Rally-eMag 012 August 2013

Issue 12, August 2013

Neste Rally Finland

The Inside view - Monthly News Wrap-up - The Road to Wales Rally GB

sibiu Rally romania

Is the Battle Over?

surviving the land of vlad

meeke jumped back onto the scene impressing all the way

Image: Bas Romeny Image: Bas Romeny

Ogier and ingrassia join the short list of non-scandinavian winners in finlandImage: Bas Romeny

Why is it that novikov is such a fan favourite...?

Image: Bas Romeny

probably his driving style!

Image: Bas Romeny

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Rally-eMagYour monthly dose of WRC reports, news and of course the best images of the most exciting sport on the planet.

Rally-eMag August 2013 / Contents

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Ogier can clinch it

With five more rounds to go in the WRC Sebastien Ogier is already in position to claim the title. If he increases his lead by twenty two points in Germany the title is his.

There is little doubt that the Frenchman will clinch the title this season, but if he manages to do so he will be the quickest world champion ever. Sebastien Loeb managed to claim the title with three rounds to go twice. If Ogier takes it in Germany there are still four rounds to go in which he can freely chase victories.

The fact that Ogier will very likely be champion is not a real surprise. Before switching to VW to do a year in the Skoda Fabia he was the one who was regularly pushing Loeb for victory. Even in the Fabia he managed to win a stage in Sardinia. His natural talent coupled with his intense desire to win makes him an almost unstoppable force.

The question was of course how good the new Polo R WRC would be. Volkswagen left nothing to chance and tested the car and the team for a full season, so we all expected them to be ready.

The dominance they displayed however was something not many predicted. There would have had to be some sort of issues any starting team encountered, right? Wrong. The Germans came saw and conquered. Nobody but the nearly retired Loeb managed to beat them.

There is hope for some competition though, with Neuville maturing very quickly and Ostberg is on the pace bare his bad luck. Kris Meeke is also banging on the door on the door again, setting things up nicely for some close rallies to end the season!

Enjoy reading!Steven van VeenendaalEditor

Who made it?Publisher: Rally-eMag

Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Bas Romeny, Ste-ven van Veenendaal.

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom

Distribution: Issuu.com

Columnists: Anna Louise Rudd, Michael Jenkins.

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Motor-sport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC.

How to reach us?

Email: [email protected]: www.rally-emag.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/emagrallyTwitter: @emagrallyIssuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

This Month

Image:Bas Romeny

Neste Rally Finland- Is the battle over?

Page 10

Sibiu Rally Romania- Surving the land of Vlad

Page 23

The Inside View - Managing the team

Page 20

Rally-eMag August 2013 / News

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This month’s wrap up

Newly signed test drivers Juho Hänninen, Bryan Bouffier and Chris Atkinson all got the chance to test the new Hyundai i20 WRC on gravel. With the launch of the car at the Monte Carlo Rally in January only five months remain to get ready.

Team boss Nandan is happy to have reached another milestone by kicking off the gravel testing of the car. The test tracks used at the test in France contained both rough and fast flowing roads, es-sential in preparation of the varied WRC.

“We have had a lot of work to do in a short space of time, but I can sense we are working well as a unified team.” Nandan closed, emphasizing the need of well inte-grated team as well.

Kris Meeke will partner Mikko Hirvonen in the Cit-roën Abu Dhabi World Rally Team at Rally Aus-tralia. After an encouraging Rally Finland Khaled Al-Qassimi already hinted at more outings for the Irishman. Meeke impressed many during his debut for the team as he was instantly on the pace on the difficult Finnish roads. Despite crashing out near the end Meeke had done enough to impress his team boss Yves Matton who found the decision to replace Sordo difficult nonetheless “It is difficult to take decisions like this, but sometimes you have to change something to reenergise the team and get back to winning ways.”

Image: Citroën Racing Media

Images: Hyundai Motorsport

Meeke takes Sordo spot in OZ

Hyundai tests i20 WRC on Gravel

Neste Rally Finland / Overview

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Based in: Jyvaskyla

Date: 01-03/08/2013

Number of stages: 23

Shortest stage: Killeri – 2.06 km

Longest stage: Ouninpohja – 33.01 km

Total stage distance: 332 km

Surface: Gravel

Neste Oil Rally Finland

Image: Bas Romeny

Neste Rally Finland / Rally review

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A month’s rest made the WRC family eagerly anticipating some competitive action again. Would all the testing be enough to face the competition? And would the battle for the cham-pionship be over in the second half of the season or will the fight intensify? If Finland is any-thing to go by, we see signs for the intensifying fight. Though Citroën is still struggling, Ford seems to be back on track.

