Inside Rally

Louise is First Female to gain FIA Rally Championship title excluding FIA Ladies Cup

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

FIA Production car Cup for Drivers of 2WD Champions 2012

Louise Cook, from Maidstone in Kent has forged a little history in motorsport by becoming the first female in the world to gain an FIA Rally Championship Title outside the FIA Ladies Cup. Louise gained the FIA Production car Cup for Drivers of 2WD and is in good company with her female idols. Michelle Mouton who gained individual FIA WRC rally wins in 1981 and 1982 in Italy, Portugal, Greece and Brazil and her British namesake and idol Louise Aitken-Walker who became FIA Ladies World Rally Champion in 1990.

“It is a nice small step towards the main goal to become the first female ever to become World Rally Champion. I feel the 2WD Cup is a good step towards the goal and shows how serious I am about this.”

“I would like to thank everyone that supported me to make this happen I would not have achieved anything without them. It was a huge step. The consequences for not gaining enough sponsors and getting to each round was pretty scary. I knew if I did not get to any one of the rounds my career would end. I also knew that I had to be in the WRC to get closer to the overall goal of becoming the first female to be FIA World Rally Champion.”

It was clear failure was never an option for Miss Cook. Louise narrowly raised the massive sponsorship support required to contest the season and to avoid the career ending consequences of massive fines and having her license revoked if she did not make a championship round.

Louise made her World Rally Championship debut in 2012 and an incredible debut it was. The 2012 season commenced under unforeseeable glory. Louise’s goal for her first WRC round, Rallye Monte-Carlo, was gain experience and finish the rally. Louise keeping a clean rally saw her become the first female ever to gain a podium place in the Production World Rally Championship when she took second place in the PWRC in front of the 300,000 rally fans.

“It would be great to see more and more females take part in rallying and if what I am doing encourages even a few it will be fantastic. The car is a great leveler so it is a place where men and women can compete on an equal footing.”

“It is a long road to where I want to be, though the financial barrier is the toughest to break through. It seems pretty normal for corporations to be involved with male rally drivers but not so much to be involved with females, I am not sure why. I hope my first season success in the World Rally Championship will help gain some support to achieve the next step of the plan and bring me closer to becoming the first female to become FIA World Rally Champion.”

Louise’s leap into the sports highest level has been far from easy. Louise has made a number of sacrifices in her career, including selling her Ford Street Ka road car early on and famously selling her well earned trophy collection to ensure she could keep competing.

“It has been a massive challenge and when you step into the unknown you have to act quickly to keep things going to plan. To complete my first season in the World Rally Championship is an amazing feeling. The level you have to push to simply be on the starting line is immense.”

“The rallies and the nature of the roads are nothing like anything in the UK. Mountain terrains are few and far between here, so the roads are pretty alien to us Brits. It is a massive task just to understand the technical lines and try to make pacenotes that resemble the road when you next hit them at speed.”

Louise now looks on to 2013 determined to push boundaries in the World Rally Championship even further.

“I made a 3 year plan to win the Production World Rally Championship outright and the 2WD Production car Cup was the first part of that plan, to gain some good experience before moving into 4WD for the year two and then win PWRC outright in year three.”

“The WRC structure has now changed. The PWRC has now become WRC3. The 4WD machines are now replaced with 2WD. There are a lot of manufacturers making 2WD rally cars. It is also good for drivers to maximise 2WD techniques before moving on. I think this is the reasons for the change by the FIA.”

The disadvantage for young drivers however is the financial one. The void between the championships seems to have grown. A PWRC Group N 4WD car was around £60,000 to purchase, a competitive WRC3 2WD car is around £80,000. The next step to 4WD however is now quite a jump. The new R5 cars will be the most economical step to WRC2 at a whopping £200,000 and the S2000 cars in the same class are £260,000, so the cost of the car for the next level is triple that of the class below. The main WRC cars to contest for outright World Rally Championship are around £360,000.

“I will never do this alone, it is going to take a lot of investment to make history in the WRC. I hope that people support however they can. All I can do is keep pushing at everything and never give up.”
Talk to us about our 2013 Partnership Packages:
Click here for 2013 packagesCommercial sponsorship packages for 2013 start from £1000.

