The Portugese PWRC winner of 2009, Armindo Araujo, looks set to do the PWRC in 2010 – probably in his Mitubishi Lancer from last year. His participation was unclear for a long time because of financial troubles. Armindo is believed to do six rounds, namely Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Germany, France and GB – and potentially even Portugal in a S2000 car if he can manage to get the extra money needed for his home round.
Posts Tagged ‘pwrc’
Admindo Araujo looks set to drive PWRC 2010
Saturday, January 9th, 2010
Petter loses one of his main sponsors while his countryman Brynhildsen fears nothing(?)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009The excellent Norweigan site Motorsport.no quotes Eyvind Brynhildsen in an interview where the young Norweigan states that it’s more difficult to become World Champion in the P-WRC than in the WRC. For sure I get his point about the P-WRC having more competitors able to challenge for wins, but I certainly doubt that Mikko Hirvonen or any other top WRC drivers would agree with him on the rest. Until the WRC loses the world’s by far best rally driver, Sebastien Loeb, quotes like that should be handled with care in my opinion.
Another interesting note from Norway is that Petter Solberg loses one of his main sponsors, the John Lunde Marine group. The company made a loss of 90.3M NOK last year, so why they had to pull the plug to their sponsorship seems quite obvious. However, I hope and I think that Petter has a good plan.
Patrik Sandell lost his gold chances: “Worst day in my career”
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Patrik Sandell lost his chances of winning the Production WRC this weekend in Acropolis. His engine broke down in the very same turn as Loebs crash, and with Nasser finishing second, Sandell’s chances of gold are now totally lost. Depressing to lose the big goal of the season already before the summer break…
Sandell himself says it was the worst day in his career, and I can’t stop thinking that he haven’t been through so much then. 
I know a lot of drivers that would consider it more of a summer breeze. Anyway, at the same time as I think it sounds a little bit silly, it also underlines Patrik’s dedication. Of course you’re allowed to have some kind of breakdown after such a thing, and it’s now the interesting things start. We’ll get to see his real strength, if he can come back re-motivated and do good results during the rest of the season. Time will show…
Read more (Swedish) in Aftonbladet:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/motor/svenkkollen/article5388257.ab
Rally d’Italia-Sardinia: Latvala proves his pace
Sunday, May 24th, 2009Rally d’Italia-Sardinia became the rally where Jari-Matti Latvala once again would prove his speed. After leading the car-breaking rally from the very first stage until the end, maybe he can throw some water on the fires of all people yelling after Rally of Portugal. Then, everyone seemed to want him replaced in the Ford team… Anyway, I stick to my opinon about the time it takes to create a new star in the WRC, and as I said already in April Latvala’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen is one of the best evidences ever that a crash-king can soon become a regular and stable podium contender. Now, I guess we can just hope this win comes as a confidence boost for Latvala making him step off just a little but still being fast in the next rallies and allowing for Ford to take back some of Citroen’s big advantage in the manufacturers championship. That would make the WRC a little bit more exciting…
Something that seems to be exciting all the time this year is the production car WRC. In Sardinia, the rally ended with Nasser al-Attiyah leading the field, taking the lead from Patrik Sandell with just 1.5 seconds on the very last stage. Annoying for Sandell, who took over the lead from his countryman Patrik Flodin on Saturday, when Flodin was hit by trouble. This means Al-Attiyah leads the championship with 31pts ahead of Araujo on 29pts and Sandell on 28pts. PWRC will be a tough battle until the end, it seems!
Other interesting things in this rally:
- Loeb is under investigation for a wheel change made on Saturday. Probably the subject of investigation is if the car was moving at any time when Loeb or Elena wasn’t seated. If so – this would be against the rules and should be punished, as with Duval in Japan a few years ago. This means, Loeb may lose his position…
- Petter Solberg caught the third place, ahead of Sordo (who retired after turbo problems) and Loeb who took the fourth place. Loeb was really happy with his new car spec after shakedown, and seemed to settle well with it during the weekend after some overheating problems on stage one. Now, the big question is what Citroen will do… I’ll make a separate post about that since it’s really an interesting question.
