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It made all the difference.
Pre-rally shakedown and the ceremonial
start for the Italian championship Rally
San Crispino were brought forward -
so as not to clash with the Euro 2012
match between Italy and Germany. The
event was won by Paolo Andreucci in a
Peugeot 207 S2000.
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The German Eifel Rally
Festival (26/28 July) has attracted a
remarkable collection of old-timer rally
cars, authentic and replica, including no
fewer than 40 genuine ex-works rally
cars. Being non competitive, this event
is popular with owners of genuine but
less powerful cars from the past.
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An estimated 1000 people
attended the funeral of Gareth Roberts
at Llanpumsaint in South Wales last
week. Nearby there was an emotive
collection of the various cars in which
Gareth had been successful in his
tragically short career in rally sport,
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It is reported that the FIA
has clarified the anti-Wales Rally
GB comments made by World Rally
Championship Commission President
Jarmo Mahonen at the recent Acropolis
Rally in Greece. Assurances have been
given that Rally GB will continue to be a
cherished round of the WRC, wherever it
is based in future.
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Ford’s competition director
Gerard Quinn has emphasized that
comments attributed to him saying that
Ford would leave the WRC and go to
the IRC unless there was immediate
progress on the WRC promotion front
were inaccurate. He has explained that
there is no intention for the team to
leave the WRC before their contracted
agreement ends in 2013. There is no
assurance the IRC will continue its
present form after the end of his year,
anyway.
IRC HEADS TO SAN MARINO
Favourite old gravel stages on Italian gravel event in as many weekends
soil, some of which were also used in this region of Italy. Twelve of the
in old time Sanremo WRC events, 13 stages will be run in Italy; the
will form the basis of competition in outstanding stage will a six kilometre
the 40th San Marino Rally (5-7 July), all-asphalt stage which passes from the
the seventh round of the IRC season. south of the tiny microstate Republic to
This will be the third IRC rally, after the city itself.
Targa Florio and then Ypres, to run in Skoda will be represented by
a four week period. It is also the last national team drivers Andreas
event before the championship heads Mikkelsen (the UK team, winner in
eastwards for a group of four qualifying 2011, first non-Italian or local driver to
rounds in Eastern European countries. win this event for 24 years), Umberto
The event also counts for the Italian Scandola (Italian Skoda team) and the
national CIR and the gravel Italian German team driver Sepp Wiegand.
championships, the second major Their main rival will be Giandomenico
Basso, making first gravel rally with the
1.6 turbo Ford Fiesta S2000.
The HRT Peugeot team, for whom
Craig Breen drove in Targa Florio, has
withdrawn from the event so their
guest driver on this event, Hayden
Paddon, will not take part. Some
very well known rally names, such as
Sandro Munari and Miki Biasion, have
won this event in the past.
PIC: “Lucky” seen in action on the
1984 San Marino Rally in a Ferrari
308GTB four-valve. His co-driver was
Claudio Berro, now the Director of
Racing at Lotus
PIKES POSTPONED
The now all-asphalt Pikes Peak International
Hill Climb, due to be run close to Colorado
Springs, USA on 8 July has been postponed
because of serious fires in the area.
Star international entry this year was to have
been outright record holder Nobuhiro Tajima
(pictured,during his 2011 record run), this time
driving an electric car, while 1987 record breaker
Walter Rohrl planned a 25 year return with his
Audi. A total of 211competitors were expected
to take part.
SEPPO TO SA
August will be a busy month for WRC
Deputy Neste Oil Rally Finland Clerk
of the Course Seppo Harjanne, as he
rushes southwards after his rally to act
as special adviser for the WRC candidate
Rally of South Africa two weeks later.
He has already inspected the route and
been impressed at the variety of conditions
the KwaZulu Natal region around Durban
offers:
“The first day is based on closed public
road sections in the picturesque Valley of
a Thousand Hills. This is perhaps the area
which has the closest visual connection with
the popular visions of Africa.
“Then on day two the rally is based
further inland in the Richmond forests, near
Pietermaritzburg. It is hard to categorise
these forests, but the closest I can say is
that they remind me of the old Western
Australian forests. There is also another very
important area close to the coast which is
not being included in the Candidate event,
but planned for a WRC event. These are the
sugar cane sections, which are very tricky.
The surfaces are always tricky, and like
the vineyard stages in Germany, the roads
present visually deceptive challenges for the
drivers”.”
This is because the high canes prevent
drivers seeing round bends, it is like driving
in tunnels.
Seppo Harjanne was world champion
co-driver in 1985 with Timo Salonen, but in
the heydays of international rallying in South
African in those days, he never personally
had the chance to compete in the country:
“Many other WRC drivers took part in
these events but plans for us never came to
fruition. This new project is a huge challenge,
not just to run a world standard event but all
the management, personnel delegation and
promotional challenges behind the event”.
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