Rally round-up 13th April to 19th April

• The future of this year’s Wales Rally GB is in doubt after the Welsh Assembly Government withdrew it’s £2.2million a year funding. WRGB is not an actual WRC event in 2010 and the government told the BBC the rally without WRC status was not the type of event it was willing to sponsor. The contract was due to last until 2011 and WRGB Chief Organiser and Chief Executive of International Motor Sports ltd Andrew Coe now plans to sue for breach of contract.
• With just a few days until Rally Argentina the countdown has begun. The entry list list boasts 59 registered crews but only ten of these are World Rally Championship cars, a poor showing. See here for more details.
• J-WRC driver Michal Kosciuszko is heading to Argentina looking to move into the lead of the championship. He’s going into the event level on points with Martin Prokop but only three cars have been entered in the J-WRC category so it shouldn’t be too hard a task for him….Three cars, I know, how pants is that?
• Details of Rally Russia, the fifth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge have been revealed over on Crash.net. The event is due to take place between the 9-11 July and stages are already being prepared. Last year some drivers complained stages were too demanding on cars so organisers are clearly getting ready early this time.
• Somehow Conrad Rautenbach has landed a drive in the French PH Sport operations. Crash.net have reported that the former African champion who now drives for the Citroen Junior Team will compete in the IRC Sata Rally Acores next month. Driving a Peugeot 207 this will be his IRC debut and the first time he has driven a S2000 car competitively. Conrad’s plan is to gain experience of S2000 machinary, well, we all know that will depends on how long he can keep the car on the road and past results how he’s not that good at that at all.
• Fans on Rallyforum are voicing concern over the future of the Tour de Course, one of the most famous rounds on the WRC calendar. The reports aren’t confirmed yet but like the saying goes, there’s no smoke without fire.

Rally round-up 30th March to 5th April

• Michal Kosciuszko kept his Suzuki Swift S1600 out of trouble and finished first in the Rally Portugal JWRC class. Finishing over six minutes ahead of his nearest rival he’s now level with championship leader Martin Prokop in the standings.
• There was a record number of Norwegians in the Rally Portugal top ten, with Petter finishing 4th, Henning finishing 5th and Mads finishing 6th.
• Matt Wilson actually retired! He rolled it on SS17 and then burnt out the clutch, does this mean he was actually pushing it for once?
• Petter Solberg has revealed he turned down an offer to drive for Courage-Oreca team in 2009 Le Mans Sports Car Series, including the Le Mans 24 hour race. He wanted to give priority to the WRC.
• After taking the first four rallies of the season Sebastien Loeb thinks he can win all the remaining rallies but is still concentrating on keeping his crown.

Championship standings

													Total
1.	S. LOEB	10	10	10	10									40
2.	M. HIRVONEN	6	8	8	8									30
3.	D. SORDO	8	4	5	6									23
4.	P. SOLBERG	-	3	6	5									14
5.	H. SOLBERG	5	5	0	4									14
6.	M. WILSON	2	2	4										8
7.	J-M LATVALA	0	6	0										6
8.	C. ATKINSON	4	-	-										4
9.	F. VILLAGRA	-	-	2	2									4
10.	S. OGIER	3	0	R										3

Weekly round-up 9th March – 15th March

It’s all about Cyprus this week…..

• Hirvonen finished Cyrpus in second place to Loeb. Bad times you may say but he finished a respectable 27 secs behind Loeb. You may think this is far from respectable but considering on the last Cyprus he finished a whole 5mins behind Loeb it’s quite decent.
• The Munchis team had a solid start to their slightly delayed season opener with Federico Villagra finishing in 7th place.
• Sebastien Ogier, bless him, was on course for a fantastic 5th place, that was until he crashed out 200m before the finishing line.
• Czech Republic’s Martin Prokop moved into the lead of the JWRC after winning his class.
• Patrik Sandell took his second win from two starts with the Red Bull Rally Team, extending his lead in the PWRC in the process.
• A bit of un-Cyrpiot news now – Sebastien Loeb has hit out at the proposed changes to the WRC saying that the most important thing is to put the security of the series first in the current economic climate. I know he’s said he would be far from keen to be involved in the sport if Super2000s are introduced but he must have had a bit of a rethink and has now said he’ll remain loyal to the sport whatever happens -All you Loeb haters out there, it seems you’ll have to put up with him for a bit longer yet.

Latest WRC standings

														Total
1.	S. LOEB	10	10	10										30
2.	M. HIRVONEN	6	8	8										22
3.	D. SORDO	8	4	5										17
4.	H. SOLBERG	5	5	0										10
5.	P. SOLBERG	-	3	6										9
6.	M. WILSON	2	2	4										8
7.	J-M LATVALA	0	6	0										6
8.	C. ATKINSON	4	-	-										4
9.	S. OGIER	3	0	R										3
10.	C. RAUTENBACH	0	R	3