Rally

Markku Alen has fond memories of rallying’s most revered era, despite being stripped of its final title, and shared them with Motorsport.com in 2016… The sun comes out. The Aviators go on. The jumper stays around the shoulders, partially covering a perfectly pressed white shirt. Nothing’s changed. When the talking starts, the years fall away with the clipped, urgent tone. Markku Alen’s ...Keep reading View the full article

With the WRC on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Millener confirmed the free time is being used to fast-track elements of the project, although it has not been announced which Ford model it is being based around. Millener is aiming to have the first test mule available to drive by the start of next year. Running the same base engine as the current Fiesta WRC, it will be paired to a ...Keep reading View the full article

In January, Dover District Council's Planning Committee granted approval for a £5.5m development at the Kent venue, including a new access road to ease traffic issues, and a new pavilion building in the paddock. The plans also include diversification on top of Lydden's 52 days of circuit running a year, including events for cycling, hospitality, corporate VIP days and the like, to give ...Keep reading View the full article

The 2020 WRC season has been on an extended hiatus since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, with only three of the original 13 rounds completed so far. Efforts are being made to get WRC back underway in coming months, but several events are expected to be struck from the schedule, leading to a largely Europe-based championship. Rally Portugal was officially cancelled in late April ...Keep reading View the full article

With the Swedish round of World RX having been moved to late August (20-23) in the provisional revised 2020 calendar, and the Nordic series’ Holjes season-opener also postponed, Nordic organisers have worked with Holjes operating club Finnskoga MK and broadcasters NEP plan a pair of rounds over four days on July 2-5, which will include an ‘All-Star Invitational’ element. The event will ...Keep reading View the full article

Loheac had featured as the planned second round of World RX’s revised 2020 calendar, located in its traditional first-weekend-in-September slot, but Loheac boss Patrick Germain admitted earlier this month that the event was in doubt. The French round has now been cancelled due to mass gathering measures that will be in place in France until days before the event was due to take place, and the ...Keep reading View the full article

The first event will be held on Sunday 31 May using the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, before continuing on to a virtual Norway, Sweden and South Africa. The Esports events will feature a mix of World RX drivers and guest drivers from other motor sport disciplines. Esports racers will also feature in the events. The top 10 gamers will compete in their own semi-finals and final that will be ...Keep reading View the full article

Kenya’s fabled Safari Rally was due to return to the WRC calendar for the first time since 2002, with the East African event scheduled as the eighth round on July 16-19 on the original WRC schedule. However, in a statement released by the organiser on Friday, it was announced that the rally has now been deferred until 2021, with the exact date to be announced later. The decision was ...Keep reading View the full article

The ex-Mitsubishi and Skoda WRC driver has prior experience of racing in European Rallycross Championship rounds in various Skoda Fabias over the last 15 years, and made five World RX starts with Manfred Stohl’s STARD team last year. He has now acquired an ex-MJP Racing Fiesta to run in selected World RX events this year, prior to a planned full campaign in 2021, while also assessing options ...Keep reading View the full article

Didier Auriol dismissed the Network Q RAC Rally as just another event in his calendar, preferring not to think of what was at stake on the final round of the 1994 World Rally Championship. "OK," he said, "I am a little bit nervous, but no more than at any other event. The rally is really important but it is not the end of the world." One could be forgiven for wondering if the 36-year-old ...Keep reading View the full article

The 1990 and 1992 WRC champion, who celebrated his third Dakar Rally win earlier this year, went up against nine-time world champion Loeb in the head-to-head final with the Spaniard clinching the honour with 57.28% of the vote, as over 80,000 fans taking part in the title-decider. Over 300,000 votes were cast in total during the knockout-style poll which Sainz beat 1983 WRC champion Hannu ...Keep reading View the full article

Prior to the updated calendar being released on Monday, only the first four rounds of the season, in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Norway had been officially postponed due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It has now been confirmed that the first round is planned to be held at Holjes, Sweden in late August, the event moving from its first weekend in July slot. The French and Latvian rounds ...Keep reading View the full article

Paul Bellamy, Senior Vice President of Motorsports Events at IMG, the promoter of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, said: “The inaugural World RX Esports event was a stunning success. We can now confirm that the second round will take place as the replacement for the World RX of Portugal. We hope our Esports series is bringing some respite from the impacts of COVID-19 for global ...Keep reading View the full article

Originally scheduled as the sixth round of the 2020 campaign, the Porto-based event was due to take place on May 21-24 before it was indefinitely postponed in late March along with Rally Italy amid the worsening COVID-19 crisis. Efforts had been underway to move Rally Portugal to the end of October, potentially slotting in between Rally Germany and Rally GB, but a statement from the Automovel ...Keep reading View the full article

This year's Dakar was the first to take place in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia taking on sole hosting duties in the first year of a five-year agreement with event organiser ASO. Rally director David Castera revealed in the aftermath of the event that talks had begun with other countries in the region potentially interested in joining a multi-national route for the 2021 event due to take ...Keep reading View the full article

The decision was made by a World Motor Sport Council e-vote on Monday, and follows FIA announcements that new regulations for Formula 1 and Formula E would also be pushed back. Electric cars built using twin-motor, four-wheel drive kits produced by Austrian firm Kreisel had been due to race together with conventional internal combustion engine [ICE] Supercars in World RX next ...Keep reading View the full article

Reigning World RX Champion Timmy Hansen, two-time series winner Johan Kristoffersson and Dirt Rally 2.0 World Series Champion Killian Dall’olmo head the bill for World RX’s first Esports Invitational. The concept has been created to replace real-life rounds of the World RX series that have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and kicks off this weekend at the Catalunya RX circuit in ...Keep reading View the full article

Mouton, who is the most successful female rally driver in history, was forced to retire from what was to be her final World Rally Championship event in Corsica while running in the top three due to a technical problem with her Peugeot 205 T16. However, a day later, Lancia’s Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresta were killed – which was the beginning of the end for the Group B ...Keep reading View the full article

What you might not be familiar with the story of the one and only Grand Prix start he made with Minardi at Interlagos on April 11th 1999. That race could have signalled the start of a great F1 career. Unfortunately the Frenchman’s day ended with a huge impact with a barrier that saw his car spinning like a top in the middle of the track, leaving its driver a little dizzy. Despite showing ...Keep reading View the full article

Solberg enjoyed a hugely successful career in WRC after making his debut in 1998, scoring 13 rally wins and winning Subaru’s most recent drivers’ title in 2003. The Norwegian won back-to-back titles in the World Rallycross Championship after moving across to the burgeoning series in 2014, but was left without a drive after Volkswagen pulled out of the series at the end of the 2018 ...Keep reading View the full article