This kid’s pretty cool…
Ok, I don’t usually do this because it’s not WRC related (although the kid in the video does mention Ford!) And if you follow me on twitter (@Jodie_Kemp) then you may have already seen me post this.
I occasionally help out at a playgroup where my mother works and this little kid (he’s just 4, I think) never used to speak to anyone. You had to practically bribe him with milk and fruit to get him to say anything. Then all of a sudden he comes back after the 6 week summer break and talks – a lot.
But he doesn’t just talk about anything – he talks about cars. For some reason he has managed to memorize car names, logos and can recognise them on the street and in books. I’m telling you, he is the next Jeremy Clarkson!
The video takes a while to get going but when he does he’s pretty good at identifying the cars. It’s not put on, believe me, you can test him in the street and he will pick out Vauxhall, Ford and VW’s etc…
Bless him…
Provisional 2011 WRC calendar
First off I should apologise for not putting up a post recently – but I’m here now and hoping to get back into the swing of things.
The FIA has this week released its provisional 2011 WRC calendar. It’s as follows…
Sweden,
Mexico,
Portugal,
Abu Dhabi,
Argentina,
Sardinia – with a mainland start,
Turkey,
Finland,
Germany,
Australia,
France,
Spain,
GB
Interestingly the Sweden is listed as the 2nd round in the hope that Rally Monte Carlo will return as a WRC event (it is currently an IRC event). If this fails Norway is thought to step in. Ireland has also been left off the list.
The rally in Abu Dhabi would be run on specifically constructed roads. I’m in two minds about this. The Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi was impressively built (as is most things in the country) but lets face it – dull. And my main concern is that the roads will be built to suit the cars with very little obstacles and challenges. I worry that it will be a very civilised event in almost a controlled environment.
However its true Abu Dhabi is a brand in its own right and has brought a LOT to the sport when others wouldn’t or couldn’t so it makes sense that they should have a rally to call their own. I only hope they focus more on great racing then creating a polished spectacle with predictable results.
Picture of the Rally
Don’t get me wrong – I love Kimi but what struck me about this picture was that even after all this digging he was still smiling at the end of the day! That’s not the Kimi we all knew from Formula One these past few years.
Picture from wrc.com
Rally Sweden day one in a nutshell!
I could write a blog about today’s goings on in the opening round of the 2010 World Rally Championship in Sweden however you’ve 
probably read it all already through the WRC website and other sources. And to be honest me putting up the same information in new words would only bored you to tears.
So I’m going to put a few little nuggets of information on here that I found interesting – I hope you do to.
First off I probably should give a mention to Hirvonen who now leads the rally with Loeb 8.4 seconds behind and Sordo a further 3.8 behind him. A great drive from all the top three drivers who seemed to be the only ones to pass through the stages with next to no drama.
Now, I don’t know how many of you watched the Dave WRC preview on Sunday but there was a rather good feature with Petter Solberg in which he explained how to drive in the snow and use snowbanks to your advantage. It really was a great feature although I get the feeling he didn’t listen to his own words. Last night during Karlstad Super Special he expertly put the car in a snowbank. OK, so it didn’t cost him masses and masses of time but I did love the irony.
Kimi should also have paid attention to Petter’s advice because he too found himself in a snow bank in ss6 – unfortunately for him it did cost him masses of time. Over 20 minutes in fact. According to Kaj Lindström their windscreen misted up and they slid into a ditch.
But this is beside the point. What struck me most about his driving today was that in ss7 he set a time that was faster than Matt Wilson’s and Petter Solbergs. Now I know many people will say, ‘but Matt and Petter had crashes and their cars were damaged.’ – to the people who will say this… Räikkönen also crashed and most probably damaged his car too.
So all in all I think that shows promise.
The final thing I found interesting was in the S-WRC. That little Fiesta I love so much (my reasoning can be seen in a previous post) seems to have a small issue with its back window. Two separate cars apparently lost their rear windscreens – one of which was driven by Prokop.
I really do have a slight bias towards this car and I hope this is merely a strange co-incidence.
So that was day one in a ridiculously small nutshell. I know a lot of people will have had their first WRC experience today (we all know the interest a certain Finn has brought to the sport) so I hope you enjoyed it! Believe me, you will now be hooked.
Image from http://www.wrc.com
Rally Sweden in Numbers!