IS THE BATTLE OVER OR WILL

THE FIGHT CONTINUE?

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

Images: Bas Romeny


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Nordic hegemonyFinland still seems to be the highlight of the season. That goes for us at Rally-eMag but also for the drivers. Everyone wants to win in Fin-land. Formerly this used to be the Nordic play-ing ground. Carlos Sainz, however, has already taken away this historic right for a Scandinavian win, in 1990. In 1992 it was Didier Auriol who re-peated that trick. Then Kankunnen (2), Mäkinen (5) and Grönholm (3) divided the wins, claiming back their right. In 2003 it was Markko Märtin who won, but being an Estonian, he can be con-sidered to be a Nordic.

France poised to take overGrönholm won another 4 times, before in 2008, Loeb claimed his first victory. Hirvonen and Lat-

vala held on to their birth right in 2009 and 2010 but since then it was France in the person of Loeb who proved that Nordic hegemony is over. Would Ogier be able to prove that point? “This is the rally everyone wants to win,” he says making his intentions clear.

IngrassiaOgier is helped in his quest for Finland victory by the fact that beside him he can see the fa-miliar face of Julien Ingrassia again. After a very speedy recovery from his injuries, caused by a fitness training accident, Ingrassia can assume his tasks as co-driver again. As a precaution he is wearing a kind of harness to prevent the still fresh operation wound from being harmed by the constant banging and swaying of a modern

rally car in competition.

The other campsBut at Ford they say the same. Especially Mads Østberg seemed to have had a firm talk with himself. “I feel good,” he smiles. “We had very good tests so I know the car is also good so I feel really confident for a good battle.” At Cit-roën things are still a bit awkward. This is Hir-vonen’s rally but he doesn’t feel at ease at the moment. The same goes for teammate Sordo. The élan of the team has to come from Al Qas-simi replacement Chris Meeke. This new recruit has completely different frame of mind. “I’m really happy I have been given the chance to show what I’m worth.”

After a difficult first half of the season Mikko Hirvonen set out with one clear goal: win.After a speedy recovery from an injury suffered in a training incident, Julien Ingrassia was available in Finland to guide Ogier.


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The first proceedingsAs a confidence booster Mikko Hirvonen wins the qualifying stage and not surprisingly choses last spot of the WRC drivers to start in the on-coming event. But Ogier although, sweeping the road for Hirvonen sets things straight on stage one already. On the completely changed Himos stage Ogier is fastest before Latvala, Hirvonen and Østberg. There are only 40 kilometres of stages on day one but there is a lot of things happening. It’s not going to be a walk over for Ogier. The first four stages with Ogier, Neuville and Hirvonen have three different winners. And at the end of this first day it’s Neuville who is sensationally topping the charts.

Victims of day oneIn the very beginning all hopes for a good result

vanished for Juho Hanninen who went off the road in a downhill section and was lucky not get stuck. P-G Andersson lost some time by spin-ning his Fiesta RS twice and Jarkko Nikara was hampered by a loss of power in his Prodrive Mini. But the biggest victim was Jari Matti Lat-vala. A big rock caused the suspension to break and he had to retire for the day.

RainDay was quite wet causing quite a few problems for the drivers, especially with failing wipers and insufficient ventilation inside the car causing misted windows and consequently poor view-ing. Apart from that the organizers, ‘for safety reasons’ (?) formed groups of four competitors. After each group there was a pause before the start of the next group. Hirvonen was the first

victim. When he reached the stage end as the first driver of group two his windscreen was also misted by the steam coming out of his ears. “This is silly,” he fumed. “All the ruts have filled with water after the passing of group one.”

