Exclusive: Colin Clark Talks Rally!

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe were fortunate enough today to speak with Colin Clark and pick his brain on all things rally related! Colin was generous enough to allow us an hour of his time to talk about Promoting the WRC, VW and Sebastien Ogier’s 2013 domination, as well as Hyundai and much much more! We would like to thank Colin for his time and applaud his continued efforts to spread the passion of rally to our North American fans and fans around the world!

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Vodafone Rally de Portugal – Preview

Beginning tomorrow is WRC event number two without Sebastien Loeb, however his legacy seems to live on with the success of the other French Sebastien. That of course would be VW Motorsports driver Sebastien Ogier, who has dominated the season so far. Of course Ogier hates being compared to Loeb but it is hard not to at least compare the results. It seems that the only thing that can slow down Ogier is illness. Ogier apparently caught a virus while down in Mexico (some bad tequila?), and missed out on the…

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Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team from Trio to Quartet

This weekend the newly created Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team announced the rest of their driver lineup for 2013.  As we already knew, Mads Østberg was picked as the number one driver, and Nasser Al-Attiyah will of course be on board but only attend some of the championship rounds while also competing in the Middle East Rally Championship.  The surprise announcement was a decision to draft both Evgeny Novikov and Thierry Neuville to attend all 13 rounds of the 2013 World Rally Championship under the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team banner.…

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M-Sport Officially Partners with Qatar for 2013

As was speculated a few weeks ago, M-Sport has now officially partnered with Qatar and Nasser Al-Attiyah to create the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team.  We could know by the end of the day who will be the drivers of this new team, in addition to Nasser Al-Attiyah.       From M-Sport Press Release: M-Sport are pleased to announce a new partnership with Qatar for the 2013 edition of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) which will see the Cumbria firm run three Qatari liveried Ford Fiesta RS WRCs under…

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Episode 163 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadShaun makes his last appearence on OpenPaddock Live before being shipped out to Qatar to pound sand and watch MotoGP racing. Joining Shaun are Mike (as always), Doug, and the new Shaun, Kevin Neely. On the docket this week: Rally WRC – the future of M-Sport. Will Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Qatar money be the team’s saving grace? WRC – Sistemas Integrales de Telecomunicacion (SIT) slated to take over timing duties for 2013. Kubica will drive the WRC Citroen C4 in two rallies this month. Back…

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Rally – Could M-Sport be saved by Qatar?

You might remember rumors back in August that Qatari native Nasser Al-Attiyah was planning to buy the 8 times manufacturer championship title holder Citroen World Rally Team. Nasser has already competing this season in a Citroen prepared DS3 under the Qatar World Rally Team banner which gave some weight to the rumor. However Citroen Team Principal, Yves Matton politely laughed such an idea. As with many rumors though, there is often a grain of truth. Maybe Nasser wasn’t going to buy Citroen, but maybe he was putting out feelers with…

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Breaking: WRC – Ford Quit as Title Sponsor to M-Sport

COLOGNE, Oct. 15, 2012 — Ford of Europe today announced that it will withdraw from the FIA World Rally Championship as a title sponsor after the 2012 season. The company said it made the decision as part of a review of its European business in the current difficult economic environment. “Ford has a long and proud history in the WRC and this was not an easy decision,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe. “At this time, however we determined that it was better…

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EXCLUSIVE: Mikko Hirvonen – Inside the Helmet

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe are honored to speak with Abu Dhabi Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen after his fourth place finish at Rally Germany. We talk about that rally and the 2011 season as a whole. We also talk about some issues for 2012 including Monte Carlo and Sebastien Loeb coming back. I would like to personally thank Ford for their efforts in setting this up for us in the quick timeframe in which they did.

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Rally – Ford Fiesta RS WRC claims podium clean sweep on rally debut

FROM ABU DHABI FORD WORLD RALLY: Ford’s all-new Fiesta RS World Rally Car made a dream debut by powering to a 1-2-3 finish in Rally Sweden today. Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen won a thrilling opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship by just 6.5sec from Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson. Hirvonen’s team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were third. It was Ford’s first podium clean sweep since Rally Sweden in 2008, when Latvala claimed his maiden WRC win and was followed home…

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