WRC loses Nokia

Nokia and the WRC have today confirmed that the contract between the communication’s giant and the top tier of rallying has been terminated.

Said to be worth around £2.5m per season to the WRC on a long-term contract, Nokia came into the series at the start of the year to help with the complete revamp of the media coverage end of the series. The WRC also became know as the “World Rally Championship, powered by Nokia”. Nokia also re-introduced a WRC app, which, somewhat remarkably, was only available on Nokia devices.

WRC Commission President Jarmo Mahonen said the collapse of the deal was “quite a big loss to the championship”. According to Mahonen, the fiasco over the loss of the WRC promoter at the beginning of the year was partly to blame for Nokia's decision to leave prematurely.

"We didn't see it as just money coming in, Nokia was going to be a partner. It was a very good platform." he added.

However, in a turn of good news for the WRC, a new promoter will be announced in just over 2 weeks time at the World Motorsport Council's meeting on the 15 June. Rumours suggest that the FIA will take the position on themselves.

Rory Galligan 1973-2012

With immense sadness and regret we have learned of the death of former BRC front-runner Rory Galligan, who passed away on Monday (21^st May), aged just 39.

Galligan was an immensely well-liked and talented driver. He was perhaps most well-known for being a Mitsubishi works driver in the 2005 and 2006 in the British Rally Championship. Committed and spectacular, he had pace on every surface.

His rallying career started in 1993, when he took to the stages in a Talbot Samba. After 2 years learning the rope's, the Samba was ditched in favour of a Peugeot 205, a challenge-spec car.

This is where Galligan's talent was really seen. Even though the car was nearly standard, he beat cars far and above his own class, including WRC cars! The opposition couldn't stand his sheer pace, and he took many class wins in Ireland and Britain on the way to winning the British Class A7 Rally Championship in 1998.

He jumped up to a Peugeot 106 to contest the 106 Super Cup, a hotly contested affair. His first year was blighted by crashes, but it was also his first year on gravel, and again he showed his pace.

He spent another year learning the stages and the car, before, in 2001, he blew the opposition into the weeds when he took four 106 Super Cup wins out of 8 rounds, on his way to the Championship.

He was awarded a works drive in a Peugeot 206 S1600 Kit Car for 2002 for winning the 106 Super Cup the year before. Fraught with mechanical problems throughout the year, he finished on the podium in 3 of the 4 events he finished, including a 3^rd place on his very first rally in the car. This lead to a 4^th placed finish in the hugely competitive S1600 Championship.

He made another class jump with a move to the Mitsubishi Evolution challenge in 2004. He spent the season fighting with his old Peugeot rival Paul Wedgbury, claiming the title on the last rally by a single point.

This was when his career really took off. He was rewarded with a Mitsubishi works drive for the full British Rally Championship in 2005. He took 5 Group N wins in his first year as a works driver and took second overall in the Production Championship. He was easily the fastest driver on both gravel and tar.

With WRC cars banned in the BRC for 2006, and Galligan chosen to drive a works car for another year, he was given his first proper shot at going for the British Driver's Title. From the first 4 rounds he took a second, a third and 2 retirements. He also took part in Rally Finland in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo taking a creditable fifth,in the Group N class, showing he had the talent to compete at world level. Things were going from good to great for the Irishman and it was only a matter of time before he took his first BRC win.

Tragically, it wasn't to be. He was struck down with illness part-ways through the 2006 season, and as the illness took hold, he was forced to can his rallying career after his home Ulster Rally. He had spend 13 years in the sport he loved, and 2 years at the very top of British Rallying.

After his premature retirement from rallying, he kept himself in the sport. He was always up-to-date with all the goings on and was willing to help wherever he could.

Rory passed away on Monday from Motor Neuron Disease. His funeral will take place on Thursday (24^th May). A guard of honour will take place before and after the funeral mass as a final salute to Rory.

GRN sends its deepest condolences to Rory's family, wife Treasa, son Charlie, daughter Ella and his many, many friends.