The reason for these pauses stays as clear as the mist on the windscreens. But meanwhile the battle for top spot rages on. Østberg takes first place after the day’s first stage and swaps sev-eral times with Ogier, but in the end it is Ogier who is fastest followed by Neuville and Østberg. Hirvonen by this time is out of contention by los-ing time with a spin. Chris Meeke is doing well by placing himself between regular Citroen driv-ers Hirvonen and Sordo.

Although Hirvonen got off to a good start he suffered in the heavy rain and fumed with anger at the finish of the final stage as the organisers forced him to run first of his group.

Despite losing power in his Mini Jarkko Nikara still set some impressive times.


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Exciting finaleThe final day in Finland is a full day. Two loops of four stages including two passings of the mother of all stages: Ouninpohja. This stage was the one Ogier wanted to win: “It’s always been a dream of mine to win this stage in a World Rally Car and now I did it. It was truly amazing, I think I can even go a bit quicker for the second passing.” The smile on his face said more than words. And he kept his promise as the second time on the stage was a stag-gering 18 seconds faster than the first time.

Neuville vs ØstbergThe real breath-taking battle was be-tween teammates Neuville and Øst-berg. This duel was settled on the sec-ond Ouninpohja stage. Østberg had to take avoiding action to miss a rock on the road. He ended in the scen-ery for a moment and lost some time. Neuville saw the rock too but was a bit luckier. So for the second time in succession he was second. Is a win now within reach? “I feel good and so does the car but for a win Ogier must hit some trouble otherwise he is simply too fast.”

ConclusionFinland taught us that Volkswagen is still very much on top of it, but Ford is not leaving it to that. Both their young-sters Østberg and Neuville are very well up to the job. Novikov could be, but in Finland he again had one of his infamous offs. This time he lost the battle with a pile of logs that character-istically lining the Finnish roads. At Cit-roën team principal Matton was obvi-ously disappointed, but main sponsor Khalid Al-Qassimi was a bit more posi-tive: “Chris Meeke did an excellent job. He matched Mikko’s pace and was considerably faster than Dani. It was a pity he went off in the last part of the rally, but we have to consider putting him in a WRC again.”

The battle for the championship might be over (We don’t see someone beat-ing Ogier and Volkswagen in this form.) But the fight is till going on. So we expect an interesting second half of the season, starring Ogier and Lat-vala but also Neuville and Østberg and we hope Hirvonen. Perhaps Chris Meeke will get another chance but that would be bad news for Dani Sordo.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the speed of Neuville. The young Belgian pushed Ogier and Ostberg all the way.

Once again the star of the show was Ogier who’s now in full control of the champi-onship. He can claim the title at the next round in Germany.

Happy faces at the Powerstage finish, for the first time though, no Finnish driver on the final podium in Jyvaskyla.

Neste Rally Finland / Final results

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Final result

1. Ogier - Ingrassia VW Polo R WRC 3:31:01.22. Neuville - Gilsoul Ford Fiesta RS WRC +36.63. Østberg - Andersson Ford Fiesta RS WRC +57.64. Hirvonen - Lehtinen Citroen DS3 WRC +1:21.65. Sordo - del Barrio Citroen DS3 WRC +6:08.56. Novikov - Minor Ford Fiesta RS WRC +8:39.77. Ketomaa - Sallinen Ford Fiesta R5 +11:19.28. Andersson - Axelsson Ford Fiësta RS WRC +11:41.59. Kubica - Baran Citroën DS3 RRC +12:48.110. Mikkelsen - Markkula VW Polo R WRC +13:42.0

Manufacturer standings

1. Volkswagen Motorsport 251 points 2. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 196 points 3. Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 112 points4. Qatar World Rally Team 107 points5. Jipocar Czech National Team 39 points 6. Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team 33 points7. Volkswagen Motorsport 2 26 points8. Lotos WRC Team 20 points

Neste Rally Finland / Standings

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Championship standings

1. Sebastien Ogier VW Polo R WRC 181 points2. Jari-Matti Latvala VW Polo R WRC 91 points3. Thierry Neuville Ford Fiesta WRC 91 points4. Mikko Hirvonen Citroën DS3 WRC 73 points5. Dani Sordo Citroën DS3 WRC 69 points6. Sebastien Loeb Citroën DS3 WRC 68 points7. Mads Ostberg Ford Fiesta WRC 65 points8. Evgeny Novikov Ford Fiesta WRC 39 points9. Martin Prokop Ford Fiesta WRC 37 points10. Nasser Al-Attiyah Ford Fiesta WRC 30 points

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Who’s hot?Kris MeekeCitroën DS3 WRCAbu Dhabi Citroën World Rally Team

Neste Rally Finland / Who’s hot?

