Posts Tagged ‘skoda’
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 »
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Flying finn Toni Gardemeister has confirmed that he will start in the first IRC event of the year, the Rally Monte Carlo later this month. Gardemeister will do the rally in an Astra Racing team run Abarth Grande Punto with co-driver Tomi Tuominen in the right seat.
Gardemeister himself plays down his chances in the rally, and even though I think Gardemeister has potential to do a really good race – I have to agree he’s unlikely to win the event. Only half a day of testing and the fact that the Punto is a weaker car than the Peugeot and the Skoda (and possibly even the brand new Ford) wont favour him, but Monte is Monte and under the right (or wrong?) circumstances anything can happen.
Tags: 2010, abarth grande punto, astra racing, finn, monte, peugeot, rally monte carlo, skoda, tomi tuominen, toni gardemeister
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, Silly season | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Skoda has performed another test for the upcoming Rally Monte Carlo, this time in Czech Republic and on real snow surface.
Thanks to Rigipepa and RallyZone.cz for the video.
Tags: 2010, rally, rally monte carlo, skoda, skoda fabia super2000, test, testing, Video
Posted in IRC, Video | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Patrik Sandell, photo: redbullrally.com
According to the local Swedish website Zport, Patrik Sandell is currently doing final negotiations with Red Bull and Skoda about a drive in the 2010 S-WRC. The Swede says that he “hopes” that everything will work out before the last entry date on the 4th of January. However, he doesn’t seem too worried – since he has just left for a vacation in Thailand. I think we’ll see Patrik in the Skoda, questions is just what they’re waiting for…? I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a 2 car team from Red Bull next year.
Tags: 2010, patrik sandell, red bull, s-wrc, skoda, skoda fabia super2000, two car team
Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, Swedish Rallying | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
The Skoda tests continue and now Juho Hänninen has done his drive in Col de l’Able. Here is the video:
Thanks to rallyelange for the video.
Tags: col de l'able, IRC, juho hänninen, monte carlo, rally, skoda, skoda fabia super2000, test, testing
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Video | No Comments »
Monday, March 9th, 2009
This note comes a little bit late maybe, but after this weekend’s Numedalsrally in Norway, PG Andersson has now only shit ahead concerning his rallying career – in a short term. There are (from what I know) no planned rallies and sponsors are holding their money tight because of the economical crisis.
Maybe PG will do some more starts in the Skoda in Norway – and in the most optimistic situation also in Finland or Poland – but in a whole I fear his career will be on hold for the rest of his year. Hopefully he manages to get something together for next year though, but it will be tough.
Anyway… He’s a hell of a driver and a good entertainer. Go PG!
Tags: norway, numedalsrally, pg andersson, skoda, skoda fabia wrc
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season, WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Norweigan youngster Andreas Mikkelsen is close to sealing a deal with the Red Bull Skoda team for Rally of Portugal. For a while it was belived that the deal was already complete, since Mikkelsen’s co-driver Ola Floene confirmed the drive in a local newspaper – a confirmation that Mikkelsen has now said is wrong. However, according to him nothing is signed, but a deal may be close – even though he underlines that he has other choices too.
Seeing Mikkelsen in the Fabia would be really interesting. After Mikkelsens extremely good times in his group N Subaru in Norway fighting with Sandell, he seems to me like the optimal opponent to measure Sandell.
The question now is just what the deal depends on, more than the traditional show-stopper: money. I know that Skoda have had problems to deliver enough Fabia Super2000s to meet all requests – but I think Mr. Baumschlager (Red Bull team boss) have the best possible priority there. Let’s just hope to see Mikkelsen/Floene in the Fabia – that would be awesome!
Tags: andreas mikkelsen, patrik sandell, raimund baumschlager, rally norway, rally of portugal, red bull, red bull rally, skoda, skoda fabia super2000
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Yesterday, Mitsubishi announced that they will retire from cross country rallying, starting with next years Dakar. Mitsubishi’s decision is based on the current economical situation and it’s a huge strike against all cross country rallying since the marque has been quite dominant for a long, long time. However, this year they failed to win the Dakar after launching a new car based on the Lancer road car. Instead, the victory went to Volkswagen – that has now managed to win an event.
So, what does this mean to the WRC? Mitsubishi retired from the WRC a few years ago – and already before the financial crisis started they announced that they’re probably not coming back in a while. Now, a comeback seems to be even more distant – but Mitsubishi’s retirement can still be good to the WRC. Why? Because Volkswagen is thinking of entering! Volkswagen’s motorsport manager Kris Nissen has said that the brand will overlook all their motorsport activities and that WRC is one of the options they’re looking at.
Of course Volkswagen’s cross country involvement has costed a lot of money, and now that they’re winning they may want one or two more victories. However, without Mitsubishi those victories wont be worth very much since there in practice are no real concurrents in the races (RalliArt France will continue to run the Mitsu team privately, but that’s really not the same thing). And when Volkswagen has already considered retiring from the sport, it seems a little more likely when their main concurrent retires leaving them alone at the top. So, it still remains to see what happens – but my guess is that Volkswagen will either retire instantly, or retire after a year or two. But I don’t think Volkswagen will leave all rallying activity. They’re in a quite OK economical situation, and when the others struggle they will probably challenge instead. A WRC bid shouldn’t be very distant – and there are already rumours about a Prodrive led WRC challenge from Volkswagen. At least, Skoda (which is in practice a part of Volkswagen) has left the door open by saying that they will not enter the WRC.
My guess is that we’ll see Volkswagen in the WRC and that it’s not very far away…Time will show.
Tags: cross country, dakar, kris nissen, lancer, mitsubishi, retire, skoda, volklswagen, WRC
Posted in General rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
I love:
- Good entrylist with more strong cars and good drivers
- Skoda – a surprisingly strong debut despite Hänninens off and Kopecky staying just outside the top three
- 6h of live TV coverage – superb!
- Impressive performances and attitudes of Hänninen, Meeke and Ogier – three future stars!
- Unpredictable weather with dry surface, ice and snowfall creating a totally unpredictable rally
- Various tyre-brands – creates one other interesting factor of unpredictability and difference between different cars
- Peugeot – three cars on the podium is really an outstanding performance
I miss:
- Rally radio
- A good online results service
Skoda Fabia S2000 - making an impressive debut in Monte Carlo, photo: ircseries.com
Tags: IRC, juho hänninen, kris meeke, live, rally monte carlo, rally radio, sebastien ogier, skoda, tv, tyre
Posted in IRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Skoda’s intention to not enter the WRC in the next few years may be good to the championship, since it opens the door for Volkswagen to enter. However, to Patrik Sandell, who just signed a contract to run the Fabia Super2000 with Red Bull in this years championship, it’s for sure a disappointment. Even if it’s not a major throwback, I’m sure Sandell would have hoped to seal a works drive for Skoda – maybe backed up by Red Bull – as soon as possible.
However, the Red Bull contacts are still very useful, he has a good contract for the 2009 and he has all possibilities for the next few years, so there should be no big worries.
Tags: IRC, patrik sandell, peugeot 307wrc, skoda, volkswagen
Posted in IRC, Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