Photo credit: rallybrc.co.uk.

Sense over speed in Greece?

Ford World Rally Team ace Petter Solberg is sure that an intelligent approach to this week's Acropolis Rally will pay dividends in the quest for victory on the Greek classic.

Big rocks, with razor-like edges and searing heat makes the Acropolis Rally a formidable challenge faced by the WRC stars. It is a rally of endurance rather than speed, and Solberg knows what he is talking about.

The Norwegian has taken 5 podium finishes on the rally, including a win in 2004. He also took his first podium here in 2001, whilst in his first full year at the Subaru World Rally Team.

“It’s the roughest round of the season, but we’ll see if it proves to be the toughest. There are many big rocks in Greece and that’s what makes the rally so tricky. I learned a lot about rough road driving when Kenya’s Safari Rally was part of the championship, and that’s useful for Greece. You have to be smart with your driving in this type of event.” he said.

Solberg also noted the hard time the tyres will face this weekend. Rocks litter the roads, most of which would put a gash in the tyre big enough to put your hand in. Survival of the tyres is vital for any sort of chance at winning.

“The rough roads and heat are also hard for the tyres. But Michelin’s tyres have been strong this year so I’m confident they’ll be good here also. I had some bad luck on the last two rounds, but still scored good championship points after driving at 110 per cent to climb back up the order. Hopefully I can have a clean run and keep the points coming.” the 2003 World Champion added.

Sordo claims début IRC win

It is said that in 47 BC the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar wrote the phrase “veni, vidi, vici”, which translates as “I came, I saw, I conquered”. He made this comment after a very brief war with Pharnaces II of Pontus, who lost badly.

Dani Sordo could be forgiven for chanting this as he crossed the finishing ramp in Bastia. He did exactly as the phrase says, he came to Corsica, he saw the level of competition that the IRC had to offer, and he promptly conquered.

He didn't have it all his own way however. Reigning Champion Andreas Mikkelsen lead at the end of Day 1 from Sordo, by 1.8 secs. Local hero Pierre Campana held a strong third, racking up his first IRC Stage win in an S2000 car. He could have been higher, had it not been for suffering serious tyre wear over the abrasive roads. He was less than 20 secs off the lead, close enough to strike should bad fortune (or a big rain shower) hit the leading pair.

“It’s been a perfect day for us. Sordo is one of the best Tarmac rally drivers in the world and he’s been pushing hard, so I’m really happy with my performance today. I know the stages tomorrow a little better, so I’m glad to finish the first day so strongly. There is a long way still to go, but so far everything is going well.” said Mikkelsen.

European Championship regular Giandomenico Basso, piloting the 1.6 turbo Ford Fiesta RRC, was within 2 secs of Mikkelsen at the end of the day. However, he put his car in a ditch to avoid a member of the public who was driving on the wrong side of the road. The subsequent collision with a rock damaged the steering. He managed another 20 kms before he was forced to stop again, but this time damage to the driveshaft and the engine was discovered. Rally over for the Italian ace.

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny for the crews as they were faced with another five tests today over the Corsican stages. Mikkelsen was on form straight away, blasting into a 7 sec lead over Sordo. The Spaniard might have just been biding his time, but he didn't have to wait to launch an attack on the Norwegian.

Mikkelsen overcooked the entry to a very fast left hander in his works Skoda. The car ran wide and hit a timber telephone pole. The impact inflicted a puncture on the Norwegian, and he and co-driver Ola Floene lost more time changing the wheel when the jack repeatedly failed. Another puncture on the final stage of the day compounded the misery of losing the chance of his first tarmac win in the IRC.

This adventure let Sordo into the lead of the rally, something he would never lose. The other Skoda of Jan Kopecky took over the second spot, and Bryan Bouffier, who was suffering from a medical complaint which sapped him of energy towards the end of the stages, up into third. Pierre Campana was in fourth, 36 secs behind Sordo. A good scrap seemed to be set up for the final day, with second to fourth separated by less than 11 secs. However, anyone brave enough to challenge Sordo would have their work cut out against the Spaniard.