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If you checked your Twitter feed during Rally Finland you know why Kris Meeke was the hottest driver of the weekend. The frenzy of tweets created by his stunning return em-phasized the desire of the British fans for a new local hero. After the McRae/Burns era no other Britt managed to be a consistent front runner but Meeke might just have what it takes to do just that. It has been a while since the Irishman got a chance to shine in the WRC. He was part of the Mini program that never really kicked off and was the first of that team to fall victim to the budget cuts. De-prived of the necessary funds to ‘buy’ a seat at one of the top teams Meeke was forced to sit and wait his turn. His chance came when Khaled Al-Qassimi had to miss Finland due to business obligations. Meeke seized to op-portunity by easily outpacing teammate Sordo and running in the top 5 all rally long. Even his crash near the end of the second running of Ouninpohja couldn’t diminish the impact he had on the rally or on the hope in the hearts of the British fans.

Neste Rally Finland / Who’s not?

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Considering his results Dani Sordo is not doing bad this season. The experienced Spaniard is currently fifth overall in the championship stand-ings a mere four points behind team mate Hir-vonen and ahead of both M-Sport regulars Os-tberg and Novikov. He landed a podium on his debut for the team in Monte Carlo and clinched a season best second in Greece. At the last event in Finland Sordo finished fifth, the spot the most coveted Meeke had been in. His pace was some way off the leaders but his consistency brought him back up in the charts. His problem though is the dominance of Volkswagen and the mediocre performance of Citroën as a team. A bit spoiled after many years of Loeb dominance the French team finds itself in unknown territory chasing the pack. Results are needed and Sordo seems to be the victim. Meeke impressed in Finland and will take Sordo’s spot in Australia giving Sordo the ‘chance’ to prepare for the remainder of the season outside the spotlights. With three tarmac events coming up Sordo returns to his favourite surface. He is capable of scoring good results there, and he needs to do so to retain his seat.

Who’s not?Dani SordoCitroën DS3 WRCCitroën Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Rally-eMag August 2013 / The Inside View

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The Inside VieWBy: Anna Louise Rudd

Images: Bas Romeny

What a rally! Rally Finland never fails to im-press, but this year was something special. The first time in over ten years that a Finn has been absent from the podium, and a very talented Belgian alongside an equally talented Norwe-gian in second and third place respectively. To see Mads [Østberg] regain his confidence by adding a second podium to his 2013 tally was very satisfying indeed. And as for Thierry [Neu-ville], I think he surprised even himself with his performance on what was only his second time in Finland. He and Nicolas [Gilsoul, co-driver] were nothing short of sensational and they thor-oughly deserve to be tied for second place in the drivers’ championship. Now the championship turns to asphalt and one of my favourite events of the year – Rallye Deutschland. Based in the beautiful city ofTrier, the picturesque surroundings are steeped in history. The food is amazing, the people are friendly and the stages aren’t bad either! In fact I would single out ‘Arena Panzerplatte’ as one of my favourite stages of the year. Like ‘Ouninpohja’ – albeit far removed in character – you need to be brave, confident and clever which really separates the men from the boys.

Speaking of boys turning into men, Germany could well be Thierry’s best event to date. A po-dium is well within his grasp and – if everything falls into place – we could even see him chal-lenge for victory!

Of course podiums and victories are nothing without all the hard work that the team puts

in behind the scenes, and you would be pushed to find someone who works harder than John ‘Milly’ Millington. As Team Manager, Milly (or ‘Milly Diamond’ as the co-drivers often refer to him over the team radio) is responsible for much of what you see in the service area.

Anna Louise is the Press Officer of the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team.

she is the one who knows what’s going on with anyone in the team, from the

drivers to the bosses, to the mechanics and the engineers. In her monthly

column she gives you a peek behind the scenes of a world rally teaM.