Here’s some random information out there to anyone interested in the upcoming stages for Rally Sweden.
I’ve managed to find out which stages are new and the ones that have previously been run.
For the stages that have been run I have found their most recent winners and times so that you have a vague idea of what times to look out for this weekend.
It’s probably not all that interesting but what I found particularly interesting is that most of the drivers who have won these stages in the past are competing here and looking at the information below Grönholm and Henning Solberg may be the ones to keep an eye out for!
1/8 – Karlstad Super Special – 1.9km
This stage is identical to 2008 which was won by in the first run through by Petter Solberg in a time of 1:28.9.
And by Gigi Galli in a time of 1:28.2
Friday
2/5 – Likenäs – 20.78 km
This stage was run in 2007 however it has a new start for 2010.
3/6 – Viggen – 21.28 km
This is a completely new stage for the drivers to master.
4/7 – Torntorp – 19.21 km
This stage was last run in 2007.
On the first run through Sébastien Loeb was quickest with a time on 9:56.8 and later Marcus Grönholm was fastest with 9:35.0
Saturday
9/13 – Vargåsen – 24.63 km
This stage is the same as the 2008 route. In 2008 it was run as ss11/14
In 2008 ss11 was won by Sébastien Loeb, his time being 13:49.1 while Mikko Hirvonen won in the afternoon with a time of 13:32.5
10/14 – Sågen – 14.23 km
This stage was last run in 2004.
11/15 – Fredriksberg – 18.15 km
This was run as ss13 in 2007 however for 2010 it will be run in the opposite direction.
12/16 – Hagfors Sprint – 1.87 km
In 2007 this was run as ss8/15 which was won by Marcus Grönholm on the first pass though in a time of 2:00.0 (impressively precise methinks)
While on the second pass it was Mads Østberg with a time of 1:59.3
Sunday
17/20 – Rämmen – 21.87 km
Identical to the 2008 route which was won both times by Henning Solberg fastest time through was 11:07.1.
18 – Värmullsåsen – 23.41 km
This is the same route as was run in 2008 as ss10/13 however there has been an extra route added on to the end.
19/21 – Lesjötors – 10.49 km
This was run as ss16/19 in 2008 in which Henning Solberg set the fastest times both runs through with his fastest time posted being 5:43.8.
If you made it to the end of that marathon of numbers – congratulations!! Now lets all enjoy the rally. Head over to www.wrc.com for some great radio and live stage times.
Shakedown timings (Sweden)
This nifty little site here gives you timings from todays shakedown –
http://www.rallysweden.com/WordPress/wrc/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/shakedown03.pdf
Also if its photos you’re after here’s a selection…
Pictures byBenjamin A Ward
The Fiesta’s WRC Debut
M-sport will be showing off th
eir S2000 Ford Fiesta in it’s WRC debut this weekend. The car was driven to an incredible victory in the IRC Monte Carlo last month by Mikko Hirvonen and later won the Qatar rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah at the wheel.
Four drivers in total will use Fiesta’s in Sweden – Bernardo Sousa and Andreas Mikkelsen, in cars prepared by M-Sport, while Martin Prokop and Janne Tuohino will be competing for private teams.
The experience of double world champion Marcus Grönholm has been used to the full in the lead up, with him completing 230km of testing in the snow to help find a good set-up for the Fiesta drivers (Grönholm, of course, is competing in the Focus this weekend). Portuguese pilot Sousa in particular will find this information helpful, as he doesn’t have masses of experience in these conditions.
Now I’m probably a little bit biased towards this car for the simple reason that I was lucky enough to have a tour of M-Sports factory in Cumbria and saw these cars being built. And I was so impressed that it has only taken 9 months to design, engineer and get out to the races. The pride that everyone was showing towards this car was also quite infectious so yes, I do have a soft spot for this Fiesta!
M-Sport Managing Director Malcolm Wilson said:
“After two incredible victories in Monte Carlo and Qatar, we are now going to another extreme of conditions at Rally Sweden. We are confident that the car can maintain its performance and we’ve been boosted by the fact that Marcus Grönholm has been helping out with the testing; he’s come up with a really good base setting for Sweden. The M-Sport drivers will all have access to the information and it’s all part of the service to try and give our customers the best possible support. We’ve had a great season launch in Paris this week and the S-WRC has certainly got the potential to be a very exciting championship; there’s lots of young drivers signed up and it will really spice things up.”
