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

Moon man Matt

Take a minute out of your busy lives to take a look at these pictures…

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post and this in no way is meant to be a nasty post.

But don’t you think our lovely Matt has a spookily similar face to that of the moon man?

I think it’s his face colour, nose and jawline that give this rather moon-esque appearance.

All those who criticize his driving prowess just stop for a minute and allow yourselves to revel in the fact that although his driving talents might not be up to scratch his space-age like features are wonders to behold.

Don’t see it? No??

Maybe it’s just me then.

Too close to home???

I was doing a bit of background research for this post and I came across this little gem and it got me thinking.

His dad is his boss and his mum apparently travels to every WRC event with her boy.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Mr and Mrs Wilson a lot but surely it can’t do much for Matthew’s street cred to have your mum waiting for you in the service park of every rally.

I wonder if Matthew moved to another team, away from the comfort of his family then we’d get a real glimpse of whatever talent his Dad claims he has.

To be honest I think that would be the best thing for him, having a real boss, a different car and a bigger opportunity to prove he’s not just in the WRC because Daddy’s paid for him to be there Antony Warmbold style.

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, come on, give me a win

The questions is though, can he?

Our young Brit kept his nose clean out in Cyprus, finishing 5th overall he’s now 6th in the championship, two points above Jari-Matti Latvala.

He’s doing well, right?

Well not according to some people.

Since the deaths of Richard Burns and Colin McRae there has been no one with enough talent to make headlines and create interest in the WRC.

If Matthew had enough talent surely he would’ve already excelled on a rally which would have caught our attention.

This is yet to happen and with Matt being the only Brit out there it must knock his confidence when the critics launch the ‘he’s wasting a precious seat’ argument.

Well excuse me, no he’s not.

He may not be the best driver out there and at the moment he can’t be classed as a special driver, only a mere average driver.

But he certainly hasn’t ‘stolen’ anyone else’s opportunity to be in a factory team – I really doubt whether the seat would have existed if Matthew hadn’t come along.

In fact you could argue that his involvement in the WRC has created more opportunities for other up and coming drivers so leave the poor guy alone for once!