Rally-eMag August 2013 / The Inside View

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Team logistics – that’s eve-rything from personnel to trucks and rally cars – pri-marily falls to him and his team. Lesley Philip and Iain Tul-lie form Milly’s expert team of logisticians and their work starts a full 12 months before an event. Lesley has been with the team for more than 10 years and in that time she has made good relationships with some of the best hotels in the regions we visit. As soon as one event is fin-ished, she’s on the phone to reserve the team’s ac-commodation and travel for the following year. As each event gets closer, the busier the logistics de-partment gets. Four weeks in advance, entries are placed, nominations made and fuel ordered. Bulletins, road books and maps are distributed to crews and key members of staff; and communication with each department is rife as Milly and his team plan the lo-gistics for trucks, person-nel, recce cars, rally cars, spares and even catering.

Amongst other things, Iain is responsible for organis-ing the team’s pre-event test. Liaising with George Black, he books the best test roads around as well as organising all the same logistic paraphernalia you would expect for a round of the world rally champi-onship – the car, spares, personnel, everything. In fact Malcolm was keen to highlight the role of the test team in facilitating the team’s impressive perfor-mance in Finland. Ahead of Germany, Iain has helped negotiate an even more extensive test so that the team heads to the first true asphalt event of the sea-son as fully prepared as possible. These three individuals are so integral to the M-Sport team that there really is too much to mention! But thanks to M-Sport’s logis-tic department, the squad heads to Trier with their confidence high. Here’s hoping we can replicate our recent success with another podium result.

If it wasn’t for a puncture Ostberg would have challenged Ogier all the way to the finish, if.... In the end there were two Fords on the podium. A Frenchman in a Volkswage claimed the top spot though.

ERC: Sibiu Rally Romania / Overview

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Based in: Sibiu

Date: 25-27/07/2013

Number of stages: 14

Shortest stage: Superspeciala – 3.50 km

Longest stage: Gâtu Berbecului – 30.00 km

Total stage distance: 216 km

Surface: Gravel & Asphalt

Sibiu Rally Romania

Image: FIA ERC

ERC: Sibiu Rally Romania / Rally review

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The seventh round of the ERC took the crews to Transylva-nia in Romania. Long ago the place was ruled by the infamous ‘Vlad the Impaler’. Though the area is now more kindly known as the Garden of Romania, for the contestants of the Sibiu Raly, the rock lit-tered roads mean it is still a struggle to survive.

Surviving the land of vlad

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

Images: FIA ERC


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Halfway through the season Jan Kopecky holds a firm lead in the European Rally Champion-ship. With Craig Breen, one of his main rivals absent on the entry list, Sibiu Rally Romania provides a great opportunity for the Czech to in-crease his lead even further. He faced stiff com-petition from the likes of Francois Delecour and Bryan Bouffier. The first is backed by Romania and as such was of course looking for a good result in this ‘semi-home rally’. The experienced Frenchman has already met Abraham about a year ago but has not lost any his tenacity and is always one of the crowd favourites. Bouffier on the other hand is on the brink of a big break-through in his career. Being signed as a test driver for the new Hyundai i20 WRC provides him with a great opportunity to secure one of the seats of the new factory team for the 2014 WRC.

Three out of threeThe Three Musketeers embarked on their rally on Friday afternoon for the opening seven stag-es. The 27KM Crint stage provided the bulk of the distance on the first two loops before the fi-nal two stages of the day that were held around ten pm in the dark. Determined to satisfy his sponsor, Delecour blasted through the opening stage to take the lead. His success was short lived though as Bouffier hit back on the first run-ning of the Crint stage to take the stage win and the rally lead to go with it. After a bit of a slow start Kopecky won the third stage to become the third stage winner after three stages.

French troubleThings would soon change in favor of Kopecky as on the fourth stage. First Bouffier hit trouble when he broke a suspension mount resulting in various mechanical failures forcing his retire-

ment. The undulating rounds around Sibiu had claimed their first victim. It wouldn’t be the last. On the same stage Francois Delecour suffered a water leak on his Peugeot causing his engine temperature to rise to uncomfortable heights. Rather than risking engine damage Delecour opted to slow down and nurse his car to the finish. Kopecky was hindered by a malfunction-ing power steering system on the first stages but having resolved those issued he was free to push on into the lead. Going well over half a minute faster than Delecour and with Bouffier going out already, Kopecky took a comfortable lead into the night stages. The sixth stage was an all asphalt affair which Kopecky claimed as well. Things were looking to become a bit dull, but then Delecour struck back on the final stage of the day to take back ten seconds. Could a fight be on hand for day two?