2013 WRC Calender nominated rounds TBC

20/01 Monte Carlo Rally
10/02 Rally Sweden
10/03 Rally Mexico
14/04 Rally Portugal
05/05 Rally Argentina
02/06 Acropolis Rally
23/06 Rally d’Italia
04/08 Rally Finland
25/08 Rallye Deutschland
15/09 Rally Australia
06/10 Rallye de France
27/10 Rally de España
17/11 Rally of Great Britain

Posted in WRC | Leave a comment

Dan’s WRC Blog – 2012 A Season To Remember (Part 1)

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

As Championships are wrapped up, and champion’s are crowned, the 2012 season has come to a close. It’s been another year of hot highs and soggy low’s, both for drivers & teams as well as the Sport itself. So much has happened this year, its gonna be hard to talk about it all. It has been a very tough year for the sport. The season started disastrously, some even questioning the sports future existence. But we now have what appears to be a very good and stable future ahead.

The year started with the WRC’s Global Promoter North One Sport being sacked due to their failing to meet the FIA’s contractual agreement. Depending on what u read and what rumours you heard some say they were on the verge of a multimillion pound deal. But the sport had taken a bad turn. No Promoter, no media rights holder, no owner, no TV, nothing. All we had were 2 manufacture works teams Citroen & Ford. With Mini saying they were in, ‘sort of’…. But that was all we needed. Kicking off in Monte Carlo, the teams and Drivers still turned up, and did what they do best. Fight to win. In doing so they put on a great show. And thanks to Eurosports last minute round up for the TV and Timing, Loeb went ahead to win it again.

Next up was Sweden. Stage 1 Technology were back in force for the tracking and timing. Motors TV in the UK at least had the 30min daily coverage. With Colin Clark and rally Guru Julian Porter commentating the show. It was a battle on snow and ice. And Fords Jari Matti Latvala took the win after crashing out on Monte Carlo.

Then it was off to Mexico. The Monster team returned with Ken Block and Chris Atkinson. Despite Atko setting some great stage times he retired with suspension damaged. He joined many others who suffered drama on the South American event. The worst was for title challenger Latvala who rolled out of his 2nd rally. Loeb went on to win his 2nd event of the season.

We were promised by his Majesty the Todt that we would have a Promoter by the end of Portugal – Portugal was up next, it was an event I was able to go along for. And what a memorable rally it was. Drama from start to finish. The event started with 3 evening stages on Thursday night. On the Night stage, SS2. The unthinkable happened….. Loeb Crashed out the rally. No Loeb meant big fight to win, and Fords best chance of a good result.

The locals said it hadn’t rain in 4 months, so of course, the following day we had 4 months of rain on Day 1 of the rally. We were standing Stage side, we could see the road go along the top of the hill ridge, which worked its way down into the little valley at the bottom with a dry gully. First car made its way down, the gully was mearly a puddle at this point. 4 cars later and the gully was like a raging lake crossing. Cars almost stopping to go through it covered by a wall of water. While feeling like I jumped in a lake fully clothed we watched as Tanak slid off the road and into the bushes. Cars were skating like they were on ice. After finally admitting defeat to standing on a cold wet windy hill side we took cover in the mini bus and attempted to rinse our clothes dry.

For the afternoon loop, after finally managing to order coffee in a lovely small Portuguese village, with the english language proving useless, we went on to SS8, to a great viewing spot, over looking a lot of the stage from a corner on the top of the road. Or at least it would have been if we could see. After the Rain had mostly stopped the conditions turned to thick fog, when I say thick, it was like looking through a glass of Cloudy Soup with a net curtain over your head. We had info that the stage had been delayed due to Breen’s S2000 being stranded in a flooded road on the way to the first stage of the Afternoon. This blocked the road and all the WRC crews were called back into service. Stages were delayed, Then we got news that, due to the conditions being so bad, the afternoon of Day 1 was not just delayed but cancelled. So after a few hours in a mini bus trying to work out what we could see out the window, it was back to the hotel to dry off and reflect on the days action. Due to the conditions, most of the field lost time or went out. With no Loeb it was Fords chance to leap ahead in the Championship, but in the mornings chaos, Latvala slid off and out of the rally, an then on the following stage Solberg hit a rock and crashed out, A big blow to Fords title chase and a day to forget for team boss Malcolm Wilson.

