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 make real progress, as well allowing another manufacturer or two to enter the championship (Toyota? VW?).

2. Carlos Sainz announced he would retire at the end of the season. Unfortunately, due to a recce shunt in Australia, the retirement party started early, as his doctor’s suggested that Sainz not compete in Oz.

About the only excitement heading into the rally was whether or not Petter Solberg could hang on to second place in the championship. Markko Martin came out of nowhere to win France and Spain, and he was only four points behind Solberg. Unfortunately, Martin ran into engine problems on the rally-opening Superspecial in Perth, his engine dropping to three cylinders on the short test. Martin isn’t optimistic that his engineers will be able to diagnose the problem. Both Sebastien Loeb and Solberg are still gunning for win number six, but both Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanpera could compete if their 307s cooperate. I think Solberg will be tough to stop, since he has little to lose.

Posted on 11 November 2004