Bouffier took an early lead but it was shortlived, his rally only lasted three stages.Jumping into the lead after stage one, Delecour pleased his local sponsors.


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Utter dominationDay two kicked of with the continuation of the fight between Kopecky and Dele-cour. It was a short lived fight though. Kopecky clinched the win on the first stage of the day but then Delecour suf-fered a broken shock absorber resulting in a puncture. He choose to preserve his second place , and the lead in the Ro-manian championship, rather than push for the win. As a result Kopecky had a clear run to victory, though he had to re-main cautious as the rock-littered roads can throw trouble at you at any given moment. The trouble never came though and Kopecky finished the rally in style by winning all remaining stages of the second day. Kopecky was both happy and releaved to reach the finish “It was a really tough event: the hot weather was

not such a problem but there were a lot of rocks and loose stones on the stages and you had to use your head to decide when and where to push. I was enjoying a big battle with Bryan and François until they had problems but this is motorsport and this can happen.” Delecour battled on to finish in second ahead of Arai in third and first in group N. Arai had trou-ble of his own throughout the event. The dry roads meant that a lot of dust was thrown up by the cars and Arai inhaled a bit too much of the stuff. He was clearly affected by this and was bothered by a sore stomach all rally long. To preserve the valuable enegery left in his body, his co-driver Anthony McLoughlin took the wheel at some of in the road section. Their podium finish became all the more impressive.

Arai explaing his trouble to Manfred Stohl. His co-driver Anthony McLoughlin didn’t seem to mind driving the road sections too much.

On the second day there was no stopping Kopecky as he won all the stages and his fourth rally of the season in the process.

Representing your nation

The Sibiu Rally concluded with a remarkable po-dium. All three highest placed drivers piloted a car from their home country. Czech winner Kopecy drove a Skoda Fabia to lead Frenchman Delec-our in his Peugeot 207 and the man from Japan, Toshi Arai in his Subaru Impreza.


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Ladies TrophyThe battle of the ladies was a one-on-one affair between cham-pionship leader Ekaterina Stra-tieva in her Citroën C2 R2 and the Aussie Molly Taylor, also in Citroën albeit the C3 R3 version. Taylor suffered a puncture on stage 10 but by then already had the win al but secured because Stratieva rolled her C2 on the second stage and was before the fight had even really developed. Nonetheless the two brought some extra excitement to the event and boosted the female ap-preciation of the sport.

Prime CompetitorOne very interesting name on the entrylist was that of Victor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister. The leader of the reigning Social Democratic Party is a fervent rally enthusiast and co-driver. When he took office on 7 May 2012 he had to put a stop to his rally career. Ponta has co-driven for Edwin Keleti reaching to the top level of the sport when the two competed in the WRC Rally Catalunya d’Espana. His com-mitments as Prime Minister pre-vented him from taking to the stages but he found some time in his busy schedule to co-drive the 0-car for a day on the Sibiu Rally.

To get the ladies involved in rallying, it doesn’t hurt to have a female star. Taylor was very popular at the autograph signing session, especially among the girls.

Francois Delecour and ERC General Coordinator Jean-Pierre Nicolas chatting with Roma-nian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

When Ekaterina Stratieva rolled on SS2 all Molly Taylor had to do to win the Ladies Cup was finish. Easier said than done on the rough stages. She managed though.

ERC: Sibiu Rally Romania / Final Result

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Final result

1. Kopecky - Dresler Skoda Fabia S2000 2:18:07.82. Delecour - Savignoni Peugeot 207 S2000 +3:12.83. Arai - McLoughlin Subaru Impreza R4 STI +6:03.64. Tempestini - Baggio Skoda Fabia S2000 +7:33.15. Botka - Mihalik Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +7:48.36. Porcisteanu - Dobre Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +8:39.87. Orsák - Kostka Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +9:15.68. Puskádi - Gódor Skoda Fabia S2000 +9:59.49. Tlusťák - Škaloud Skoda Fabia S2000 +11:39.110. Barbu - Baltador Citroën DS3 R3T +18:33.0