Day 2 wasn’t so bad and neither was Day 3, the conditions had dried up and the driver who survived day 1 could get on with driving his DS3 as a rally car rather than a boat with no rudder. By the end of the rally it was Citroen’s number 2, Mikko Hirvonen at the top. The Fin doing exactly what he was asked to do, to pick where Loeb left the road. The perfect team player. Taking it easy in the tricky conditions and more importantly keeping it on the road, then inching out a big gap. Hirvonen came into final service on Sunday, to the cheers of his new team, with the Champaign out and the red flags waving. His first win for Citroen….. Or was it?!…..

Photo:D.Darrall

The unforgetable, unpredictable Rally Portugal hadn’t finished with the WRC crews yet. Despite standing on the top of the podium at the finishing ceremony, later that evening while the teams were getting the after party started, the words coming out from the Media centre were that Citroen and the FIA where having a meeting. It turns out that there was a part on Hirvonen’s Citroen DS3 turbo that didn’t comply with the regulations. Therefore meaning, after scrutineering Hirvo was disqualified. Handing the Rally Portugal win to Mads Ostberg. Giving the privateer Norwegian his first WRC Career win. And after surviving day 1 and battling to keep ahead of Novikov in 3rd, it was still a well deserved victory.
Now THAT is Rallying.

To be continued…..

Posted in Dan's WRC Blog, WRC | Leave a comment

Breaking News: Solberg Retires from WRC

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

After 12 years of competing, one of the WRC’s biggest characters, Petter Solberg will retire from the World Rally Championships.

A decision was made today that Solberg the 2003 World Rally Champion will step away from the series for now in order to explore and direct focus in a different direction in his successful and decorated career.

His decision brings to an end a 15-year stint in the WRC. In 188 starts at world level, Solberg won 13 rallies, finished second 15 times and came home third on 24 occasions. He scored 852 points and set 456 fastest stage times.

It’s now realised and decided, that there will not be a WRC program for the 38-year old in 2013.

“I am so grateful and happy for what I have experienced during my 15 years in the WRC,says Petter. “For now it’s really quite sad, you know, I would have loved to have driven for a few more years, but I do realise there will not be a WRC program for me next year. I have said I am willing to drive for free, but at this point, I will not pay to drive. This is not to say that you will never again see me in a WRC car, but for now, I think it’s best.”

“I know I am good enough to fight in the top for many years still, but I fully understand the difficult financial situation for the 2013 season for M-Sport, so I wish the team all the best in the future,” says Petter.

“The sport has given me so much, but I want to give a special thank you to all of my fans that have supported me through thick and thin, and given me such a great feeling about what I do, and for being a large reason of why I do it. I do hope you all understand, and I hope you’ll continue to follow me on to my next venture. I promise to bring you something worthy of this. My team and I are hard at work as you read this, and we can’t wait to let you know what are plans are, Petter ends with a smile and that well known glimpse in the eye.”

Posted in WRC | Leave a comment

Ostberg Joins Qatar M-Sport Team for 2013

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Daniel Darrall

After the confirmation of M-Sport and Qatar joining forces for the 2013 Season of the WRC, its now also confirmed that Norwegian Mads Ostberg and Co-Driver Jonas Andersson will compete on all 13 rounds of the WRC for the new Qatar M-Sport World Rally team.

After putting in some impressive performances in 2012 and winning his first WRC rally back in Portugal earlier in the year, the Norwegian is now ready for a works drive.

M-Sport Director Malcolm Wilson said: “Mads’ performance this year has been very impressive. He has always had the speed, but his progression on Tarmac and the maturity he has demonstrated this season proves that he is ready to make the next step in his career and made him the ideal candidate to join the team in 2013. He has an old head on young shoulders and I am confident that we will see some strong performances from him as he rises to the challenge next year.”

Mads Østberg:

“I am really happy to have been chosen to join the team and continue working closely with M-Sport next season. We’ve been working with the car for two years now – we know the car and we know the team so from the technical side of things, I think we will be in a really good position as there won’t be too much of a change to get used to.”

“But from the other side of things, it will still be a big challenge – albeit a big step in the right direction! This season has been really good for us, and I hope we can continue that into 2013. I am really looking forward to next season, and I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel and start testing with the team”.

“This is a great opportunity for me. I have had many dreams in my career, but achieving this drive is definitely one of the biggest and I am certainly going to try and make the most of it.”

Mads Ostberg will join Nasser Al-Attiyah who will be competing on 7 Rounds of the WRC in 2013.