Weekend Rally News – February 20

Sixteen year Kalle Rovanpera won the Mikkeli based Vaakuna Rally, his very first rally in his native Finland, when he snatched a last stage victory, beating his fellow Fabia 5 driver Teemu Asunmaa.  

Kalle Rovanpera won his first rally in Finland. Photo: Tapio Lehtonen/ RallirinkiThis was the first time he was allowed to drive on a Finnish rally because of his age.

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Swedish co-driver Bruno Berglund celebrated his 70th birthday last Monday, the day after he had been helping the organisers of this year’s Swedish Rally.  

Co-driving for Ari Vatanen he won the Dakar three times, and the peak of his WRC career was victory on the 1980 Swedish Rally with the late Anders Kullang, the debut win for the Opel Ascona 400.

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Peugeot Rally Academy will make a two car entry in the six round ERC Junior subdivision of the European Rally Championship.  

Their drivers, 26 year old Jose Suarez and 21 year old Pepe Lopez, will compete in the under 28 category in 208T16s.  

The Junior champion drivers will not compete in the Acropolis and Cyprus rounds of the full ERC.

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Anders Kullang/Bruno Berglund, 1980 Swedish Rally.Latest details of the route for the Rally Mexico (WRC round 3) show there will be two runs over the super special in the Zocalo centre in Mexico City.  

The Alghero based Rally Italia Sardegna (round 7) will now have an overnight rest halt on the Thursday across the island at Olbia.

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A testing accident for the privateer Portuguese Mitsubishi driver, Joao Vinha, preparing for the Rali Serras de Fafe led to the sad death of popular local rally organiser Jorge Amorim, who had been invited to help as his co-driver.  

The car plunged into a reservoir adjacent to the test road, close to Mortagua.  Vinha escaped without serious injury.

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Peruvian Skoda R5 driver Nicolas Fuchs has abandoned plans to compete in the WRC evens in Mexico and Argentina, citing budget issues.  

He is waiting for official Sports Patronage approval before making plans.  At the moment Nicolás is planning to start his 2017 season with Rally Portugal next April.

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Open round of the Scottish championship was the 50th anniversary Snowman Rally, based at Inverness, in which David Bogie was unbeaten on every stage in his Fabia R5.

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Good news for Mexican driver Benito Guerra, the 2012 FIA Production Car World Rally Champion.  

The Comision Nacional de Rallies Mexico AC has announced he is to return to the world championship scene for the first time after a four year gap.  He has a regular programme of eight rounds of the WRC2 series, sponsored by the state of Guanajuato.  

His best WRC result was sixth place on a one-off entry on his home event for M-Sport in 2014, beating six full time works drivers.

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Pedro Miereles won the opening round of the Portuguese Rally Championship.Fabia R5 driver Pedro Miereles won the opening round of the Portuguese Rally Championship, the Rali Serras de Fafe, running popular stages from the WRC event.  

Reigning Portuguese champion Jose Pedro Fontes (Citroen DS3 R5) was second.

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There was a second successive Russian championship rally win for Mitsubishi driver Stanislas Travnikov, who beat veteran Sergey Uspensky (Subaru Impreza).  

The opening stage at the Peno Rally, held 400km from Moscow, was won at an average speed of 145.7kph.

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Hyundai WRC driver Thierry Neuville won all 18 stages on the Belgian Legends Boucles Bastogne (formerly Boucles de Spa) at the wheel of a Porsche.
 
- Martin Holmes

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