A thrilling fight ensued over second place between Kopecky and Campana, with the Czech driver beating the local to the runners up spot. Kopecky lost confidence in his pace notes over the day's first stage, allowing Campana ahead. But, after going fastest over five of the final six stages, Kopecky got back in front and netted the IRC Colin McRae Flat Out Trophy for his efforts.

Ahead of the scrapping duo, Dani Sordo took his first IRC win on his début in the Series. His MINI John Cooper Works Regional Rally Car (a car that has most probably taken the record of 'longest rally car name' in the history of the sport!) performed faultlessly throughout the rally.

Bryan Bouffier took fourth in his Peugeot 207 S2000, whilst overcoming an energy-sapping illness and handling issues. Fifth went to Andreas Mikkelsen, who fought his way back up the order after his punctures. Driveshaft problems delayed Craig Breen on Day 1, but he took sixth, just ahead of Jean Marc Manzagol in another 207 S2000 in seventh.

Sepp Wiegand continued his promising season with eighth place. Hermann Gassner Jr. took a fourth Skoda to ninth place, with Jean-Mathieu Leandri being dropped to 10^th on the final stage, thanks to a flying Gassner Jr..

Nest of the Irish was Craig Breen in sixth, with Marty McCormick making his S2000 début for PS Engineering. He finished 17^th after 2 consecutive punctures on the same stage lost him buckets of time.

In the Group N Category, Andreas Aigner made his competitive return to rallying with a stunning win in his Stohl Racing-run Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Toshi Arai came second with rallying legend Francois Delecour took third in a Renault Mégane RS.

Petru Antone Boschetti won the IRC 2WD class, finishing 1 min 22 secs ahead of Delecour's Renault. Harry Hunt took third in his Citroen DS3 R3T.

O'Riordan takes second Killarney win

Darragh O'Riordan took a dominating win in Kerry last weekend at the Killarney Rally of the Lakes.

Following up his breakthrough win last year in The Kingdom, O'Riordan and co-driver Tony McDaid guided their Subaru Impreza S12B faultlessly over the legendary Killarney stages to take a commanding win of over 2 mins, ahead of Championship leader Darren Gass.

It wasn't all plain sailing for O'Riordan, and stiff competition came in the form of reigning Tarmac Champion Tim McNulty. Making his second appearance of 2012 after missing the Circuit of Ireland, McNulty flew into an early lead ahead of O'Riordan. It all fell apart for 'Big Tim', when his Subaru vanished off the road backwards whilst negotiating the famous Molls Gap stage, SS4.

McNulty's adventure let Eugene Donnelly up into second overall, but by now O'Riordan was driving away from the opposition. Donnelly, piloting his Toyota Corolla WRC, was keeping Darren Gass at bay, Gass marking only his second trip to Killarney.

Gass took advantage of an intercom problem for Donnelly on SS10, the Tim Healy Pass, and cut the deficit down to 1 sec before moving into a 3 secs lead. Disaster struck for the 7-times Tarmac Champion, as a piston failure put him out of the rally. This looks to be the end of the road for Donnelly's Championship aspirations.

This put everyone behind up a place, including moving Group N leader Garry Jennings into 3^rd overall. Gass maintained second but there was nothing he could do about the leading S12B of O'Riordan.

The order remained the same as Darragh O'Riordan blew the opposition into the weeds with a spectacular second consecutive win in Killarney. Gass took second, maintaining his Championship lead over Garry Jennings, who took third overall and Group N win. Indeed, such was Jennings winning margin in the showroom class that he had his service engineer Colm Grant knock back the power in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo so he could cruise to the finish. Jenning's nearest rival, Sam Moffett, went out from fourth overall with the timing went funny in his similar Evo.