- Despite having ran Cyprus a few months ago, Sardinia seems to be the most car-breaking even of the season so far… (Henning, Rautenbach, Sordo, Ogier, Loeb’s puncture, Petter’s [and all the others'] overheating)
Rally Argentina – the #5 event
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Rally Argentina’s number this year is five. It was the fifth event of the year, it was Loeb’s fifth win of the year and it was Loeb’s fifth consecutive win in Argentina. It sounds cool – but I’m afraid it’s more bad than good.
After a first day with Sordo, Latvala and Hirvonen still in the fight about the lead, Loeb went into his common leading position on Saturday and kept it for the rest of the rally. For a long time, Jari-Matti Latvala looked to take a good position after his disappointing results recently – but on the 19th stage he got some problems with the fuel pressure, making him finish the rally i 6th position. Almost the same happened to Petter Solberg, who lost his fuel pressure on the next stage dropping him out of the rally. All this meant that Loeb won followed by his team-mate Dani Sordo and with Henning Solberg on third place. However, I’m not very worried about Latvala since he managed to finish, the fault wasn’t his – and I still think he has potential to be a good driver. Malcolm Wilson will have to take this error on his account and keep his confidence in Latvala.
In P-WRC Al-Attiyah won in front of Ligato, very much taking Ligato out of the discussion of a P-WRC win, while it made Al-Attiyah highly actual for the same thing. He’s now in second place of the championship, having only Armindo Araujo ahead and having Patrik Sandell just one point behind.
I must say… Let’s hope for a more interesting result in the same rally – and hopefully a one where Loeb doesn’t win, Ford takes big points and the fight is a little bit better. The Loeb/Citroen domination is killing the WRC…
Catch-up: Rally of Portugal, Sandell making PWRC interesting, Latvala’s future and Petter’s legionella disease…
Saturday, April 18th, 2009So, after the long time off, here comes a catch up of what I haven’t mentioned:
- Rally of Portugal ended quite as expected. Loeb first, Hirvonen next, the Sordo and then finally something unexpected: Petter Solberg. I’m really impressed by seeing him so high up in the standings. The car went well in Cyprus, but that’s a much slower and way different rally. I’m really impressed and I must admit I was wrong regarding Portugal, but I still think Petter shouldn’t expect very much of the Xsara later on in the faster rallies of the season. Anyway, Portugal was a real Norweigan party with Petter 4th, Henning 5th and Östberg 6th!
- Patrik Sandell made the PWRC season much more interesting when he went off the road early in Portugal, allowing for Armindo Araujo to win the group N class. This means a huge change in the standings where Araujo now leads with 23 points, before Sandell on 20 and both Brynhildsen and Prokop on 14. Now we just need a Brynhildsen and Prokop to take one step up – then the PWRC is a real nest. In fact, I consider PWRC at least as interesting this season as the WRC.
- Added to Petter’s impressive performance in Portugal, one should take into account that he was ill. On the run-up to the rally he was diagnosed with legionella, an evil disease that can be really bad. Petter is still suffering from the bacteria, but doctors have this week made sure that there will be no permanent harm to Petter’s lungs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Petter has bronchitis and will have to take medicins for a while – medicins that interfere with the doping rules of the WRC. Petter has discussed the issue with the WRC doctors, and he will now have to stop eating the medicines before starting in Argentina next weekend.
- A lot about Petter, but it should also be added that he have tested the Abarth Grande Punto Super2000 – and Abarth immediately sent out a press release that Petter was looking to do a few IRC events in the car this year. I don’t know if that’s true, but didn’t Petter say something about a focus on the WRC? Well, I don’t know, I just know that I probably wouldn’t choose the Abarth…
- Conrad Rautenbach will go to Azores in a PH Sport backed Peugeot 207 Super2000. I guess his competitive impression will be quite weak, as usual, but it still annoys me considering the doubtful source of his money. When will somebody ask this guy where he get all his cash? Considering that he now adds an IRC drive on top of his current Citroen drive in WRC, war and crimes(?) seems to be really a good affair.
