The hope of seeing Ken Block competing in the WRC in a Monster-sponsored Ford isn’t dead yet. RallySport Magazine put out an article today stating that Ken Block and Chris Atkinson are still working very hard on a WRC program with M-Sport for 2010. “We are still negotiating all contracts,” Ken Block told RallySport Magazine today. “We should have everything wrapped up and announced in early January.” I’m already excited enough about the 2010 WRC season, but Block getting into a Ford would just put it over the top for…
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Rally – Gronholm Returns to Sweden
Marcus Gronholm has tackled many every rally out there during his long career. However, one stands out more than others. Rally Sweden and the world famous Sagen stage have always been one of the Finns favorite. Gronholm has announced that he will be in an M-Sport Ford Focus for the Swedish round in 2010. The rally kicks off on 12 February and is the only snow event on the calendar this year. Gronholm has won Sweden five times and should be right back at home in the Ford Focus. It…
Read MoreWRC – Todt Holds Rally Development Forum
Well, many of us F1 fans were greatly disappointed in Todt’s victory over Ari Vatanen for the FIA presidency, but there are some positive things that M. Todt is doing. First of all, surpasses his predecessor by realizing that there’s more to the FIA that Formula 1. The WRC isn’t as strong as it used to be, and in response, the FIA held a forum to discuss ways to improve the FIA involvement in rallying at all levels. The forum was attended by several manufactures, Ford and Citroen who are…
Read MoreRally – Welcome IRC!
While it is no secret that we here at Openpaddock.net love the WRC and Rally America, we can no longer turn away from the headlines being made in the IRC as well. That is why we will now carry IRC news and opinion for the 2010 series and beyond. There are good drivers and a lot of cars and we would be doing an injustice to the rally community if we contine to shrug it off. So we will begin coverage with Monte Carlo and also keep track of all…
Read MoreRally – Subaru to IRC
After a year removed from rally, arguably one of the greatest manufacturers in the sport makes its return to competition. This week it was announced that Subaru would return to competition in the IRC as a Group N participant. It is unclear as to what capacity the Japanese marquee will operate, however they will provide customers with Group N specifications to anyone interested. We will have to wait and see if an actual Subaru works team is stood up because to this point, the press release is very vague and…
Read MoreRally – Hirvonen/Fiesta @ Monte
The World Rally Championship runner up Mikko Hirvonen will compete in the Monte Carlo Rally as he debuts the new Fiesta S2000. Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen will utilize the event as they prepare to take the fight to Sebastian Loeb and Citroen in the 2010 championship. The Finn is a five time veteran of the Monte Carlo event and is familiar with route and conditions. Mikko has been very impressed with the Fiesta to date and looks forward to running it through its first paces in January. Malcom Wilson…
Read MoreRally – New Super 2000 Class for WRC
Acquiescing to concerns from the teams that the Super 2000 and Group N performance gap was becoming too wide, the FIA has proposed separating the two specifications for the 2010 season. The current production class of the WRC, which allows for both S2000 and N4 cars, will be split into two distinct championships. The S2000 cars will compete in the S-WRC class and the N4 cars will compete in the P-WRC class. These two will join the two-wheel drive Junior Championship, J-WRC as support classes for the WRC next season.…
Read MoreRally – WRC Highlight Shows on YouTube
The WRC has done the best thing ever to help assuage the off-season blues. All of their highlight shows from the 2001 through 2008 seasons are live on their YouTube Shows page. This is brilliant, and hopefully a trend that will get picked up by other racing series. I’m lookin’ at you IZOD IndyCar Series! I would also say I was lookin’ at F1, but lets be realistic, Bernie is too much of a troll to allow people to watch old seasons of his circus for free. Here’s the announcement…
Read MoreRally – Kimi and Citroen
After snubbing Mercedes GP and confirming his temporary exit from F1, Autosport is reporting that Kimi is closing in on a deal that would see him in a C4 backed by Red Bull. While he will have little implications in any title fight, this raises a couple questions about the Kimsters career as a whole. We have to establish one thing up front and in the clear, Kimi Raikkonen will have no implication in the 2010 WRC title if he gets this deal. I know I know…Shaun, how do you…
Read MoreRally – No Gurantees on Pirelli
While reading Autosport’s web page this morning for all of the latest F1 news, I noticed that the dominoes may start to fall in the WRC before long. The site had an article posted which states that Pirelli is not guranteeing anything to the FiA in regards to its WRC contract as sole tire supplier. “We will study the interest in the sport and gauge the effect of our current supply contract to the WRC. I can then present to the board of Pirelli, but it’s not a given that…
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