JJ Fleming struggled to get used to his ex-Mikko Hirvonen Ford Focus WRC, but still took fourth, albeit over 13 mins off the lead. Vincent O'Shea took fifth overall and second in Group N to the rapid Garry Jennings. Sixth went to the Citroen Racing Trophy winning Citroen C2 of David Carney and Ray Fitzpatrick.

Aaron McHale made his return to rallying in his usual Ford Focus WRC. The car had been out of action for a few years and a list of problems plagued the car, including clutch, battery and alternator problems. Eoin Doyle had a strong run in his also newly acquired Ford Focus WRC, but went out on the Ballaghbeama stage.

In stark contrast to the International field, there was a massive fight for the win in the National section. Roy White (MG ZR S2000) and Barry Meade (Ford Escort MK2) swapped times throughout the rally, but an electrical problem caused White's MG to stall twice in one stage, and even thought he threw caution to the wind to catch back up, but Meade held on to win by 10 secs. Fergus O'Mara was third, but nearly 3 mins off the leading pair.

Bradley blasts to Sperrins win!

Local knowledge always helps when rallying. Having a good car also helps. As does being a competent driver.

However, give Camillus Bradley his infamous orange MK2 Escort and put him in Davagh Forest, only a brave (indeed extremely brave) man would bet against him not winning. But that is exactly what he did on last weekend's Tour of the Sperrins rally, making him the first 2WD driver to win a round of the NI Rally Championship for over 10 years!

Based this year in Davagh Forest, and not on the usual closed public roads, Bradley was easily favourite to win the rally. Even thought Championship leader Derek McGarrity had entered in a Hyundai Accent WRC, which actually transpired to be a state-of-the-art MINI John Cooper Works WRC, Bradley was still favourite in his equally state-of-the-art MK2.

The 4 mile Stage 1 got under way at just before 11 O’clock with McGarrity fastest out of the blocks, but not much more than half a second faster than Bradley. He continued his space over the next test, extending his lead to 6.4 secs over the bright-orange MK2.

But, on the next stage, Bradley decided to give it the boot. He was fastest on the final four stages, there were only 6 in the rally, converting his 5.8 sec deficit into a 26.1 sec win. It did help that McGarrity dropped 40 secs on SS5, but chances are that Bradley would have caught and passed the MINI with or without the problems.

The time loss put McGarrity down to third, boosting Drew Stewart up to second in another MK2 Escort. Kieron Graffin took fourth in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 with Alistair Cochrane took fifth in his MK2, 10 secs clear of Raymond Mason's Evo.

The two MK2 Escort's of James Kennedy and Gary Price took seventh and eighth, heading a pair of Evo's, piloted by Gerard McFall and Kyle Orr.

Round 3 of the McGrady Insurance Junior 1000 Rally Championship was held in Eniskillen, part of the McAleer's Spar Stages Rally. Adam Bustard took the spoils for the first time, with championship leader and winner of the first two rounds, Ben Crealey, barely one and a half secs back in second. Rhys Bunting survived the slippery conditions to take third.

Latvala to test Fiesta next week

Injury plagued Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala is expected to be back in a rally car as soon as next week, in preparation for the Acropolis Rally in 20 days’ time.

Latvala will test a Ford Fiesta RS WRC next week on the Italian island of Sardinia alongside team-mate Petter Solberg. The Finn will test the Fiesta for two days as he fights to be fit for the rough gravel World Championship classic.

“It’ll be great to get Jari back in the car. He’s had some padding made to go over the area where he broke his collarbone, but he hasn’t been feeling any pain since two days after the accident. We’re 99.9 per cent certain he will be competing with us in Greece.” said Team Director Malcolm Wilson.

Latvala broke his left collarbone in a freak training accident in the Lapland region of northern Finland almost a month ago. Forced to sit out Argentina whilst Dani Sordo took his place, Latvala was always expected to make his return to competition in Greece, but, according to himself, is “90% recovered and ahead of schedule”, therefore being “confident for Greece”.

