Henning Solberg and Marcus Grönholm are Stobart’s nominated points scorers for Rally Sweden… No wonder, since both are snow experts and both probably even deserve to be called Sweden expert. Marcus has won the rally five times and Henning has had numerous top scorings during the years. Without any technical problems on their Ford Focus WRCs I think both will be able to score top six placings and at least one of them probably better – maybe including podiums…
Posts Tagged ‘m-sport’
Fiesta allowed to start in Monte Carlo
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010Malcolm Wilson’s problem solving capabilities payed off: the decision is to let the Ford Fiesta S2000 start in Rally Monte Carlo, which means that Mikko Hirvonen and Julien Maurin can start the rally. What the exact problems were is still unknown, but it will be interesting to hear M-Sport’s approach to avoid the same problems later on in Rally Sweden and other rallies. It’s obviously very embarassing that such a thing can happen at all.
Now, let’s look forward to a bright Rally Monte Carlo with hopefully difficult conditions of tarmac, melting snow and ice – and hope that this doesn’t mean discussions and speculations if a Fiesta wins the rally.
Video: M-Sport enters the IRC as a manufacturer
Friday, January 8th, 2010The 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:
Confirmed: Ken Block competes in WRC 2010
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010It’s been rumoured a long time, but finally it’s confirmed. Ken Block will compete the 2010 World Rally Championship with Monster World Rally Team backed by M-Sport. Besides that Ken, who is a big star over in the US, will race the Rally America series with the new Ford Fiesta S2000 as well as compete in the X-Games for his fifth consecutive year.
The charge by Block, who is the first American ever to do a larger assault for the championship, seems to be on a long term, since he says that he’ll not promise any podiums the first year:
- Racing in the WRC has always been a dream of mine, but, I’m not going to promise podiums in my first year. I’ll be going up against the best drivers in the world. My main objective for 2010 is to develop into a competitive driver for 2011, and beyond, says Block.
Sad enough, Block – who is co-founder of DC Shoes and a former snowboarding, skateboarding and motocross star – is set to skip Rally Sweden and start of his WRC challenge with Rally Mexico in March. No matter what, the WRC will really be boosted this year with two superstars in Raikkonen and Block joining the championship.
I’ll get back later on with more info and some reflections on Ken Block and his chances in the championship.
Monster World Rally Team launch video:
More info at: http://monsterworldrallyteam.com/
