WRC Rosters Nearly Complete

Mitsubishi announced the signing of Harri Rovanpera today. Rovanpera will contest all 16 rounds of the championship next season. Mitsubishi management said the Gilles Panizzi and Gigi Galli will share the second Lancer, with Panizzi running all of the sealed surface events and selected gravel events. There is also a possibility that a third car […]

More WRC News

Ford announced today that Roman Kresta would join Toni Gardemeister and drive the second works Focus for the 2005 campaign. Kresta previously split his time between a third works car at Peugeot and a Bozian racing privateer Peugeot. The only team with a seat remaining is Mitsubishi, and that is expected to be filled by […]

A Change of Pace

After spending yesterday wrestling with the political applications of my faith and today talking with Joshua about reformed theology, I’m going to rest my mind a bit… Since there are still some unanswered questions about what the WRC driver landscape will look like next season, I’ll throw out my predictions of what the line-ups will […]

Rally Australia Recap

Rarely is Australia a rally of attrition, but this year’s race wasn’t typical. Only four factory cars made it to the finishing ramp (one of each of the four major makers), and one (Marcus Gronholm) crashed out not once but twice. In the end, Sebastien Loeb matched Didier Auriol’s record of six rally wins in […]

Rally Australia Preview

On a lighter note, let’s talk about the season ending Rally Australia. First, a couple of big pieces of news: 1. PSA, which owns both Peugeot and Citroen, announced that 2005 would be Citroen’s and Peugeot’s final year competing the WRC. Shocking news indeed, but this could open the door for Skoda and Mitsubishi to […]

Rallye de France Wrapup

Finally, something new to report besides Petter Solberg winning and Sebastien Loeb taking second. Markko Martin set a blistering pace all weekend in his Focus, and beat Loeb by over two minutes. Ford was set to sweep the top two places, but Francios Duval had engine trouble on day three and didn’t even make the […]

Rallye de France Day One

As usual, the Rallye de France is providing some surprises, best of which is the fact that the top two positions aren’t held by drivers named Loeb or Solberg. In fact, Ford is finally showing some speed, with Francois Duval and Markko Martin holding the top positions going into day two. Sebastien Loeb has picked […]

Rally Italy Recap

Petter Solberg cruised to his third consecutive rally win on Sunday, setting 13 of 19 scratch times. But the win did little for his title hopes, as Sebastien Loeb finished second, giving up only two championship to Solberg. Loeb’s lead stands at 26 points with only 30 left on the table. Solberg has promised to […]

Rally Italy — Leg Two

Petter Solberg is firming in control of the rally, but with Sebastien Loeb comfortably holding second place, it does little to help his title defence. Marcus Gronholm held second place through most of the day til turbo problems got the better of his Peugeot, and the Finn lost over 23 minutes to the leaders, though, […]

Rally Italy – Day 1

A switch for this year’s rally in Italy — instead of the sealed roads of San Remo, the WRC comes to the island of Sardina, with it’s narrow, sandy roads. Both Sebastien Loeb and Petter Solberg downplayed their chances to win, given their unenviable tasks of running first on the roads on day one, acting […]