- Jari-Matti Latvala immediately got speculated to leave the team after his frightening crash in Portugal. After 20 rolls, voices were raised everywhere that he should be thrown out of the Ford team. I think that Latvala’s team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen, has proven quite the opposite. Hirvonen’s career in Subaru in 2004 was disastrous, but exactly that kind of learning period that a young drivers needs – and to stop investing in Latvala now would be totally stupid, since he has shown numerous times that he has got the speed. Just wait and see, if Latvala get’s the time he will show everyone… (and at the moment he seems to have gotten a little bit more time)
- That’s it – keep coming here, because Rally Argentina is coming up – and I’ll try to be a little bit more regular in my posting again!
SS2: Patrik Sandell has rolled
Friday, April 3rd, 2009It seems like Patrik Sandell didn’t get his dream start as he wanted in Portugal. He have just had an accident 5 km’s before the end of SS2 and is reported by Armindo Araujo to have rolled the car. Let’s hope that noone is hurt and that the car is okay. At least, this opens for a more interesting PWRC this year…
Flodin does his second start of the year in Russia
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009Patrik Flodin and co-driver Göran Bergsten returns to Russia for a second start in this year’s Russian championship this weekend – Rally Lakhdenpohia. Behind the entry is, as usual, the Uspenskiy team – and a test will be performed before the start too.
Patrik won his last outing in the championship, and I think we can expect a win even here if not material issues stop Patrik. The level in Russia is lower than in the championships Patrik is used to, but it’s still a good way of collecting valuable driving experience. However, more interesting to see will be how the PWRC will go on for Patrik (next start is in Portugal), after the failure in Norway. The relationship with Uspenskiy seem to be good, but who could expect anything else until Norway? It’s easy to be friends while winning…
No matter what, I hope Patrik get’s a real – long term – chance in Uspenskiy. Given the right settings, he can be really, really good.
Fantastic Swedish weekend in Norway
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson on the podium in Norway after a fantastic PWRC performance. Photo: Red Bull
It became a fantastic Swedish weekend in Norway. Patrik Sandell showed everyone the pace of the Skoda Fabia Super2000 when he took the lead on the first stage and kept it to the finish – the first ever victory of the Fabia S2000 and a perfect start to the Red Bull team’s PWRC assault.
PG Andersson had to retire after a clutch problem on the second day – but he is probably still considered start of the rally for most people following Norway from start to end. In his ancient Fabia WRC he took two stage wins and showed many people, including star driver Petter Solberg, that he should have a place in the world top of rallying. It’s a shame it will probably not improve his chances of having a good drive this year, but hopefully it at least improves his position negotiating with teams for next years Super2000 introduction in the WRC.
Patrik Flodin were unlucky and went into the ditch already on day one. After that he struggled on the road – but way distant from the top placings. It will be interesting to see if his good relations with the Uspenskiy team continues even after a failure. It’s easy to be friends while winning…
First loop in Norway completed – close top but problems down the field
Friday, February 13th, 2009Four stages have been run this morning i Rally Norway and the top field is close. After SS5 Kongsvinger Hirvonen leads the pack 4.8s before Sebastien Loeb. Latvala is rounding off the podium positions 25.7 after Hirvonen. The fight is close – Hirvonen took the lead on SS2 but was overtaken by Loeb on SS3 before he got the lead back on SS4.
Some people have had problems this morning, including both home runners in the Adapta World Rally Team. Anders Gröndal went off the road into a ditch on SS5. He managed to get back on the road, but the car is damaged and he is reported to have gearbox problems. Remains to see if the Adapta WRT can fix the problems in the remote service. No matter what, he is now more than 12 minutes off the lead. Also Östberg had problems on SS5 when he overtook a junction and had to reverse to get back on track. He lost around one minute on the stage and is now on 13th position – but with gearbox problems reported.
In PWRC Patrik Sandell shows the potential of the Skoda Fabia S2000 and leads the field. However, Andreas Mikkelsen has beaten Sandell in two stages in a row now, showing that the classical group N cars can still challenge. Sandell will have to look out not to be overtaken by Mikkelsen who is less than 10 seconds behind. For Flodin and Brynhildsen everything seems to have went wrong on SS5. Both have lost more than 11 minutes, but the problem is unknown. Clear is that they wont be battling for the PWRC victory.
The battle in Norway will continue at 12:51 local time with the Opaker stage.
