Posts Tagged ‘intercontinental rally challenge’
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Andreas Mikkelsen's test place in Kall, Sweden a few days ago when Marcus Grönholm was testing the car. Today, Monday, it's Andreas' turn to do the testing. Photo: andreasmikkelsen.no
It seems like Andreas Mikkelsen has decided that he will use the Ford Fiesta Super2000 for this years campaign (source: Verdens Gang) in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Earlier, I have reported that Mikkelsen was still in the choice between the Fiesta and the Skoda Fabia Super2000 – a decisiong that now has been made.
First off and as we already know, Andreas will do Sweden in the Fiesta. Then he will follow up with a seven round programme in the IRC with the hope to go back to the World Rally Championship in 2011.
Mikkelsen’s manager, Erik Veiby, says:
- We have been working purposefully to get Andreas and Ola in a competitive car, and a team that can win the IRC series this year.
We’ll see if that’s correct…
Tags: andreas mikkelsen, erik veiby, ford fiesta super2000, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, rally sweden, s2000, skoda fabia super2000
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
It seems like Skoda UK will add Rally Argentina and Rally de Curitiba in Brazil to Guy Wilks IRC calendar. This means, as far as I understand, that Wilks’ calendar now contains 9 events this year (or out 12 in the IRC). Wilks is currently on 5th place in Rally Monte Carlo with three stages to go tonight before the rally ends.
Tags: brazil, guy wilks, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, rally argentina, rally de curitiba
Posted in IRC, Silly season | No Comments »
Monday, January 11th, 2010
I’ve already reported twice about the fact that Guy Wilks along with co-driver Phil Pugh will enter the IRC along with Skoda UK in 2010, driving a Skoda Fabia Super2000 as a satellite team for the Skoda Motorsport team. However, now it’s finally confirmed. I wont repeat what I’ve already written once again, so refer to my previous posts or to Wilks’ own website.
Go to my previous post about Guy Wilks
Read more on Guy Wilks website
Tags: 2010, guy wilks, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, phil pugh, rally monte carlo, s2000, skoda, skoda fabia super2000, skoda uk, skoda uk motorsport
Posted in IRC, Silly season | No Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
The Cumbrian based firm M-Sport, managing Ford’s rally operations in WRC, now enters the Intercontinental Rally Challenge following the launch of their new Ford Fiesta Super2000. The rules of the IRC allows any competitor running with a certain manufacturer’s car to score manufacturers points, which now means that any Ford Fiesta driver (both 4WD and 2WD) in the championship will score points. Malcolm Wilson, managing director of M-Sport, says to ircseries.com:
- Joining the IRC allows us to offer our customers the chance to make the most out of their participation on the series, as well as the opportunity to showcase our products in new markets. Initial testing with the Ford Fiesta S2000 has gone extremely well, and we’re very much looking forward to seeing our car make its competition debut with Mikko Hirvonen in Monte Carlo later this month.
This is Mikko Hirvonen testing the Ford Fiesta Super2000 in December last year:
Tags: 2010, ford, ford fiesta super2000, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, m-sport, malcolm wilson, manufacturer, mikko hirvonen, msport, s2000
Posted in IRC, Silly season, Video | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
As I told a few days ago, Andreas Mikkelsen will start in Rally Sweden this February in a Ford Fiesta Super2000. However, it seems I was wrong about the details, please excuse me for that. As it looks right now, Mikkelsen will not do an S-WRC campaign, but instead go for the IRC in 2010 – in either a Skoda Fabia Super2000 or the Ford Fiesta Super2000. The entry in Rally Sweden will be used as a test to decide which one of them…
In Hamar Dagblad, the young Norweigan says that his goal is to win the IRC this year, have a works seat in 2011 and win the WRC in 2012. A tough goal, if you ask me – but why not?
Tags: 2010, andreas mikkelsen, ford fiesta super2000, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, ola floene, rally sweden, s-wrc, skoda fabia super2000
Posted in IRC, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Guy Wilks did Rally Scotland this year in a Skoda, and since a while rumours have also placed him in the Fabia Super2000 for 2010 – backed by Skoda UK. The rumours are getting more intense, and multiple sources now claim that the deal is done an that the official announcement is really close. The IRC lineup for 2010 keeps growing impressively…
Tags: 2010, guy wilks, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, rally scotland, rumours, skoda fabia super 2000, skoda uk
Posted in IRC, Silly season | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Last year I made a calendar on Google of all WRC events, allowing you to include it in your own Google Calendar, import it to your phone, Outlook, iCal on Mac etc. This year I’ve made the same – but it’s even more complete, since I’ve included IRC events too. The calendar includes the following information per rally: Championship (WRC/IRC), dates, location, surface and for WRC rallies support classes (JWRC, PWRC, SWRC).