The Finn will return to the WRC 63 points behind Championship leader Sebastian Loeb. With only two scores to his name out of 5 rallies, Latvala is realistically out of the Championship fight now. Team-mate Petter Solberg is well stuck into the fight, 18 points behind after his steering failure in Argentina.

“Jari-Matti has some trouble for the moment and lost a lot of points in the championship. I think my main rivals now are [Mikko] Hirvonen and [Petter] Solberg. Even before Latvala’s problems they were still the closest drivers in the championship. They are fast drivers, Solberg is very fast in the Ford and Mikko is understanding how our car is working so they will be good rivals.”

Cronin back to winning ways

Keith Cronin showed us why he is a double British Rally Champion last weekend, taking an exciting win in only his second event in the Citroen DS3 R3.

Completing the rally based in the demanding Kielder Forest, Cronin swapped the top spot with team-mate Jarkko Nikara, ultimately winning by 17.2 secs over the Finn.

Nikara took first blood with two stage wins in the first two stages, heading team-mate Cronin by 3 secs at the end of the first day. Elfyn Evans sat second overall, heading the Fiesta Sport Trophy in his slower R2 Fiesta.

Cronin showed his metal on Day 2, waking up with a real fire in his belly. Fastest time over the first two stages of the day sent him into the lead, but Nikara fought back over the next test, re-taking the lead. Cronin went back into the lead on the very next test, but Nikara just about snatched it back after SS8. Cronin went mental over the final four stages, swiping his 17 sec winning margin out of Nikara over the final four stages.

An elated Cronin said at the finish: “It’s been a fantastic battle and a win always feels so much better when you have to fight for it. Once we had settled into the new car and tweaked a few things, we had no problems at all, so it’s been a very enjoyable rally and great to win a round of the British Championship again. Thanks must go to Autosport Technology for getting the car ready, Marshall my co-driver and everyone who has helped me achieve this.”

Such was the pace of the leading pair of Citroen’s, Round 1 winner Mark Donnelly took third nearly two minutes back. Donnelly was still re-building confidence over the rally’s 12 stages after his massive crash last time out in Wales. Elfyn Evans’ slower Fiesta R2 succumbed to the pace of the faster R3 cars, eventually taking fourth, 2 mins 41 secs back. He did, however, have the consolidation of taking the Fiesta Sport Trophy win.

"I am really happy with the result. To be honest I was surprised with our pace and overall position after the Friday night stages. We were able to establish a good lead today [Saturday] and focused on tidying everything up and keeping our position. We had a problem with the gear selector bracket and had to make some roadside repairs to keep going, but thankfully we made it to the end. It feels great to be leading the championship – especially in an R2 specification car! I need to thank the whole team for providing me with a great car and getting me into this position.” said Evans.

Peter Taylor took fifth in the Renault Clio R3, less than 2 secs ahead of Pirelli Star Driver Jukka Korhonen. Armed with a TEG Sport-prepared Skoda Fabia R2, the young Finn is improving his pace rally-by-rally.

"It’s been a really good weekend, and I’ve had no problems. We had some knowledge of the roads from last year and some of the stages are very similar to the nature of the roads back in Finland so that has definitely helped. I’m looking forward to the next round of the championship, we’re not so familiar with driving on asphalt but we’re feeling ready for the challenge.” said Korhonen.

Finnish Ford Junior Team driver Jussi Kumpumaki seventh overall and second in the Fiesta Sport Trophy. He also took the Pirelli star driver award for his efforts.

WRC Academy star Alastair Fisher took eighth overall, losing time when some stones embedded themselves in the rear brakes of Fisher’s Fiesta. Championship leader Tom Cave lost buckets of time in his DS3, as did Jonny Greer in a similar DS3. Both drives were ninth and tenth, respectively.

Loeb takes his South American 70th

Everyone knows Citroen are strong in Argentina, indeed that have won every Rally Argentina since 2004 thanks to Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Loeb.

