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Rallying and Off-Road
In 2002, Action Resources managed BRC Peugeot 206GT competitor, Ellya Gold, but overall we have had a pretty low rallying and off-road profile within motor-sport. Since the beginning of 2004, however, all that changed and we are now assisting and advising a number of BRC and national competitors and became involved in several manufacturer-led off-road and rally programmes which have happened since 2008.
By popular request, therefore, we are extending our rally and off-road coverage. It is after all within rallying that one generally finds the true spirit of clubmen's and women's motor-sport.
News Snippets and Comment follow :
25/08/10: Sebastien Loeb secured his eighth Rally Germany victory on 22 August, thus establishing a new record for the most ever wins scored by the same driver on a single WRC event. After 13 rounds of the 2010 WRC, Loeb tops the championship table on 191 points, with Sebastien Ogier on 133 and Jari-Matti Latvala on 117. Citroen Total WRT has accumulated 308 points in the Manufacturers' standings from BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT on 222 and the Citroen Junior Team on 168.
31/07/10: The MINI brand is set to make a return to the world rally scene with the new Prodrive-developed Mini Countryman WRC, which will be entered in selected events in 2011 before contesting the entire WRC season in 2012. The very first Mini, produced as both a Morris and an Austin, was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and came off the production lines at Cowley and Longbridge in 1959. Paddy Hopkirk and Bristol Motor Co's Henry Liddon won the Monte Carlo Rally in a Cooper 'S' variant back in 1964 and these cars became a major force in international competition for several years.
15/04/10: The title sponsor of the MSA British Rally Championship is to be Dulux Trade, an Akzonobel subsidiary company. The 2-year deal sees Britain's only international rally series renamed the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship, with significant Dulux branding at the stage start and finish lines, on the podium, in perimeter advertising, on competing cars and on the drivers' rally-suits. Financial details of the agreement, brokered by the Manchester-based Agency Refinery, have not been disclosed but are thought to be around £200,000 per annum.
16/02/10: The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) has signed a sponsorship agreement with global retail foreign exchange broker FxPro, current until the end of 2012. FxPro will become the official forex trading partner of the Championship Series and it is estimated that the deal could be worth some US$1 million.
15/02/10: The opening round of the 2010 WRC - Rally Sweden - has been won by Hirvonen and FORD, from Loeb (Citroen) and Latvala (Ford). Kimi Raikkonen finished in 30th place in his Citroen, some 37 minutes behind the leaders.
23/01/10: With reference to the story below, Hirvonen and the new Fiesta S2000 duly won the Monte Carlo Rally.
17/01/10: M-Sport, the official Ford Team run from Cumbria in the north-west of England by Malcolm Wilson, has said that it will run in the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) with an all-new Ford Fiesta S2000, commencing with the Monte Carlo Rally with Mikko Hirvonen at the wheel. M-Sport's Technical Director, Christian Loriaux, has been working on the development of the car for the past nine months. This means that there will be seven IRC Manufacturers this year: Ford, Honda, Peugeot (the reigning Champions), Proton, Ralliart (Mitsubishi), Skoda and Subaru.
26/10/09: The Story of the WRC, 2009 -
Sebastien Loeb won the Championship (his sixth) by a single point with victory on the Rally of Great Britain, from Hirvonen and Sordo. The final Championship positions reflected the outcome of the Welsh event with Loeb on 93 points, Hirvonen on 92 and Sordo on 64. Citroen beat Ford in the Manufacturers' contest by 167 points to 140.
Loeb closed to within a single point of Mikko Hirvonen after winning the Catalunya Rally in Spain, with one Round of the 2009 WRC to go (Rally GB on 22-25 October). Loeb finished ahead of team-mate Dani Sordo in Spain, with Hirvonen third.
Sebastien Loeb's bid for a sixth World Rally Championship faltered when a team error cost him victory on Rally Australia (Round 10 of 12). Loeb stormed to victory but Officials stripped him of the win when it was found that front anti-roll bar links on his Citroen C4 did not comply with the homologation forms for the car. Loeb was therefore give a 60-second time penalty that dropped him to second behind title rival Mikko Hirvonen. Dani Sordo came in third.