ERC: Sibiu Rally Romania / Final Result

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Championship standings

1. Jan Kopecky Skoda Fabia S2000 185 points2. Criag Breen Peugeot 207 S2000 114 points3. Bryan Bouffier Peugeot 207 S2000 99 points4. Francois Delecour Peugeot 207 S2000 75 points5. Jari Ketomaa Ford Fiesta S2000 39 points6. Freddy Loix Skoda Fabia S2000 37 points7. Andreas Aigne Subaru Impreza R4 28 points8. Luis Monzon MINI JCW RRC 24 points9. Ricardo Moura Skoda Fabia S2000 24 points10. Stephane Sarrazin MINI JCW S2000 24 points

Rally-eMag August 2013 / Column

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The Road to Wales Rally GB

“A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound. A buck or a pound, a buck or a pound. Is all that makes the world go round. That clinking, clanking sound. Can make the world go round…” (Joel Grey, Cabaret, 1972)

To anyone who has ever dreamt of driving in a world class rally, I’m pretty sure you first thought of you strapped tight into the driving seat speed-ing between the blurring trees, your co-driver over the intercom ‘200 Hairpin, handbrake, don’t cut’, gravel flying hitting the windscreen, you can feel sweat of pure adrenalin running down your neck under your helmet, the wheels sliding on the gravel the smell of rubber and oil. Well before you get anywhere near that point you need a car, money and lots of time…

So the next part of the journey is the hard part, the money. Finding sponsorship is not an easy task. The first thing is finding the people and companies you want to target. I know what you are thinking, it’s obvious, anyone to do with cars. That is of course a good starting place. Af-ter creating cover letters, PDFs and leaflets I emailed every company I could think of that had any connection to cars; rallying and motorsport, there were lots. When I say I, I mean we. I think

I totalled near a thousand emails. Although this area of industry has the best connection, I have discovered that some of the best sponsor-ship opportunities come from larger household names that either have community support pro-grams or help local charities. To this end I also

contacted some of the larger supermarkets and clothing brands. This is a harder task because firstly you have to find the right contact informa-tion, this involved a maze of web pages leading you form one section of the company to another until you finally find an address.

Dreams of being a rally driver, at some point in our lives, haven’t we all had them? The harsh reality though is that rally driving isn’t as a easy sport to start with as say, football. The re-quired inflated piece of leather costs a lot less than a full blown rally car. Once you do start,

the road to the top is even more expensive and thus difficult. In this monthly column we follow the adventures of Michael Jenkins, an amateur rally driver who set himself the goal of competing in this year’s Wales Rally GB.

Words and images By: Michael Jenkins

Will Michael make his dream come true to and fly a blue Impreza through the Welsh forrests?

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More often than not I would get a reply say-ing ‘thank you for your email enquiry, if you are interested in sponsorship then please contact…blah…blah…blah!!!I am the first one to admit I’m no Shakespeare and I’m convinced that asking people for money would be difficult even if you were. What is it that makes people go; yeah ok I’ll give you thousands of pounds, just like that? I’m sure I haven’t found the secret to that yet. This is re-ally hard. I, my fiancée and my Co-driver have spent every waking hour on this and still no money in the bank. It’s not all bad news though. We have a few corporate sponsors who are interested in the venture. This however is one of those things where you have to be patient, I’m not patient. I don’t have time to be patient about this. This is not just my dream; this is a charity that is work-ing towards something so very special. The Brain Bus that The Richard Burns Foundation is trying to buy will mean so much too so many people now and in the future. This is not just about honouring Richard this is about honour-ing his life and death. All his bravery will go towards helping others with the same illness be brave too. Now all I need is someone to believe in me. So for now we will keep trying. I’m lucky I have people around me who want this to happen as much as I do and they are working so incredibly hard. All I can think is that if I’m ever in the situ-ation where I need help from a charity like RBF, that someone giving sponsorship to a cause like ours could save my life.

Money makes the world go round. Without money our campaign will fail.

The car is still white now... ready for sponsor stickers!

Next issue, late September, with Rally Germany, the Ba-rum Rally and much more. See you there!

Rally-eMag 012 August 2013

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Transcript of Rally-eMag 012 August 2013