The Fiesta in numbers…
-Ford 1998cc Pipo built I4 Duratec S2000 engine. Four cylinders, 16 valves.
-280 bhp at 8000 rpm.
-Length: 3958mm. Width: 1820mm. Wheelbase: 2489mm. Weight: 1200kg minimum
New points system
Following the FIA’s new points system that was introduced to Formula One a few weeks ago it turns out that the WRC will be the first series to fully test it out after it was announced yesterday that they too will be implementing it this season.
To the drivers this means that finishing within the top 10 will earn them points (as opposed to the top 8 which was previously used) and will also leave a bigger margin between the top 3 finishers.
To the rally viewer this will allow us to finally see results outside of the top 8 finishers without having to look it up online!
If you haven’t already seen the table here it is in all its glory:
1st: 25 points
2nd: 18 points
3rd: 15 points
4th: 12 points
5th: 10 points
6th: 8 points
7th: 6 points
8th: 4 points
9th: 2 points
10th: 1 point
Sébastien Vs. Sweden
Sébastien Loeb will be hoping to start the 2010 season with a win in Sweden. The last true winter rally was N
orway, the second round of the 2009 season, which Loeb won by 9.8 seconds.
However it seems that this impressive snow performance hasn’t completely given him the belief he can win on the weekend.
Speaking to the official WRC website Loeb said:
“It looks like the conditions are going to be difficult. You just have to stay on the road, which isn’t that easy when I think back to the 2008 rally… I don’t think I’m the favourite as the Finns will be much more at home than me.”
Loeb has every reason to worry. In 2008, the last time Sweden was on the calendar, he didn’t even make it to the end of the first leg. Although he was celebrating his 100th WRC start, a roll early in stage three left him with engine problems and damage that a 15-minute remote service couldn’t fix adequately.
His dire weekend however was topped off by a nice roadside chat with the Swedish police. It seems even WRC drivers are not exempt from the laws covering speed on public roads between stages!
The weekend was eventually won (impressively I might add) by Jari-Matti Latvala who was followed home by teammate Mikko Hirvonen. With both of these drivers competing this year it seems your smart money would be on one of Ford’s Finns to take it.
[You can read my rally sweden preview here: https://shakedownandstage.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/rally-sweden-preview/%5D
Quote and picture from http://www.wrc.com
Live coverage and the WRC
I touched upon it in my previous blog and the more I’ve thought about it the more I believe the WRC needs it – live televised coverage.
Rally Monte Carlo, an IRC event, received a record 14hours of live coverage last month. While this weekends’ GP2 Asia race from Abu Dhabi was also broadcast live (well, from lap two at least) and even the Race of Champions from Beijing was shown live on Eurosport.
So why not the WRC?
WRC fans are among the most passionate in sport. These are people who will spend 3 days in all kinds of weather to see their favourite drivers and teams. Many of them will camp in forests huddled around makeshift fires forsaking simple luxuries for the chance to see a world rally car hurtling at terrifying speeds right under their noses.
Unfortunately though it’s no secret that the WRC has suffered in recent years. Manufacturers have pulled out left, right and centre and without a ‘star’ Brit a lot of the viewing public in this country have lost interest.
If you were walk up to Joe public in the street and ask who they consider to be the great drivers of our time their answers would be Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and, most probably, The Stig (!). Mention Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen or Petter Solberg to them and they’d look at you like you were an idiot. Most wouldn’t even be able to pick the 6-time world championship winner Loeb out of a police line-up. Yet he is pretty much the Schumacher of rallying (albeit without the cheating and ramming his competitors off the road).
When Eurosport showed Rally Monte Carlo figures indicated that 12million people tuned in and it makes you wonder whether if they offered the same media attention to the WRC would it get an equal amount or maybe even more viewers?
To me this seems like a viable option. I understand that it would be a huge undertaking for a broadcast team and cost a lot of money but if they were to show three live stages a day I believe viewing figures would soar and maybe more teams and sponsors would see this as the series to be involved in.
Until then, those of us living in Britain will have to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights watching daily edited highlights at 10.20pm on Motors TV.
I suppose we should be grateful that it’s being shown at all in some capacity.
Through Shakedown And Stage 