of Guanajuaito, the host city. Petter Solberg, in his first gravel rally with the Ford Fiesta WRC RS, won the stage and set himself up for a perfect start to Day 1 proper.

Then, everything went as wrong as it possibly could have for the Norwegian. He clipped a bank on SS2, and punctured, then spun. And on the very next stage, SS3, he punctured again. Both of these punctures and the spin dropped him outside the Top 10. Seems the 2003 World Champion's poor luck hasn't completely gone yet.

This left Jari-Matti Latvala to take over the lead in the sister Ford, and from SS3 he began to eek out a small, but significant, lead over the Citroen of Mikko Hirvonen. Then Latvala had his turn as suffering some bad luck. He hit a rock on the racing line, puncturing a tyre and breaking the front suspension. 1 min 30 secs lost. Hirvonen took over the lead, then Loeb passed him for the lead. And he stayed there.

Both Ford's went hell-for-leather to catch the flying Citroen's, and by God were they flying. Latvala went from eighth to fourth by the end of the first day, and Solberg went from thirteenth to fifth. And neither were finished, with the lonely Mads Ostberg, then holding third, about to be caught by a flying Finn and the Norwegian in tow.

Day 2 was shaping up to be all about the two Ford's putting in some unbelievable times to take the fight to the Citroen's. Unlikely as it seemed, Citroen began to believe that Latvala was going to pose a problem to both their drivers. And both of them acknowledged his lightening speed. On the first proper gravel stage of the day, Latvala took third from Ostberg. But then the unthinkable happened, the Finn punctured. Impressively, he only lost 50 secs whilst driving 25 kms on the puncture.

4 stages later, and 3 stage wins later, he was back in third, but he himself now knew the win was out of reach, and second was a mammoth challenge. However, he didn't give up. Petter Solberg punctured yet again, and suffered problems with his brakes. This left him in a seemingly concrete fourth, with Ostberg fifth. Oh, and the Citroen's were still flying away ah the head of the field, Loeb heading towards his sixth Mexican win.

Everything really fell apart for Latvala on the final day. After all his problems, third seemed a decent result, keeping his championship on track (even though he would still be between 22 and 25 points off points leader Loeb). However, during the massive 54.3 km Guanajuatito test, Evgney Novikov tore his roof vent off, filling his car with dust. This massively limited his vision and, possibly, contributed to his huge crash on the stage, with the car rolling six or seven times. Then, a little while later, Latvala came upon the scene, flat out as usual. He saw the Russian's wreaked car and thinking it was on the stage, panicked and stood on the brakes, sending his car sideways and into a bank. This threw his can into a roll, coming to rest on it's wheels. He managed to continue, albeit 6 mins behind time, but the crash damaged his roll cage and, according to FIA ruling, he couldn't continue. He was out, all his hard work from the previous two days lead to naught.

At the head of the field, Sebastian Loeb won ahead of Mikko Hirvonen, completing Citroen's first 1-2 of the year. Petter Solberg took his third straight third place, as well as the 3 points for the Power Stage win, ahead of fellow Norwegian Mads Ostberg in fourth.

Ott Tanak, in his Mexico début, took a fine fifth, which nearly became fourth when Mads Ostberg punctured on the 54.3 Km Guanajautito test. Nasser Al-Attiyah, in his first gravel event in a WRC car, brought his car, in quite a sideways fashion, home in sixth. The Qatari driver was fourth on the 54.3km SS22, a stage he was expected to shine on with his Dakar experience. 54 kms is a bit short for the Qatari, who would be more accustomed to 300kms per stage during the Dakar Rally, with a height of 890kms during one stage, taking 12 hrs to finish. Even Sebastian Loeb might be slightly nervous tackling a stage of 890 Kms over the rough Mexican stages!

Armindo Araujo took his works MINI home in seventh, the sole surviving works MINI. Paulo Nobre managed to roll the car on Friday, and then crashed yet again on Saturday. He was 17th, over 1 hr 11 mins off the lead. Even the irrepressible Jari-Matti Latvala would fail to bridge that gap.

