British Subaru driver, David Higgins, clinched his sixth successive America rally championship title when he won the Ojibwe Forest Rally in Minnesota.
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Giandomenico Basso (Fiesta) won the Rally del Friuli, 19 seconds ahead of Paulo Andreucci’s 208T16.
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David Holder was sixth in the Coromandel Rally. (Photo: Geoff Ridder)Julien Maurin (Skoda Fabia R5) won the Terre de Lozere-Sud de France ahead of the World Rally Cars of Jean-Marie Cuoq (Citroën C4) and Lionel Baud (Citroen DS 3)
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New Zealand champion, David Holder, only came sixth at the final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Mahindra Goldrush Rally Coromandel, complaining about handling problems.
Incredibly, of all the events they’ve finished, the result is the first time Holder has not stood on the podium in all of his rallying career.
The event was won by guest Australian driver Brendan Reeves in a Mazda 2
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The victory of Will Corry in the National A Ulster Rally was the first outright rally win for the GT86 CS-R3. Currently there are five active CS-R3 cars run by RallyPrep in Britain, Hermann Gassner in Germany, Claudio Galli in Italy, Luck Co Ltd which is entering some local rallies with Heikki Kovalainen in Japan and the TMG car.
It is reported that the one make HJS R3 Trophy - Cup Toyota GT86 CS-R3 has been cancelled as fewer that the required six crews had registered.
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More Skoda success: this time at the FIA Codasur championship Santa Cruz Rally in Bolivia.
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Around one thousand drivers applied for the German championship Opel Rally Cup shoot-out, the prize for which is a season in next year's Opel Cup.
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Rescheduled from 5th February because of inclement wintry conditions is the ERC’s Rally Liepaja-Ventspils, which will be run as a purely summertime gravel rally on September 17-18. The original intention to continue this event in Latvia as a winter event has now been abandoned.
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Finnish 15 year old Kalle Rovanpera won the Tallinn Rally in Estonia in his second outing in a Fabia R5. The special Mitsubishi Mirage “R5” cars of Janis Vorobjoys and Gatis Vecvagars finished second and fourth.
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Sebastien Loeb performed a demonstration run in Timo Salonen’s world championship winning Peugeot 205 T16 at the Vosges Rally, run in the region which in recent years also hosted the WRC Rally de France.
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Former Finland and British Rally Champion, Tapio Laukkanen, won his second successive Kenya rally championship event when he led the Nanyuki Rally from start to finish. After five rounds, Tapio leads the KNRC four points ahead of Jaspreet Chatthe.
- Martin Holmes