You can reach the calendar in the following formats:
World Rally 2010 – XML format
World Rally 2010 – iCal format
World Rally 2010 – HTML format
If you don’t know how to use the formats listed above, don’t worry. Your calendar software help can probably help you, or if you use Google Calendar, try this link: Subscribe to public calendars – Google Calendar Help.
Tags: 2010, calendar, fia, google calendar, html, ical, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, world rally championship, WRC, xml
Posted in General, IRC, WRC | 7 Comments »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Subaru seems to be close to a confirmation of a challenge in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with their group N version of the Impreza rally car. I love the IRC and the news is of course really good for them – since it in principle means beating the WRC when a team leaves the WRC to join the IRC just a few months after.
However, there is one problem… And that is that it underlines the development of rallying going to a mode where drivers have to pay to drive – not the opposite. I guess Subaru sees this as an opportunity to get exposure in a large, international rally championship that is cheaper than the WRC – but on top of that they wont have to pay everything themselves. Few of the IRC drivers are paid to drive, and I’m quite sure Subaru looks forward to recruit drivers paying for their participation in the team. Quite a difference to the Subaru World Rally Team where Petter Solberg got paid more than 6.000.000 € per year.
That’s the danger with the IRC and also with the new Super2000 regulations of the WRC. In a short term perspective, we can get more manufacturers into the championships and into rallying by reducing costs. But in a long perspective – will it be positive to the sporting values to have the best paying drivers in the championships instead of the best driving? I don’t think so, and I think the risk is obvious. Don’t get me wrong – with the right implementation it can be really good, and I think Super2000 is the only realistic way to go for the WRC. But anyway, that’s why I’m split considering a Subaru entry in the IRC – even since I would love to see the cars competing…
Tags: intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, subaru, subaru world rally team, super2000
Posted in General rallying, IRC, WRC | 4 Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
Eurosport are showing their commitment for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with no less than 6h 15min of live television from the IRC season opener Rally Monte Carlo. Covering 51 countries, many people have the chance to see Eurosport – but at the same time many may miss it in their range of channels. However, if you’ve got an acceptable Internet connection it’s OK and should be no problem.
A few weeks ago I registered for the Eurosport Player – a Eurosport player where I can always watch Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and Eurosport News in my computer. I’ve connected my computer to the TV (this is of course optional) and oops… Now I can watch Eurosport at home on my TV, at work on my screen and anywhere – and it works great.
So, if you’re concerned about missing out on the drama from Monte Carlo or the action from this years WRC stages – go to Eurosport.com and register for the player – is cost’s a little, but you should get away with around 40€ a year which to me is quite affordable (it’s less than a ticket to Rally Norway).
And, no – I’m not paid by Eurosport to say this, I just like their commitment to the IRC and their Player service.
As a teaser – here are the TV times for Rally Monte Carlo (all times in CET):
Wednesday 21th of January
- 1600 – 1700 LIVE SS3 St-Jean en Royans-Col de Gaudissart (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
- 0000 – 0015 Highlights of Day 1 (Eurosport)
Thursday 22th of January
- 1030 – 1115 LIVE SS5 St- Bonnet le Froid-St-Bonnet le Froid (Eurosport 2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
- 1545 – 1630 LIVE SS8 St- Bonnet le Froid-St-Bonnet le Froid (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
- 0000 – 00h15 Highlights of Day 2 (Eurosport)
Friday 23th of January
- 1930 – 2115 LIVE SS11 Sospel-La Bollène Vésubie (Eurosport2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
and LIVE SS12 Lantosque – Lucèram (Eurosport 2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
- 2300 – 0100 LIVE SS13 Sospel-La Bollène Vésubie (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
and LIVE SS14 Lantosque-Lucèram (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
Tags: eurosport, eurosport player, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, rally monte carlo, tv times, WRC
Posted in IRC, Rally promotion and media coverage | No Comments »