Loeb was runner up to Mikko Hirvonen on the Neste Oil Rally Finland (WRC round 9 of 12), with Latvala coming in third. The event was noteworthy for a strong performance from F1 Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen who drove and rolled an S2000 Fiat Grande Punto run by Tommi Makinen.
Sebastien Loeb's remarkably "on and off" season continued in Poland (WRC Round 8) with yet another crash but the reigning World Champion did at least salvage 7th place at the finish. Ford won through again with Hirvonen, from Sordo's Citroen and Henning Solberg's Focus RS WRC08.
In Round 7, Loeb failed again, after an almighty crash (said by him to be the worst of his career) on the Greek Acropolis Rally, where Hirvonen came through for Ford (on the day after Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson, was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours' List) from Ogier's Citroen and Latvala's Ford Focus WRC.
Sebastien Loeb failed to win a WRC event for the first time in 2009 when Jari-Matti Latvala triumphed for Ford on Rally Italy, Sardinia (Round 6). Latvala was followed home by team-mate Hirvonen and Petter Solberg's Citroen Xsara WRC. Loeb trailed home in fourth place.
Loeb won Round 5 (Rally Argentina) from Sordo and Henning Solberg (Ford Focus RS WRC08).
Vodafone Rally Portugal - WRC Round 4 - ended in another win for Loeb from Hirvonen and Sordo. The event marked the return of Marcus Gronholm (who crashed out) and also a big accident for Latvala.
Rally of Cyprus - WRC Round 3 - culminated in Loeb's 50th career WRC win, from Hirvonen and former Subaru Star Petter Solberg's sensational return at the wheel of an elderly private Citroen Xsara WRC. Loeb's dominance is not good news for the WRC Series, as it fights the "alternative" IRC which now has seven Manufacturer participants. So, in the WRC, Loeb leads on 30 points from Hirvonen on 22 and Citroen team-mate Sordo on 17.
Rally Norway - Round 2 of the 2009 WRC - ended in victory for Loeb from Ford-mounted Hirvonen and Latvala.
A stunningly quick Sebastien Loeb underscored his intention to take a sixth World Rally Championship title in 2009 when he dominated Round One Rally Ireland to bring his Citroen C4 WRC home ahead of team-mate Dani Sordo and Ford man Mikko Hirvonen.
8/10/09: The popular UK-based rally driver and instructor Pentti Airikkala has died at the age of 64 after a long battle against cancer. Helsinki-born Pentti's only World Rally win was on the 1989 RAC British Rally but he also netted the 1979 British Rally Championship crown in a factory Vauxhall Chevette and was a master at teaching the "Scandinavian flick" and left-foot braking techniques.
01/10/09: Keith Cronin, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, secured the 2009 British Rally Championship crown with an outright win on Rally Yorkshire on 26 September. A Mitsubishi has won this event every year since 2006 and Cronin, with co-driver Greg Shinnors, triumphed over chief 2009 rival, Mark Higgins, when the latter's Subaru Impreza ended up well off the road. An all-Mitsubishi podium saw Stuart Jones come in second on Rally Yorkshire with Jonny Greer in third. Cronin finished the Championship on 106 points from Higgins on 96 and Alastair Fisher on 82.5.
28/9/09: Britain's Peugeot 207 S2000 pilot, Kris Meeke from Northern Ireland, has wrapped up the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge title by taking the win on the San Remo Rally; Meeke is now 11 points ahead of his Czech challenger Jan Kopecky. Rosetti (Abarth) and Vouilloz (Peugeot) finished second and third.
17/7/09: Local man Mark Higgins, with Bryan Thomas alongside him, eventually triumphed on the Isle of Man Rally, Round 4 of the 2009 British Rally Championship; it was a nail-biting win for Higgins over Keith Cronin after mistakes and mechanical dramas affected both competitors. Higgins becomes the first driver to win this event 5 times.
Pages in this section:
Rallying and Off-Road
National Rallying Championship Tables - 2009
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Sebastien Loeb signing away at Le Mans '05
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