Sebastian Ogier got his S2000 Skoda to eighth, struggling more than others with the lack of air, and hence power, in the high-altitude Mexican stages. Ken Block, spectacularly as ever, managed ninth, on his first of three outings this year. Tenth went to Ricardo Trivino, in a unique run in a WRC-spec Fiesta WRC.

Benito Guerra was a happy man with a home P-WRC win, over 4 mins ahead of second placed Nicholas Fuchs. Michal Kosciuszko took third, after a good few problems.

Not classified in the final points were Theirry Neuville, Chris Atkinson and Evegny Novikov. Neuville shocked the establishment with a good run, holding fourth at one point on Friday and catching third. Only inexperience, and a lost argument with a Mexican kerb, lost him a wheel and left him down in 13th. Chris Atkinson ran consistently at the lower end of the Top 10, not bad for his first outing in a WRC car for 3 years, and his first run in a new-generation car. This consistent run ended with brake failure sending him into a bank after the flying finish of SS22. Evegny Novikov, as explained above, rolled spectacularly out of the rally, only a few minutes before Jari-Matti Latvala did the same.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Mikkelsen off to perfect start

(N.B: School commitments haven't allowed me to get this review up until now, so apologies for the wait!)

Andreas Mikkelsen got his title defence off to the perfect start on the Sata Rally Azores with 25.1 sec winning margin over team-mate and former IRC Champion Juho Hanninen.

It was a close fought affair through the first, albeit short, first day. A puncture didn't stop Andreas Mikkelsen taking first blood with a 3 sec win on SS1. Hanninen fought back on the next test, taking 2 secs back but lost two tenths on the Super Special. This left Mikkelsen with a 1.4 sec overnight lead, a slim margin by anyone's books.

Away from the fight for the lead, Bryan Bouffier was third in the first of only two Peugeots entered. The Frenchman was well back, 23 secs off the lead after only 3 stages. Team-mate and winner here 2 years ago Bruno Magalhaes was fourth, 7 secs off his team-mate. However, Bouffier did note that the two Skoda men ahead of him are both “gravel experts”.

Day two shaped up to be a terrific fight between the two Skoda men. However, this never happened as Mikkelsen continued to prove his maturity and edge away. Then, perhaps most critically, Hanninen spun on the days second stage, but he himself believed he wasn't out of the fight, stating he must “beat that young Norwegian guy”.

After the spin, and the sheer pace of the 'young Norwegian guy', Hanninen had to find 16.2 secs to snatch the lead. Such was Mikkelsen's pace, Hanninen has only managed one stage win, SS7 by a scant 0.1 secs.

Bryan Bouffier, in the sole remaining Peugeot entry, is nearly guaranteed third after team-mate Bruno Magalhaes rolled his Peugeot out of the rally on SS6, end his rally on the spot and most likely a shot at an extend IRC programme.

The final day in the Azores was set to be either a walk in the park for Andreas Mikkelsen or an emphatic fight-back from Juho Hanninen. It proved for former as the Norwegian swept to four stage wins out of the first four of the day, extending his lead to 27.4 secs. Hanninen took back 2.3 secs on the final stage but it wasn't enough to stop Mikkelsen taking his first win of the year.

Mikkelsen said: "This is a perfect start to the season for Skoda UK. It couldn't be better. It's been a tough fight with Juho through the whole weekend. We had a great battle. The team did a great job coming into the rally, through the rally, and now we're going to have a good time after the rally."

In the final results table, Bryan Bouffier took third for Peugeot, 1 min 39.7 secs down. When looking at this result, it may seem a daunting prospect for Bouffier to take the fight to the Skodas. However, with only two more pure gravel rallies, Bouffier may be able to use his tarmac experience to great effect on the remaining nine tarmac events.

5 mins off the lead was Sepp Wiegand, who was embroiled in a fight over fourth with fellow German Hermann Gassner Jr., up until the later make a late visit into the scenery. Gassner Jr. took fifth, with fastest local driver Ricardo Moura sixth, nearly 9 mins off the lead. Oleksandr Salyuk was seventh in the final S2000 in the Top 10, with Sergio Silva, Ruben Rodrigues and Miguel Barbosa round out the Top 10.