However, for the first time in many years, Ford ruffled Citroen's feathers, with new team leader Petter Solberg leading up to SS4. That was as far as he got in the lead, a stone on the racing line sent Solberg into the bushes and resulted in a broke steering arm.

Team Director Malcolm Wilson said: “It’s a great opportunity lost again to be honest so we’re disappointed. But we’re confident we can get the car fixed for tomorrow [Leg 2] and we’ll continue and put up a good fight again like in Portugal and get back into the points with Petter.”

This let Mikko Hirvonen into the lead, and his team-mate up into second. This was the start of a close fight between the red and white rockets. Loeb pushed hard through the rutted SS5, overhauling Hirvonen by just a tenth of a second.

“We changed a bit the set-up and I was much more confident in the afternoon,” said Loeb. “I pushed really hard and there were no mistakes. It is very close with Mikko and there is a long way to go.” Loeb said.

It was only a matter of time until Hirvonen would be told to give way to Loeb, and that order came on Leg 2. The Finn won the opening two stages, putting Loeb under pressure and causing the Frenchman to have a big moment. However, team boss Yves Matton called time on the scrap, allowing Loeb his 70^th WRC win.

The final day was relatively relaxed for the Citroen pairing. Loeb carried on to his amazing 70^th win, whilst Hirvonen took second, just 15.2 secs behind. It proved that the super-consistant Hirvonen would have been fast enough to win the rally off of his own speed, but undoubtedly, Loeb would have fought back and Matton may have been faced with having one (or both) of his €400,000 cars converted into pointy balls of metal or wrapped around a pretty solid object, instead of a comfortable 1-2 finish.

Another incredibly consistent run off the back of his breakthrough Portuguese win, Mads Ostberg snatched the final podium place in his highest of the Fiesta's. Only handling issues slowed the Norwegian, but his solid result lifted him up to fourth in the Driver's table.

Both Martin Prokop and Theirry Neuville took their career-best finishes in Argentina, with Prokop fourth and Neuville fifth. What a rally to achieve your best finish on!

Sixth is not what could be considered a fair result for the ever-hard-charging Petter Solberg. After that unforgiving Argentinian rock ruined what seemed to be leading up to his first win in nearly 7 years, Solberg returned under Rally 2 rules. And what a comeback he made.

Beginning Day 2 down in 11^th place, over 14 mins off the lead, owing to his Rally 2 penalties, Solberg began a do-or-die push back up into the points. He began his charge on SS10, winning every stage, bar SS13, from there home. Overall, he won over half of the stages in the rally, getting back to sixth after team-mate Dani Sordo's woes. And, to boot, Solberg won the event-closing Power Stage as well.

Sebastian Ogier impressively took his Skoda Fabia S2000 up to seventh, after team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen retired with suspension failure on SS15. Mikkselsen had the beating of Ogier throughout the rally, only losing out when the right-front wheel decided to do it's own thing.

Evgney Novikov took eighth with Nasser Al-Attiyah ninth, having run higher only to slip into the retirement ranks. Tenth went to Ott Tanak, another driver rescued by Rally 2.

Dani Sordo's one-off drive for Ford was going according to plan, up until the last stage when the alternator belt snapped and put him out whilst running third. Ford hope that Jari-Matti Latvala will be fit for Greece this month, but they now know who to call if he isn't fully fit.

Benito Guerra took an outstanding 4 minute victory margin in the P-WRC section of the rally. Piloting his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, he survived the 500 gruelling kilometres to finish ahead of Nicholas Fuchs. A dodgy gearbox couldn't deny Valeriy Gorban a third placed finish in the colourful Mentos-sponsored Lancer.

“I’m really, really happy with my second win and my first victory outside of Mexico. There were several times when I felt I needed to race to be faster but not in Argentina. I had to be very calm to keep the car in one piece for the long, long days. I did this and now with two wins I am the leader of the championship and can dream of being world champion.” said Guerra.